Digital Is The New Mantra For M&E Industry
The recent IPL auction has once again underscored how India’s digital revolution is reshaping its media landscape, audience patterns and the way content is consumed. The digital broadcast rights bagged by Viacom18 (Rs 23, 758) sold for more than the TV rights won by Star TV (Rs 23, 575 crores). This shift to digital platforms in India’s cricketing audiences is symptomatic of the deeper transformation in India’s media and entertainment industry.
The fact that the IPL media rights overall (Rs 48, 390 crores or $ 6.2 billion) sold for more than thrice the value they had five years ago further reflects the speed with which the Indian market has grown. Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s media and entertainment industry are anticipated to reach INR 412656 Cr by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.75 per cent between 2021 to 2025, as per PwC’s Global Media and Entertainment Outlook. This is why India’s media and entertainment industry currently holds more potential than any other global market. Not surprisingly, expenditure on digital advertising is expected to become the largest share of advertising spends in India this year.
Digital Transformation Trends Shaping the M&E Industry
The Emergence of Personalised Content
This is the age of personalization. Several music and audio streaming service providers are leading the way in the industry because they offer personalised content to their users. What’s interesting is the fact that millennials and Gen-Z are willing to spare huge amounts for personalised content. Online streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and Netflix saw this gap and ventured into the market. While individual company fortunes may rise and fall, the trendline in this direction is clear.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
The M&E industry is driven by customers, and thus, they have become more powerful than ever before. Digital transformation is propelling media businesses to adopt customer-centricity, which in turn is helping create a better customer experience. AI is also proving to be helpful for customisation, the transmission of content, and improving the viewers’ experience. Not only that, AI, when coupled with analytics, facilitates smart ad inventory management and yield optimisation.
Rise of D2C Video Streaming Service
The start of the pandemic boosted video streaming globally. As people were left with no option but to stay indoors, they needed diverse and high-quality video streaming content. This transition condensed the demand for cable TV packages and increased subscriptions to
online streaming websites that offered a diverse range of choices to users. This trend has invariably led to intense competition amongst top streaming platforms.
The Effects of Media Going Digital on Media Education
With the media industry shifting to a digital-first approach, we need a massive shift in the skills and capabilities required by students. This means that media studies also need to be rebooted, keeping in mind industry requirements.
While traditional media continue to have a strong presence, digital trends are revealing:
-India is the fastest-growing internet advertising and mobile ad market in the world. Growth in mobile ad revenue is expected to be 74.4% of the total internet advertising revenue by 2025.
-Online gaming is expected to grow to over $3 billion by 2023, from $906 million in 2019, owing to an increase in consumption.
-Connected smart TVs in India are expected to number about 30-40 million by 2025. It is estimated that about 30 per cent of the preferred content on these devices would include gaming, short videos and social media content.
-OTT platforms are growing at 21% annually. As Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has pointed out, India is set to connect another 300 million (30 crores) citizens online as India becomes a content creation hub.
Considering the disruption in the media market and entertainment industry, students in the media studies discipline will need to take a new set of courses in order to be future-ready for the media industry. Therefore, having a ‘digital-first’ focus is essential in media schools to ensure that the students are trained in digital skills as per changing dynamics of the industry. ‘Digital-first’ skills are now critical not just in preparing students for the traditional media industry but also for digital communications roles in corporations, public relations, advertising, and corporate communications.
As India’s media industry shapeshifts, growing at a much faster pace than the global average rate, digital is clearly the new mantra. It is imperative for media education to lead this change and get aspiring professionals industry-ready.
*The author is Dr Nalin Mehta, Dean, UPES School of Modern Media
