M&E industry in India grew by 8.9% in 2019: Report

According to the report, TV viewership grew by 6.4%. There was a 5% growth in advertising income during the year, even though advertising volume reduced by 4%. The growth came because of the volume of advertising on marquee events like the elections, the ICC World Cup and the IPL.

Subscription income grew by 7.5% largely because of the NTO making it more expensive for consumers.

The growth in advertising revenues for the year was Rs 4,000-crore. Rs 3,700-crore of this growth came from digital while Rs 300-crore was for TV in the incremental ad spends.

The print segment de-grew by 3.4% which led to advertising income falling by five per cent. The Adex volume fell by 8%.

The impact on English was higher than regional players as the former de-grew by 10% and the latter de-grew by one or two per cent.

English newspapers conducted more than 300 events last year, but with the coronavirus outbreak, those will reduce and could end up posing problems.   

Subscription grew at 9.3%.

Digital growth was 111%. Base was small but people are starting to pay for content and quality content when it comes online. Digital media grew by 31%. There was a growth of 20% in broadband subscriptions. Ad income growth on digital was 24%. Video subscription income grew by 111% while audio was only at 18% as people still access free streaming of music according to the report. More than 10-million individuals paid for video content.

With the total number of internet users being at 661-million, the report states that there is still plenty of scope for growth.

Online gaming grew by 40% and online gamers crossed 365 million fuelled by fantasy game revenues. Casual game revenues also grew by more than 20%.

(Source: Campaign India)