S Viswanath

With country’s digital media emerging as the humungous segment of the Media & Entertainment Sector in the year passed by (2024) dethroning TV’s 25-year-old stranglehold on the way content is consumed and created, India is prettily poised at a digital inflexion point, according to Ernest & Young India Media & Entertainment Sector Leader Ashish Pherwani.

According to Mr Pherwani, not only has digital media altered the way how content is also distributed and monetised, thereby redefining the very fundamentals of the M&E Sector. In his view besides being a provider of knowledge and escapism, M&E also provides consumers with intrinsic value across four tenets. These being information to live life better, through news and communities., escapism to forget troubles by getting immersed in fiction and reality content., materialism to enable commerce through funded content and e-commerce and fourthly self-actualisation via social media, professional portals and the creator economy.

Today, according to E&Y M&E Sector Leader every media and content company is being evaluated by consumers with respect to the utility it provides across the above tenets, which, in turn, is driving how traditional and new media companies are redefining their product, processes,customer acquisition and purpose.

So much so, with the digital media growing relentlessly at a furious pace, Mr Pherwani observes “we can expect to see an ocean of innovation, consolidation, new business models and partnerships. Interactivity and gamification have proliferated all segments of the M&E sector. Every M&E segment is now conducting events.”

While, the Star India and Viacom18 merger is defining the path to scale and reinventing sports broadcasting, he says, the digital integrations across music, radio, news and OOH (Out Of Home) are helping grow traditional segments. WhatsApp is reshaping communication. With these developments one can only surmise that the future extremely exciting!

The FICCI Frames Shape The Future: Indian Media & Entertainment Is Scripting A New Future 2025 sectoral report prepared in consonance with E&Y India seeks to provide on how sector’s future will shape up while also including over 50 future trends for media businesses to mull over as they take advantage of the emerging opportunities panning out over the horizon.

Likewise, according to FICCI Director General Jyoti Vij, driven by digital acceleration, evolving consumer preferences and cutting-edge technologies, the Indian M&E Sector is undergoing a pr0ofound transformation.

According to Ms Vij, the rapid shift from linear to digital entertainment being witnessed lately reshaping content creation, distribution, and consumption, can be envisioned as unlocking new opportunities for growth and global influence.

The reason for this optimism stemming from the fact that one of the key milestone in 2024 was digital media surpassing television as the largest M&E segment, contributing 32 per cent of total revenues, echoing Mr Sherwani’s observations.

Both, Ms Vij and Mr Sherwani, opined that as one steps into the Circa 2025, India’s M&E sector is poised to expand its footprint as a content powerhouse, fuelled by innovation, strategic investments and a resilient creative ecosystem.

According to the FICCI-E&Y sector report the digital media segment alone, which notched up revenues of ₹802 billion in the year gone by as against ₹686billion in 2023 fiscal, is estimated to further expand to touch a handsome ₹903 billion in the current year in accelerating at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) (2024-2027) of 11.2 per cent to reach whopping ₹1,104 billion by 2027.

According to the report, country’s digital media grew 17 per cent at ₹700 billion in 2024 as against ₹597 in 2023 becoming the fastest growing segment of the Indian M&E Sector accounting for 32 per cent of the IndianM&E Sector following which India has, in effect, reached its digital inflection point.

The report sees that the next wave of content consumption growth can be expected to come from Rural Bharat as against Urban India with rural subscriptions growing by 4 per cent  between December 2023and December 2024.

With rural subscriptions now being more than two-thirds of urban subscriptions, this should be seen as a need to create content for both these markets, finds the report.

With overwhelming optimism enveloping the digital domain space, it is estimated that the digital segment will be the first M&E segment to cross ₹1 trillion in 2026, and grow to ₹1.1 trillion by 2027, at a 11 per cent CAGR,reflecting the changes in consumption patterns being witnessed due to growth in connected televisions,mobile phones and affordable broadband connectivity. By 2027, it is seen that digital media will constitute 36 per cent of the M&E Sector, up by 4 per cent from its 32 per cent share in 2024.

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.