India’s television industry witnessed a decline in 2022, with revenue falling from Rs72,000 crore to Rs70,900 crore, marking a 1.5 percent decrease. As per TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) Annual Report for 2022-2023, the subscription revenue, the industry’s main source of income, dipped from Rs 40,700 crore to Rs 39,200 crore. On the other hand, advertisement revenue showed a positive trend, rising from Rs31,300 crore to Rs31,800 crore.
These numbers suggest a shift in consumer behaviour and potential opportunities for ad-supported models in the Indian television landscape.
Television landscape in India
The TV broadcasting sector encompasses approximately 332 broadcasters providing 903 private satellite TV channels as on 31 March, 2023 . These television channels include 254 pay TV channels and 104 HD Pay TV channels provided by 43 Pay television broadcasters.
Further, there were 1748 (Multi System Operators (MSOs) registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), 1 HITS operator , 4 pay DTH operators and 25 IPTV operators . Further, as per the information provided by MIB, there were 81,706 cable operators registered in the country.
Prasar Bharati, is the Public Service Broadcaster in India which operates radio network- All India Radio (Akashvani) & Television Network (Doordarshan). At present, Doordarshan broadcasts 36 satellite TV channels which includes 7 National Channels, 28 Regional Channels and 01 international channels (DD India).
TRAI analysis
“Television is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the media and entertainment. It represents around 35 percent of the total media and entertainment revenue. Even though television remains the largest segment, digital media has seen phenomenal growth with a 27 percent growth in digital subscriptions in 2022. The potential of the new technologies in the sector can be inferred from the fact that in 2022, animation and VFX was the fastest growing sector with a staggering 29 percent growth,” the report said.