The digital media industry in India has arrived. Global consultancy major EY has forecast that the industry is set to touch the ₹200-billion mark by 2020, with the digital advertisement spend growing at 23-28 per cent.
The number of smartphones would touch the 520-million mark by then, giving more people access to the web. “By 2017, the country will have more than 350 million smartphones, from 167 million in 2015. Low-cost phones and roll out of 3G and 4G broadband infrastructure would drive access to the web. This, in turn, would drive digital media consumption,” EY has said in its latest report Future of Digital Content Consumption in India .
It has identified eight major trends in the digital media industry that are going to accelerate the growth. These include proliferation of smartphones, content, consumption by people in rural areas, digital gaming and regional e-celebrities.
‘Set trends’ The report, however, asked the media and entertainment companies to do much more than just reacting to the trends. “They need to be able to see emerging trends that will dictate the future of content and how they will impact established business models for ad-supported, subscription and pay-per-use content monetisation,” it said. They will have to invest in technologies that will enable them to analyse audience data.
Broadband penetration EY has said there would be a significant increase in broadband penetration. “It will go up to 40 per cent from 14 per cent. This will be instrumental in increasing media consumption, shifting beyond traditional media formats such as cable TV to digital media,” it said.