Regional OTT content volumes exceeded Hindi language content in 2023: FICCI EY Report
40-50 million households powering most digital and film subscriptions; 200,000 hours of content created in India, states the 2024 FICCI EY Report on the Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the annual FICCI FRAMES conference, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) along with EY released a comprehensive report on the Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry.
The report states that by 2030, India is expected to have almost a billion active screens. Of this, around 240 million will be large (TV, laptop, PC) and the balance will be small (mobile phones, phablets). Given the 1:3 ratio between large and small screens, it will be imperative for media companies to have a multi-screen and multi-format strategy.
What are the key findings in Subscriptions?
Overall, subscription grew INR75 billion, of which new media (online gaming and digital) provided 58 percent of the growth.
Across segments, subscription was focused on the top-end of the consumer pyramid, which resulted in a heavily concentrated subscription base. We estimate that the top 40 to 50 million households are powering most digital and film subscriptions, while online gaming and print have a wider audience of between 70 and 85 million homes, and TV has the largest reach at 118 million homes.
Share of subscription reduced from 43 percent of total M&E sector revenues in 2019 to 41 percent in 2023.
Subscription revenues including data charges
The FICCI EY Report estimates that the amount paid by retail consumers for data charges, if apportioned to M&E use cases (AVOD and SVOD entertainment, social media, online gaming, short video, music, news, etc.) would aggregate INR 1.5 trillion of the approximately INR 3.2 trillion telecom sector.
If these data charges were to be included in our analysis of subscription revenues:
-The size of the M&E sector would be INR 3.8 trillion (US $46 billion)
-Subscription would be INR2.44 trillion, and comprise 64 percent of the M&E sector
-Digital segment revenues would be INR2.1 trillion, or around three times the television segment
-The subscription revenue mix would look significantly different, with digital comprising the largest portion at 54 percent, as compared to less than 10 percent without data charge.
India created almost 200,000 hours of content
GEC contributed 68 percent of total hours on TV (excluding news bulletins) in 2023.
117 more films were released in 2023 as compared to 2022, of which 416 films were released on OTT platforms. However, direct to digital releases halved.
Regional OTT content volumes exceeded Hindi language content in 2023 for the first time.
OTT content volume growth slowed in 2023 due to profitability pressures, and could fall in 2024.
