Growth through disruption is the mantra of media and entertainment industry

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The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry has been the front runner in terms of innovation, creativity, growth through self-disruption and perseverance to find long term value in a business which essentially thrives on short loops that builds beautifully into a never-ending chain of both realism and imagined realism.

A fast-moving sector, high on rapid innovation and fluid creativity, thrives on keeping in step with its evolving consumers. Consumer understanding has always been its validator, what with consumer insights churned almost real time to support decision making.  The sector growth has been outperforming the nominal GDP growth rate of India.  The sector grew 13.4% over 2017 to reach INR 1.67 trillion in 2018.

At the centre of it is mainly the content that aspires to fulfil the consumers’ need for entertainment, edutainment, escapism and empowerment. The wow factor of Indian content is its need and ability to be heterogeneous.  Mirroring Indian-ness, a fabric that shifts in texture and colour every few kilometres. Rich in history, legacy of sharing wisdom through the power of story-telling, vibrant cultures and languages, rooted progression, it needs great talent to blend these in a customized yet mass manner and engage consumers in entertainment as well as advertising content. And I believe Indians are talented content creators and have the business acumen and street smartness, to manage this complex business without trapping it into a suffocating box.  

The media & entertainment industry envelopes all brands and businesses across all Industries by ideating, planning and executing their brand story-telling, brand launches, campaigns, public relations, marketing, promotions, events and so on. And it has its own brands, businesses and stories to tell, manage and grow.  An industry that has meaningful business connections with everyone.

While the traditional news media has evolved to have brand extensions to cater to the changing consumers driven by technological shift, it is in the space of entertainment that we witness large scale disruption. Disruption of genre, duration, consumer segments, scale, destination, platform, revenue models, regulation, distribution, geography to name some.  Technology has further expedited the pace of disruption in an industry that prides on disrupting itself.

It is the fearless experiments that this industry continuously makes, that lends itself to being ahead on the adaptive curve.

The most happening baby of the industry is currently digital (Content & media). The world is now a consumer of Indian content. And India is the consumer for the world too. 

There is a sudden rush of great content coming in from all parts of the world and vying for our time and attention and at throw away prices.  And it is a liberating time for content creators, content platforms and consumers alike.

The world blends into one family through the online platforms and really throws up challenges unique to this situation. And while Indian OTT players and international OTT players are riding and running this exciting race in India, what really will hold the key is the ability to build a profitable business of it. To be able to grow subscriber base through quality of content and marketing it effectively, leveraging IPRs, to be able to sustain the subscriber base despite high levels of competition, to be able to have sanity in the Business plans.

Unlike the telecommunication devices, where the young skipped the traditional telephone or the pagers, in Media & entertainment industry all of the earlier segments are still alive and co-existing with the newer segments albeit the shifts in shares reflecting the consumer shift.  Consumers are being served seamlessly across the globe through the power of the ancient sub-titles. In the co-existence of contrasts, lies the buzz of this industry.  Its ability to straddle localisation and glocalization with agility ensures there is never a dull moment.

Estimated to grow to INR 2.35 trillion by 2021 (FICCI 2019) the industry is poised for yet another disruption facilitated by technology, smart phone penetration, higher data and speed, economic access to data and content and further up could be driven by consolidation and collaboration.

 Let us look at the hard work and hard numbers behind the glamour and glitz.

Indian Media & Entertainment is disrupting itself yet again, growing at a good pace and having a lot of fun too. I am reminded of Albert Einstein’s words, “CREATIVITY IS INTELLIGENCE HAVING FUN”.

The question for now- Is content the king or is it the consumer? For now, it is a tie!

The article has been contributed by Sharada Sunder, Mentor- Media & Entertainment, S. P. Mandali’s Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WeSchool)