While most of India is under COVID-19 lockdown, the Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) Industry which includes a wide spectrum of activities and audience base that has multi-media consumption is facing the most harsh and unprecedented time. However, the industry’s landscape seems to be shifting to online media consumption with surge in viewership of television, OTT platforms, gaming platforms, etc. Complete Coverage: Coronavirus
Crux of the Matter
The media and entertainment (M&E) sector in India is estimated to have valued at ₹1,631 billion in FY19 and grew at a CAGR of 11.5%. The M&E industry is a close-knit structure wherein each one is inter-dependent. Due to the pandemic induced quarantines, the media consumption has massively increased and a survey conducted by McKinsey and Company shows the expected behavior changes in Indian media consumers.
During the lockdown, certain segments of M&E are seeing consumption growth whereas, on the other hand, outdoor consumption models are seeing a dramatic fall.
Newspaper Newspapers are recognized for high credibility especially in today’s times of social media. Due to the complete lockdown, newspapers were forced to close down production and stop their distribution to control the virus. As a result, nearly 80% of the revenue which comes through advertising has come down nearly to zero. The Times of India, the world’s largest English-language newspaper is struggling to adapt to these times of crisis and has shrunk to only 16 pages from 40. They are dropping online paywalls and offering free PDF versions of the print edition to try to keep their audiences intact. Even The Indian Express has announced deep wage cuts and also asked the Finance Minister for a two-year tax holiday and the removal of import restrictions on newsprint. Those newspapers who already have an established digital presence are slightly benefiting and reaching out to wide demographics and also trying to build new customers. But none of this seems to help them earn revenues at a time when the economy is hard-hit and advertisers shift to TV and online advertising.
The Mega hits of all time attract more advertisers as the advertiser count sees a double digit increase across both shows.#BARCIndia #WhatIndiaWatches #US #Television #BARCNielsen #Nielsen #Lockdown #Covid19 #CoronaVirus #WFH #Ramayan #Mahabharat pic.twitter.com/PhDEb98Z9r — BARCIndia (@BARCIndia) April 25, 2020
Good Days for the OTT Industry The film industry which was once considered recession-proof is now facing unprecedented losses due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Across the world, movie theaters are shut, film festivals have been canceled, movies which were in production or post-production are delayed, future releases are postponed, all of which have resulted in huge losses, mass layoffs, and salary cuts for thousands of workers and employees. If the lockdown has benefited any medium then it is OTT. OTT stands for ‘over-the-top’, meaning delivery of TV and film content directly via the Internet. It has undoubtedly registered a spike in new consumers as it is hugely benefitting from the shutdown of cinema halls. Netflix and Amazon continue to rule the OTT market with Disney+ entering as the new competitor. Some of the filmmakers are now making and releasing movies exclusively on the OTT as it not only cuts down on a lot of overhead costs but also provides a ready viewer base.
Netflix added 2.31 million net new paid subscribers in the US and Canada in Q1 2020: https://t.co/7niXvMpgKg pic.twitter.com/xUejdXenEU — eMarketer (@eMarketer) May 1, 2020
Online Gaming Closure of major sporting events has led to alternative e-sport formats gaining visibility. More brands are exploring this as an alternative revenue model. Streaming platforms and game publishers are benefitting as people are buying, playing, and watching more video game content. The global viewership has increased by 10% on Twitch and 15% on YouTube Gaming. Verizon reported that US domestic peak-hour video game usage was up by 75% in the first week of quarantine. There is also a significant growth in mobile games like LudoKing, PUBG, Candy Crush whereas apps like Dream11 have fallen apart.
With more stay-at-home mandates being issued around the world and the entertainment industry finding new ways to migrate their offerings to live-streaming platforms, we expect to see these numbers rise. Doron Nir, Chief Executive, StreamElements
A lot of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising and sponsorship deals have been negatively affected as live events like Wimbledon, IPL, Tokyo Olympics, etc. have been postponed. The cancellation of sporting events has forced sports broadcasters who thrive on live content to resort to showing archived re-runs of tournaments and world cups which has surprisingly resulted in a 21% surge in sports viewership according to the recent data revealed by BARC-Nielsen.
‘Non-Prime Time is the New Prime Time’ The highest TV consumption numbers in the history of Indian television were reported as TV is the major source of news and entertainment for millions of people in lockdown. A joint report by BARC India and Nielsen reported that during March 21st-27th India’s total TV consumption grew by 37% to cross a record 1.21 trillion minutes. The average time spent per viewer increased from 3 hours 46 minutes in January to a whopping 4 hours 39 minutes per day. The United States also saw an average increase of 11% in daily household viewership.
According to the BARC-Nielsen 5th edition report, TV viewership continued to grow across the globe during the lockdown period.@BARBtelevision @Mediametrie @nielsen #OzTam#BARCIndia #WhatIndiaWatches #OneWorldTogetherAtHome #COVID19 #Lockdown #WFH #BARCNielsen pic.twitter.com/nZZp5gEITq — BARCIndia (@BARCIndia) April 23, 2020
The pandemic is hitting hard the media sector which will witness a slowdown due to reduced overall demand and unprecedented losses. Although the full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear it is expected that the M&E industry will bounce back and return to growth quickly once restrictions are lifted and the economy returns to full capacity.
Curiopedia
The month of March 2020 witnessed an upsurge of 39% in global mobile game downloads. The Ad-Tech firm, POKKT Mobile Ads, has registered that there has been a 31% increase in ad requests globally thereby pushing the mobile gaming industry into a stronger growth curve.
Netflix on 2nd May announced that its latest release starring Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda, Extraction is going to become its most-watched Netflix original film. The film will be crossing 90 million streams in the first 4 weeks after its premiere. The major reason behind the same is the global lockdown that many countries have been following.
As per an article by The Guardian, “Disney has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars in income from its theme parks and cruise liner businesses because of the pandemic.” Analysts have estimated that the company could be facing an 11-million fall in visitor numbers across its theme parks, at a potential cost of $500 mn.
Curated Coverage
Deloitte – Understanding the sector impact of COVID-19 – Media & Entertainment
OZY – CORONAVIRUS IS KILLING THE WORLD’S LAST GREAT NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
Midia – The Digital Entertainment Boom Is Temporary; What Comes Next?
Hindustan Times – India’s internet consumption up during Covid-19 lockdown, shows data
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