The industry has been largely driven by increasing digitisation and higher internet usage over the last decade. Internet has almost become a mainstream media for entertainment for most of the people. India is one of the highest spending and fastest growing advertising market globally. The country’s expenditure on advertising is estimated at 15.5 per cent in 2016, and is expected to grow by 11.2 per cent in 2017, based on various media events like T20 Cricket World Cup, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and State elections. Television segment, which continues to hold highest share of spending, is expected to grow by 12.3 per cent in 2016 and 11 per cent in 2017, led by increased spending by packaged consumer goods brands and e-commerce companies.

The Government of India has supported Media and Entertainment industry’s growth by taking various initiatives such as digitising the cable distribution sector to attract greater institutional funding, increasing FDI limit from 74 per cent to 100 per cent in cable and DTH satellite platforms, and granting industry status to the film industry for easy access to institutional finance.

The Government is planning to set up a National Centre of Excellence for media, which will provide training to the industry professionals, and has also decided to fund movies, including Bollywood and regional films, for participating in foreign film festivals.Television and print are expected to remain the largest contributors to the advertising pie in 2018 as well. Internet advertising will emerge as the third-largest segment, with a share of about 16 per cent in the total M&E advertising share.