Digital media gaining traction in a big way

India, which will leapfrog both France and the UK to become the fifth-biggest newspaper market by 2026, will also be the only country to grow total newspaper print revenue consistently across the five-year forecast period, says PwC

New Delhi: The Indian media and entertainment industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.8 per cent and reach Rs4.30 lakh crore by 2026, according to a report by global consultancy firm PwC.

The growth would be paced by digital media and advertising through deeper penetration of the internet and mobile devices in the domestic market, along with traditional media, which will hold their steady growth, the report said. TV advertising is expected to reach over Rs43,000 crore by 2026. It will make India the fifth-largest TV advertising market globally, after the US, Japan, China and the UK.

The Indian media and entertainment industry is expected to be around Rs3.14 crore in 2022, registering an overall growth of 11.4 per cent, as per the PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022-2026.

India's OTT Video services are expected to become a Rs21,031 crore industry in the next four years by 2026, in which Rs19,973 crore would come from subscription-based services and Rs 1,058 crore from Transactional VOD (video on demand).

"It is subscription services that are driving this rapid growth, accounting for 90.5 per cent of revenue in 2021 and set to account for 95 per cent in 2026," it said.

The population size and widespread use of mobile-led Internet video will underpin rapid growth in the OTT market over the forecast period. In particular, uptake of 5G will permit low-latency services such as OTT video streams, greatly boosting the sector.

"As infrastructure improves in the long term, the scale and diversity of the population will lend itself to a wide range of platforms," the report added. TV advertising would grow up to Rs 43,568 crore in 2026 from Rs 35,270 crore in 2022, registering a growth of 23.52 per cent. "After several years of rapid expansion, India's TV advertising market was hit by the Covid-19 recession in 2020, causing a 10.8 per cent decline over the 2019 levels. This proved to be a temporary setback. With the country's return to economic growth in 2021, this segment grew by 16.9 per cent to Rs 32,374 crore," it said.

India's internet advertising market is set to increase at a 12.1 per cent CAGR to reach Rs 28,234 crore by 2026.

"Given India's mobile-first Internet access market, the mobile sector dominates the country's Internet advertising market, accounting for 60.1 per cent of total revenue in 2021, rising to 69.3 per cent by 2026," the report said, adding that "display advertising dominates the mobile sector, accounting for 90.7 per cent of revenue in 2021 though its share will fall to 88.9 per cent of the total in 2026".

India will see an increase in total newspaper revenue at a 2.7 per cent CAGR from Rs 26,378 crore in 2021 to Rs 29,945 crore in 2026.

"India, which will leapfrog both France and the UK to become the fifth-biggest newspaper market by 2026, will also be the only country to grow total newspaper print revenue consistently across the five-year forecast period. India will also be the only country in the world to grow daily print newspaper copy sales (by volume) during the forecast period," the PwC report said.

The increase at a 1.3 per CAGR - to an average of 139 million daily average print newspaper sales in 2026, one-third of the global daily total – will mean that India will overtake China as the biggest world market for print edition readership in 2025.