New media modes like Over-the-Top (OTT), video-on-demand, Esports and podcasts are slated to be the biggest gainers in Indian entertainment market in the coming days, according to consultancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper's (PwC) Global Media & Entertainment Outlook for this year, released on Friday.
“India is the fastest growing entertainment and media market globally and is expected to keep that momentum,” said Rajib Basu, partner and leader, entertainment and media at Price Waterhouse Cooper. “Our research shows that in the next five years, India will see significant growth in OTT, online gaming and Internet advertising. Growth in these sub-sectors spurs from the growing trends around personalisation and increased digitisation,” he added.
India's OTT market, already the flavour of the season due to the burgeoning popularity of streaming platforms like Netflix and Hotstar, is likely to grow 21 per cent compounded annually till 2023. This means the market, which is a growing threat to 'conventional' television, will witness a growth from RS 4,464 crore last year to a projected Rs 11,976 crore in 2023.
Likewise, subscription video-on-demand is set to increase 23 per cent over the same period, from Rs 3,756 crore to RS 10,708 crore. This means, Indian OTT service will overtake that of South Korea in this time to become the eighth biggest OTT market by 2023.
Other new avenues of entertainment are also quickly taking over the hearts, minds and wallets of Indians. Esports is an example. “India’s Esports revenue is small at present but has strong potential with a calendar of well-supported events and leagues emerging,” notes the PwC report. It is supposed to grow 36 per cent.
It is ga-ga time for radio and audio services, too. India’s music, radio and podcasts market was worth Rs 5,753 crore last year, which could hit upwards of Rs 10,000 crore by 2023, with streaming services finally germinating. Podcast listening has also increased markedly in India in the past years, with monthly listeners (defined as people who listened to at least one podcast in the last month), totalling four crore last year. While this has already made India the world's third-largest podcast-listening market after China and the US, PwC estimates that Indian listenership could go beyond 17 crore by 2023.
PwC estimates the total Indian media and entertainment sector to hit a value of 4.5 lakh crore rupees in four years time. This means an annual overall growth rate of 11 per cent, the fastest in the world.