“Despite all the competition we are seeing, India is still an underserved market. There is a lot of potential for media consumption to go up. Ad spends as a proportion of GDP is about 0.4% here whereas globally, it’s about 2.2%,” said Balsara. “Moreover, as regional players work on expanding and becoming a national player, we will see new types of advertisers and readers coming in from unconventional demographics,” he added.
As an investment hub, the M&E sector is a long-term story, said N. Prasad, deputy CEO at Sundaram BNP Paribas AMC Ltd, which launched a thematic mutual fund, Entertainment Opportunities, on 24 April. The fund closes on 20 May.
“India’s demographics favour the media industry. In the US, the M&E industry exploded in the 1970s and 1980s, when the baby boomers started spending. Similarly, there will be a lot of spending on entertainment in the long term. We are in this space because it is a good long-term story,” Prasad added.
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