The Rise Of New Media And Entertainment- 5 Key Trends To Watch Closely

For India’s Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry, 2023 was a year of recovery, as revenues finally crossed pre-pandemic levels of $25bn in 2022. ?2024 is expected to bring significant upward growth for the industry, with revenue forecasts estimated at ~$31bn.

While the industry is expected to expand at a CAGR of 11%, this growth will not follow a uniform distribution. With the rise of new channels and sub-segments like Transactional Video on Demand (TVoD), cloud gaming, and over-the-top (OTT) services, some traditional segments will likely stay flat.?

However, a closer look at the industry tells a very vivid story of disruption and innovation. Consider these five key trends that will shape the future of M&E over the next twelve months.

Bundled Entertainment Services For Enhanced Subscription Value

Over the course of recovery in 2023, streaming and subscription video on demand (SVoD) services approached a point of saturation in the number of users. Premium content became cheaper, whereas investments have increased or remained relatively flat.?

As a result, companies are increasingly considering bundling as a strategy to maximize retention while lowering acquisition costs. Local streaming and SVoD services are already partnering with telcos for bundling opportunities.?

2024 will unleash a new wave of super-bundling, where M&E companies will partner with device manufacturers, telcos, and other subscription services to deliver synergistic value propositions to customers. Such subscriptions will also bundle services from competing content providers, offering users a multitude of choices – much like traditional television channel bundles.

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Expanding Content Distribution To Social Media For Wider Audience Reach

In 2023, multichannel distribution was starting to take roots, as consumers watched their favorite content across multiple devices over a single day.

Now, M&E companies are leveraging social media as yet another channel to reach consumers. This began with content production powerhouses like Peacock and Paramount uploading pilots and entire series to TikTok.?

Building on the success of these experiments, M&E companies will leverage new social media features like Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts to attract consumers to their content. Social media will become a more prominent channel as producers bring their content to the consumer’s choice of platforms.

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Social Video And Live Event Snippets Transform Entertainment On Social Media

With decreasing attention spans, consumers increasingly prefer short-format content over longer formats. As a result, social video viewership is exploding. This is evident in the 135% YoY growth of YouTube Shorts users who collectively watch 50bn short videos every day.?

This trend also extends to live events and sports, where snippets of live action are distributed via social videos. In other words, the short video format is becoming an essential addition to existing formats. M&E companies can no longer ignore this fast-growing segment.

At the same time, long social videos enable content producers to ship longer content formats like films in self-contained parts. In other words, M&E companies are adapting their old content formats to faster-growing segments like social videos and live broadcasting via social media platforms.?

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Acceleration Of Multilingual Content Creation Through Generative AI

One of the key technological innovations of 2023 was generative AI (GenAI). M&E companies spent a better part of the year discovering viable use cases of the technology.?

Now that GenAI is well-integrated into the technology stacks of creatives, the content production velocity will increase by multiple factors. This change will affect both old and new channels, including TV, SVoD, streaming services, and social media.?

Now, content producers will be able to cater to consumers in multiple languages and to those with different interests. While users will have more choices as a result of increasingly rapid content creation, they will also become more selective about the content they watch.

In a high volume and low average revenue per user (ARPU) market like India, the above trends are unlikely to disrupt traditional segments like TV and print over the course of a year. However, it is safe to conclude that?media consumption habits have undergone significant changes over the last year, and the above trends will define the dynamics of the M&E industry for years to come.?

Existing M&E players need to get ahead of the game now. Building strong technology foundations will be crucial to exploiting new content distribution tactics, building advanced recommendation capabilities, and empowering creatives with the best tools of the trade.?

Moreover, meaningful partnerships will require innovative strategies and premium entertainment experiences, which will entice market leaders in other industries to join hands with M&E companies.

How Can Tata Tele Business Services Help?

Tata Tele Business Services provides tailored connectivity solutions for media and entertainment companies, ensuring smooth content distribution. With their managed services, firms get reliable network infrastructure for efficient collaboration and content delivery. The TTBS expertise in unified communication streamlines production workflows and their cloud services offer scalable storage, fostering innovation and flexibility.?

Data courtesy: Mint, RootNote, Business of Apps