Monetizing The M&E Industry

The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry has grown at a steady CAGR of 10 to 12 percent YoY, and is projected to reach a revenue base of 130,000 crore by the end of 2016. Although the per capita consumption of traditional media continues to grow at 3 percent, digital consumption has expanded at a much more exponential pace, clocking up to 15 percent annually. The true potential of the industry can be summed up by the fact that it represents an opportunity for 5x- to 6x growth over the next 10 years. Tapping into this growth is predetermined by a set of industry-wide initiatives that can enable players to unlock consumption as well as adequately monetize the eyeballs to create value for the industry.

Today, there exists a gap in monetization, which needs to be addressed. Despite the strong consumer base and stable growth rates in consumption, the industry has not been able to monetize consumption at levels comparable to their global counterparts. The cost per impression across various mediums is the lowest in India. Television impressions in China are 20x the cost of TV impressions in India. While the M&E industry in India sees better price points on the digital video medium and is almost double its Chinese counterpart, it continues to lag behind in other forms of digital media.

If these gaps are successfully bridged, India can increase digital advertising by 2x- to 3x current revenue levels with relative ease, adding an additional 8000–13,000 crore to the current industry revenues. The industry can drive better targeting of advertisement spends, minimize wastage, and provide better value through big data and analytics capabilities in its monetization endeavors.

At the same time, the metrics for monetization need to be reective of both growth in the audiences reached as well as the quality of engagement, and it is necessary to rene these across all sectors of the media industry to truly benet from the increasing consumption.

The recently released CII-BCG report, Convergence: The New Multiplier for Indian Media & Entertainment’s USD 100 Billion Vision, provides deep insight on this aspect.