iWorld
Digital segment projected to reach Rs 386 billion by FY22: KPMG
MUMBAI: The digital segment of the India media and entertainment industry is projected to reach Rs 386 billion by FY22 from Rs 173 billion in FY19. The burgeoning sector is set to overtake print media and be behind TV within the same period, according to India’s Digital Future, a report by KPMG. By FY24, the digital market will be half that of TV in the Indian economy.
Moreover, advertising growth will also be driven by the digital billion with close to 580 million OTT consumers by FY24. The report also added that with the proposed third party digital measurement systems coming into place in India over the next 12 months, the CPMs are also likely to see some growth from FY21 onwards, contributing to the overall growth of the segment. As per the report, video ads on OTT platforms are likely to constitute the bulk of the segment revenues.
On the other hand, the revenue from OTT digital video is expected to reach 129 billion by FY22. While Indian OTT market’s revenue will continue to be dominated by advertising, the direct subscriber base in India will rise to as much as 55-65 million by FY24, driven by the availability of high quality content curated for different audiences.
While the subscription revenues registered a nearly 3x increase in FY19, totalling Rs 12 billion, direct subscriptions contributed around 65-70 per cent and the rest were realisations from telco partnerships. Despite the growth of direct subscriptions, the revenue from telco partnerships is also expected to achieve robust growth, although slower as compared to direct subscriptions.
The digital consumers have also been divided into four categories. The digital sophisticates who consume global content and tent-pole, original Indian programming tailored for the urban audience, typically behind a paywall in English and Hindi. The second is digital enthusiasts who will watch mainly Indian narratives in Hindi and regional languages and some pockets of English. The third is digital mainstream who are looking for free content available online or bundled plans through telcos and other distribution platforms and the last is fringe users who will have sporadic digital access on account of either poor connectivity or irregular income.
On the course of digital segment evolution, technology and associated tools such as artificial intelligence will provide much needed direction around decisions relating to content creation, distribution and monetisation for digital businesses. It has also been pointed out that micro-segmentation of target markets in an increasingly upwardly mobile economy would be essential for effective monetisation.
iWorld
Prashant Iyer joins Sony LIV as head of marketing
The former Netflix India director grew the streamer’s social following from half a million to 55m
MUMBAI: Sony LIV has poached one of India’s most battle-hardened streaming marketers. Prashant Iyer, who spent nearly eight years at Netflix building its India operation into a social-media juggernaut, has joined the platform as head of marketing.
Iyer leaves Netflix having done rather a lot. He grew the streamer’s India social community from roughly 500,000 followers to over 55m, delivered engagement and organic impressions double those of rivals, and ran more than 250 campaigns across titles, brand and partnerships. In his final role as director, marketing, he sat on the core leadership team credited with driving 15-times revenue and subscription growth over eight years. He also served as the only director-level social leader across Asia-Pacific, a regional mandate that stretched across a 200m-plus follower community.
Before Netflix came Nike, where Iyer spent three and a half years straddling digital brand commerce and key account management, including ownership of Myntra, the brand’s largest digital account in India. Earlier still, Titan Company gave him his first crack at brand and digital marketing.
Sony LIV, which has been muscling for position in an increasingly crowded streaming market, has landed a marketer who knows precisely how to build an audience from scratch and, just as importantly, how to keep it. For a platform still chasing the kind of cultural cachet Netflix India took years to earn, that is not a bad place to start.
