New Delhi: The reach of digital media in India is expected to overtake film entertainment in 2019 and print by 2021 to reach $5.1 billion in 2021, according to a FICCI-EY report.
The film segment was valued at $2.5 billion in 2018 and estimated to be $2.8 billion in 2019, while print was valued at $4.4 billion in 2018 and estimated to reach $4.8 billion in 2021.
Digital media grew by 42 percent in 2018, valued at $2.4 billion, it said, noting that Indians spent 30 percent of their phone time on entertainment. It expects the digital medium to be $3.2 billion in 2019.
“During 2018-2021, growth will be driven by online gaming and digital media,” it said, adding that TV will retain its pole position as the largest segment in terms of revenue.
India has the world’s second-highest number of internet users after China, with around 570 million internet subscribers, growing at a rate of 13 percent annually. There were 325 million online video viewers and 150 million audio streaming users in 2018. It expects the country to have 30-35 million paying OTT video subscribers and 6-7 million paying audio subscribers by 2021.
The advertising-led model was valued at $2.2 billion, while the subscription was valued at $0.2 billion in 2018.
By 2021, it estimates ad model to be $4.3 billion and the subscription model to be $0.8 billion. “While the watch time could grow 3 to 3.5x over the next five years, resulting in massive inventory growth, advertising revenues will grow only around 2x. CPMs (cost per mile) will correspondingly fall during the period for non- premium inventory,” it said. It noted that telecom operators would become the new multi-system operators.
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Ms Kalinga