MUMBAI: Television remains the highest-reach medium in India, with TV-viewing households estimated at 217 million in FY2024. This translates into revenue of Rs. 72,100 crore ($ 8.6 billion) in FY2024. This growth is predominantly driven by subscription revenues, which have increased significantly due to changes in the regulatory regime.
In addition, there is steady viewership growth across free and pay TV, leading to increased spending on TV advertising. High-impact sports properties, such as the IPL and T20 WC, also increased ad revenues.
A new report by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in collaboration with Deloitte was launched at the inaugural World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai.
Discontinued English GECs in India Although English GEC as a category still attracts many viewers, most of its audience has migrated to OCC services, prompting advertisers to shift their ad spends to digital platforms. To stay relevant, broadcasters need to diversify content and explore new formats.
General Entertainment Channels (GECs): Rise and fall
GECs airing soap operas and serials are faced with declining viewership. On-demand content from online platforms allows consumers to enjoy entertainment at their own pace, leading to falling TRP ratings for Hindi TV serials. Even popular TV serials such as Anupamaa struggled to break even a TRP of 3.0 in 2024.
Hindi GECs face greater challenges, especially as major players such as Star India and Sony India exited DD Free Dish, further impacting viewership. Urban Hindi speaking markets are shifting to OCC services, while rural areas still favour free-to-air channels such as Dangal and Goldmines.
Similarly, English GECs such as Zee Café and Comedy Central have taken a hit since the COVID-19 pandemic, with many viewers switching to streaming platforms for content.
Economic impact
Direct impact
Gross output (direct): It reflects the combined revenue of TV sector participants. It has been derived by estimating and adding up players’ revenues across the value chain and includes intermediate services/ product revenues.
Therefore, it consists of an element of double counting of revenues. It also includes indirect taxes. The direct gross output of the TV sector is estimated at Rs. 87,000 crore ($10.3 billion) in FY2024.[
EBITDA/GOS: This metric reflects the total returns to capital employed. It also captures direct taxes (i.e., income and corporate taxes) paid by the sector. It was estimated at Rs. 18,900 crore ($2.3 billion) in FY2024.[1]
Wages: These measure the returns to labour, which includes payments made to contractual workers. Wage payments in FY2024 were estimated at Rs. 16,900 crore ($2 billion) in FY2024.
GVA (direct): It is the value-add created by labour and capital inputs employed directly by the sector (i.e., EBITDA + wages). In FY2024, this was estimated at Rs. 35,900 crore ($4.3 billion).
NIT: The details of the sector’s formal GST collection have not yet been reported. The report has estimated this at Rs. 15,400 crore ($ 1.8 billion) in FY2024.
Total value added (direct): This is the sum of GVA and NIT and represents the total direct impact of the TV sector on the Indian economy. This is estimated at Rs. 51,400 crore (US$ 6.1 billion) for FY2024.
Employment (direct): Direct employment figures include on-roll and contractual employees of independent production houses. Employees in TV broadcasting include in-house production staff and non-production roles, such as sales, finance and HR, for TV broadcast networks.
The distribution segment accounts for most employment generated in the TV sector, primarily attributable to LCOs. The sector directly employs about 5.2 lakh (0.52 million) people.
Smart TV / Connected TV
The rise of smart TVs and connected TVs in India is transforming digital content consumption at home, driven by increased high-speed internet access and the growth of OCC services. With 954 million internet users as of March 2024,[72] India’s digital landscape is evolving quickly.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift as the demand for home entertainment surged, with more people turning to streaming services for fresh content. In 2024, the Indian OCC sector audience base was 547.3 million, 38 percent of the population, up from 34 percent in 2023. This growth has prompted TV manufacturers to integrate OCC services apps into Smart TVs, boosting sales.
About 69.7 million people (13 percent of India’s OCC sector audience) use Smart TVs for online content. The rise of smart and connected TVs is also affecting the growth of the Pay TV market, with innovations such as connected set-top boxes, gaming consoles and streaming tools transforming traditional TVs into Connected TVs. In 2024, the number of Connected TVs in India was expected to reach 45 million, making it the third-largest CTV market globally.
This shift offers opportunities for advertisers, with more inventory available for advertising. Additionally, addressable TV advertising, which accounted for 9.8 percent of TV ad revenue in 2023 (Rs. 45 billion), is projected to reach 16 percent by 2026.
TV gets futuristic: Direct-to-mobile TV
The Indian government is testing Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) technology, which uses broadcast signals to deliver content, bypassing cellular or internet networks.
To evaluate the viability of D2M technology, pilot projects were launched in Bengaluru, Kartavya Path, and Noida in 2023. It is efficient for live events and reduces network load but requires specific hardware in mobile devices, potentially increasing costs for manufacturers and consumers.
The government aims to use D2M to converge broadcasting and broadband to deliver emergency alerts and offload video content, easing telecom congestion.
Reinventing TV
DTH Operators diversify into OCC services aggregation offerings.
DTH Operators have been losing subscribers to DD Free Dish & OCC services. While the top end of the DTH subscriber base is migrating to OCC services, the bottom end is shifting to DD Free Dish.
With this subscriber loss at the top and bottom end of the funnel, DTH operators have pivoted to OCC services aggregation to future-proof their business model. sing their last-mile relationship with subscribers, DTH operators provide incremental reach to OCC services while improving their ARPUs and audience base. DTH operators also benefit from diversifying revenue streams and offering more bundled services to audiences.
