India's Media, Entertainment Sector to Cross $40b by 2020

The Indian media & entertainment sector is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% over the next four years to cross $40 billion by 2020, predicts PwC's latest report, titled `Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2016-20'. The report notes that India is expected to outstrip handsomely the estimated global outlook of 4.5% growth. “Given India's overall growth in GDP ..., it is not surprising that India is amongst the top 10 markets for growth in the sector. Although in India traditional media like newspaper publishing and cinema have always shown strong growth, we expect that even in terms of absolute total dollar spends, it should get into the top 10 in the early part of the next decade,“ said Frank D'Souza, leader ­ entertainment and media at PwC India. It will be more interesting to see how rapidly India would catch how rapidly India would catch up with global trends, where traditional media is finding it hard to remain relevant and the digital sector is bringing in continuous disruptions, D'Souza added. “That will all depend on how quickly the Indian digital broadband ecosystem matures, and how the Indian players adapt and drive business models in what would be a rapidly changing environment for consumption of data content fashioned largely by India's under 35-year population,“ the report said.
China is likely to overtake India in cinema admissions by 2020. In 2015, cinema admissions in India were at an estimated 2.04 billion and expected to rise to 2.80 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 6.6%. Box office revenue in India, which stood at $1.64 billion in 2015, is expected to rise to $2.74 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 10.9%.