$12 bn India’s digital media & entertainment landscape to triple in size by 2030

India’s digital media and entertainment landscape, which is currently valued at $12 billion, is likely to triple in size, a report showed on Wednesday.

The growing maturity of internet users coupled with increasing spend on digital media is expected to enable the sector to recover from the recent slowdown in market due to a dip in digital ad spending, among other macro challenges, according to Redseer Research.

In the last two years, Non-Real Money Gaming (RMG) and the increased uptake of OTT Video have contributed majorly to the sector’s growth trajectory despite a slowdown in digital ad spend.

Between FY22-23, all segments of Digital Media & Entertainment saw paid user growth, with OTT audio seeing the highest.

The OTT Video sector is expected to achieve profitability in the next 3-5 years on overcoming the challenges of higher CAC and lower user retention, the report said.

India’s current landscape of Internet users is dominated by a 450-500 million strong cohort of Explorers, followed by 300-320 million Transactors and 35-40 million Mature Users.

The research estimated that India’s volume of mature users will outpace that of US by 2030.

India is currently looking at a 150 million strong community of mid-core/ core gamers in 2023 alone, a significant portion of which have graduated from casual gameplay.

“In FY23 alone, the Media & Entertainment landscape saw an accelerated growth in the paid user base and in turn the Average Revenue Per Paying Users (ARPPU). Across M&E segments, paid user growth went up to 90 per cent in FY23,” the report noted.