Minnow on world stage, but Indian media business is growing big: Report

US, China remain biggest pie-holders globally, says PwC report

India looks good in the global media sweepstakes but the country that shines is the US. At one-third, it is the largest chunk of the $2,341-billion global entertainment and media business in 2021. The second largest country, China, brings in 17 per cent. (See chart)

Those among other headlines are part of PwC’s annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook.

The report, which is in its 23rd year, is one of the most detailed pieces of work on the business. The figures vary from other reports since PwC includes several segments, such as business-to-business media or consumer publishing, that others don’t. But the larger trends remain the same.

Of these, the continuing decline of the US newspaper business and the slowing but continued rise of newspapers in India stand out. India is on its way to becoming the fifth largest newspaper market in the world by 2026.

The growth of the metaverse, of OTT, and of music and podcasts, are among the other things the report addresses.
 

The US is the largest single OTT market in the world, generating $29 billion across transactional and subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) in 2021. That is about three times that of China. “The lead that the US has on China has grown significantly, propelled both by Covid-19 restrictions-induced viewing habits, a trend seen across global markets, as well as the launch of a number of high-profile, studio-backed SVoD players over recent years.

“Despite its size, the US market showed double-digit growth for 2021, increasing year-on-year by 19.9 per cent,” says the report.

The big trends in OTT – “Netflix is no longer the single big-name player, but instead is joined by a number of high-profile services, each with exclusive and desirable content”.

The others include rising OTT investment in sports and the growth of what it calls Free Advertising Supported Streaming or FAST channels. They bundle a bunch of largely linear channels and follow a broadcast schedule much like broadcast TV. Pluto TV, Rakuten are among the exampleS mentioned.

Note that India mirrors that, on a smaller scale. On the linear side, free-to-air TV and online, free OTTs such as YouTube and MX Player remain among the largest players in video. On size, India remains a minnow at $38 billion. Where it shows some spunk is on growth rate. At about 8.5 per cent, albeit on a small base, it is way ahead of the global average.