 "M&E sector grows 10% over 2019, crosses Rs 2.1 trn: Ficci-EY report")
The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) sector grew 20 per cent in 2022 to reach Rs 2.1 trillion, 10 per cent above its pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to a Ficci-EY report.
The digital media’s contribution to the M&E sector jumped sharply from 16 per cent in 2019 to 27 per cent in 2022, reaching a figure of Rs 571 billion, noted the report titled “Windows of opportunity: India’s media & entertainment sector maximizing across segments” that was launched at the Ficci Frames 2023 in Powai on Wednesday.
It added that if data costs were considered, the digital contribution to the sector would almost double to 50 per cent.
Consultancy firm EY said the M&E sector surpassed Rs 3 trillion, if one were to include the estimated Rs 90,000 crore that users pay to access data services utilised for streaming.
The Rs 2.1-trillion sector (excluding data costs) is set to grow at over 10 per cent annually to reach Rs 2.83 trillion by 2025, it said.
The key contributors to this growth will be digital, online gaming and television (together contributing to 65 per cent of the growth), followed by animation and VFX (11 per cent), live events (8 per cent) and films (8 per cent). In 2022, filmed entertainment, live events and out-of-home media segments together contributed 40 per cent of the sector’s total growth.
Merger and acquisitions also remained strong in 2022, with over 125 deals compared to 118 in 2021. Sixty-five per cent of the deals were in digital, gaming and new media segments.
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At Rs 1.049 trillion, advertising exceeded the Rs 1-trillion benchmark for the first time. In 2022, when India’s nominal GDP grew 15 per cent, advertising recovered 19 per cent. It is now 0.4 per cent of India’s GDP, much lower than developed large markets such as the US, Japan, and China, which are all between 0.6 per cent and 1 per cent, the report said.
NFDC to restart backing projects
The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has been “left behind” in the last few years, but it will restart backing projects and have its own over-the-top (OTT) service, a senior government official said at the Ficci Frames.
The corporation, which has backed films like Gandhi (1982) and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983), will have an OTT service where one can watch its films, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Secretary Apurva Chandra said. “NFDC, we feel, has been left behind now for the past eight-10 years. We need to come back again, we need to give support to young filmmakers, who don’t get access otherwise in the market, and also come up with an OTT of NFDC,” Chandra said at the annual event.
He said the government, which has undertaken a Rs 500-crore project to preserve the country’s film heritage, will soon launch a scheme under which aficionados can fund to restore a film of their choice.
The government is also likely to table an amendment to the Cinematograph Act in the monsoon session, which will authorise it to act against platforms distributing pirated content, Chandra said.
The I&B ministry is all for “a soft-touch approach” on the critical issue of regulating content, and would want the OTT industry to adopt self-regulation, Chandra said.