What the future of media and entertainment industry looks like

Increased preference for personalized choices, interactive two-way media and snackable content seem to be some of the most palpable trends in the Indian media and entertainment industry (M&E) now. Mind you that today, consumers can access content across any device, with a strong preference for regional and micro genres. M&E is increasingly catering to 'ME' or personalized choices. Digital video and gaming contribute to more than 40 per cent of total media consumption in 2022. These formats enable the shift from a 'mass' to 'individualized / ME' experience. There is also an increasing willingness to pay for premium/exclusive content. Subscriptions have grown 16x–17x over last five years to 85–90 million in 2022. The report also foresees SVoD becoming more prominent in the overall OTT revenue going forward.

All these facts and figures will have to be seen in the wake of the fact that the Indian M&E industry is estimated to be valued at $27-29 billion by the end of 2022 with 2/3rd of growth in the last 3 years or so, coming from the digital sub-segments. Indian M&E industry is expected to continue its unique multi-modal growth story in the future as it is poised to grow to $55–65 billion by 2030.

Going by a recent study by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), when it comes to relative proportion of revenues coming from advertisement vs. consumer paid, the share of advertisement is now at 44 per cent vs 37 per cent in 2021. The report highlights that while advertisers are adopting diversified mediums; digital share has grown to nearly 40 per cent in 2022 from 37 per cent last year with digital native advertisers gaining prominence.

That's not all. One has to look at the real opportunity getting unlocked from the adoption of the Metaverse. Metaverse is estimated to become a $10 billion opportunity by 2030. At present, 36 per cent of global private investment in Metaverse is in interactive entertainment. Metaverse's interactive ability enables users to interact, socialize, and collaborate in virtual spaces. In times to come, Metaverse, with its interactive and immersive features, could become all pervasive as companies strive to ensure customer adoption-engagement-retention.

Going forward, it will become critical for M&E companies to understand the imperatives that will help them seize opportunities in the Metaverse and harness its true potential for the industry.

But how to unlock this potential of Metaverse? Experts feel that there are five dimensions to unlock this: Invest in technology and infrastructure, business model innovation, building a metaverse content production ecosystem, acceleration of consumer adoption and codification of regulation.

Little wonder therefore that story tellers and content creators will have to reinvent their formats towards greater interactivity and democratized mediums. And media companies, on their parts, will have to proactively think through their architecture as they build towards the metaverse. One needs to build systems today that are agile and fungible so that one doesn't have to fix it later. The M&E industry has already evolved considerably and has seen rapid changes fuelled by innovation across the media value chain and evolving consumer behaviours. It's 'get set and go' for the media and entertainment industry.