India’s Media & Entertainment industry witnessed a downturn for the second year in a row. According to the FICCI-EY report titled, ‘Shape the future: Indian media and entertainment is scripting a new story’, the industry grew 3% in 2024 compared to 8% in the previous year. While Media & Entertainment industry has always grown faster than the GDP for the past 15 years, it has lagged the trend in the past two years. At present, India’s M&E sector contributes 0.73% to India’s GDP. While the sector was 30% above its pre-pandemic 2019 levels, television, print and radio still lagged their 2019revenues. According to Ashish Pherwani, Partner EY, the subdued growth is due to the decline in subscription income and headwinds in the animation and VFX industry. Right now, 47 million households pay for at least one subscription, but number can grow to 65 million households in the next three years, the report mentioned.
‘Rise of Digital Media’
As per the FICCI report, digital media has overtaken television to become the largest segment for the first time, accounting for 32% of the overall revenue across advertising and subscription. However, television and print still hold together the larger segment, the report added.
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Pherwani said, “Digital media became the largest segment of the M&E sector in 2024, breaking TV’s 25-year hold on the pole position”.
New media, comprising digital media and online gaming, grew Rs 113 billion, a 12% increase, and accounts for 41% of the overall revenue of the M&E sector. On the other hand, traditional media’s revenue dropped by 3% to Rs 30 billion in 2024.
According to Jyoti Vij, Director General at FICCI, “With deeper internet penetration, the rise of Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) channels, and a thriving creator-led economy, India is on course to become a global content hub”.
‘Decline in advertisers’
India’s M&E industry has witnessed a significant decline in advertisers across television, print, and radio segments, with a 10% fall in the number of advertisers. According to the FICCI-EY report, pay TV lost 6 million homes while box office industry growth also remained stunted for the second consecutive year due to the changes in the perspective of the audience and the rise of OTT players.
As per a survey, of the 28,000 local cable operators, 35% said that since the pre-COVID period, they’ve seen their subscriber base decline by 40%.
Among the sub-industries of M&E gaming was impacted due to 28% GST on the amount deposited into the wallet of the player. However, the music industry made a strong push for growth in 2024, with Spotify playing a key role in incentivizing its users to opt for the pay model.
In contrast, e-commerce advertising grew 50% and now accounts for 21% of total digital ad revenues. “E-commerce advertising is bigger than entertainment, sports, and news advertising altogether”. Subscription video on demand (SVOD) recovered in 2024, with the industry growing to an average of 111 million subscriptions across 47 million households for the year.
Overall, advertising revenue grew 8.1%, driven by performance advertising on digital media, including spends on e-commerce platforms.
The report projected that advertising will hit Rs 1.5 lakh crore by 2027, driven by a tax-saving budget by the Centre. “Digital is likely to be the first segment to hit Rs 1 lakh crore in advertising in 2026,” Pherwani added. However, the traditional media may face headwinds as the TV distribution and print projections are flat in terms of revenues.