While its western peers are witnessing a more marked shift towards digital media-driven consumption, India is likely to see a more broad-based growth with both ‘traditional’ and digital media driving consumption in parallel.
According to a report released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), while digital media is the fastest growing medium in the Indian market, the significant under-penetration of traditional media like print and radio is likely to see all of them grow in tandem over the next few years.
“It’s not just the absolute growth rate, but also about the shape of growth in India that is different relative to other economies,” the report notes, pointing out that India has a “significant under-penetration of non-digital media”.
Comparing the Indian market to two of its largest peers -- the United States and China -- shows that traditional media have substantial headroom to grow in the country.
“Literacy levels constrain print penetration and screen density is much lower than China and the US… Indian media formats are primarily advertising driven and consumer costs are minimal. The consumer cost for print and theatre experiences is also much lower than global benchmarks. Hence there is no economic need for consumers to switch media and it is likely that all forms of media will continue to grow simultaneously leading to a multi-model, multi-format market where the same consumer traverses multiple screens and formats,” the report notes.
However, the fastest growth in consumption remains in the digital sphere, like its more advanced peers. “The growth is predominantly being fuelled by the digital segment with increasing consumption of content over the mobile Internet,” pointed out Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII while releasing the report.
