At $26 bn, M&E industry 10% above pre-pandemic mark; movies still at 90% in 2022

Mumbai, May 4 The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry grew by 20 percent to touch Rs 2.1 trillion ($26 billion) in 2022. That is 10 percent above pre-

pandemic 2019, according to the annual EY report released during the ongoing FICCI Frames conference in Mumbai, reports ‘Variety’.

The report collates data from television, digital media, film, animation, and VFX, out-of-home media, live events, music, radio, online gaming, and print. Overall, the M&E sector is projected to grow 12 percent to reach $28.6 billion in 2023, the report says, according to ‘Variety’.

Television remained the single largest component of the M&E sector in 2022 with a valuation of $8.6 billion, but it shrank by 1.5 percent from 2021 levels, despite advertising revenues growing by 2 percent to reach levels just behind 2019, the ‘Variety’ report continues.

The reason for the shrinkage is that subscription revenue continued to fall for the third year in succession due to a reduction of five million pay-TV homes and stagnant average revenues per user.

Meanwhile, according to the EY report quoted by ‘Variety’, buoyed by the success of south Indian films such as ‘RRR’, ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’, ‘Kantara’, ‘Ponniyin Selvan: 1’ and ‘Vikram’ and Bollywood hits ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva’, ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘Drishyam 2’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, filmed entertainment recovered to 90 percent of its pre-pandemic levels to record revenues of $2.1 billion.

Of this, local theatrical revenues were $1.2 billion, overseas theatrical releases accounted for $196 million, broadcast rights $122 million, digital rights $440 million, and in-cinema advertising $61.1 million.

In 2022, South Indian films together accounted for 53 percent of box-office collections, Bollywood 35 percent and other Indian languages 5 percent. The share of Hollywood dropped from a high of 15 percent in pre-pandemic 2019 to 13 percent in 2022, ‘Variety’ adds, quoting the report.