The rise and rise of data usage has been a singular development changing the paradigm of this sector in the last five years. With the data rates nose-diving in the last two years, it has become more pronounced. It has been a bonanza for consumers, who have been enabled by the smart-phone handset. Overall, internet user base has expanded to almost 500 million and will cross 635 million in another three years, with large numbers coming from the young mobile-only users. The small screen has fuelled the growth of digital content like never before.
Digital video consumption is now also cutting across socio-economic strata and geographies, leading to an explosion in the OTT media space. While global giants are making their presence felt, the Indian players, including TV networks, too have been recognizing it as their hottest avenue for fuelling growth. Not to be left behind, they have therefore been investing heavily in the area. Jumping on to the bandwagon are also the telecom players, who are seeing this as a way to differentiate themselves by offering content to their subscribers. The local content players too have joined the fray with their Apps. With so much of content flowing in through OTT, the DTH players have also been impacted, with customer acquisition slowing down and the small screen stealing the eye-ball time away from the TV screen.
Technology is changing the way media is created, distributed, stored and displayed. From being institutional, it has become fragmented, right down to the internet-empowered millennial, who apart from being a voracious data consumer, is also a content creator, albeit in a more inclusive way. In content, one has to think of technology first as people are viewing content on-the-go, with all kinds of devices. Rather, each platform as of now defines the audience as well. Content is shifting to short format, matching the shrinking attention span of the viewer. Instead of watching episodes on linear TV, consumers prefer to go the App way and skim all episodes in one go.
There has been a reset in the way media planning is being done, with the explosion in digital media, including social media avenues. Digital is expected to grow at a much faster pace as compared to TV, print or other media and digital video advertising would sweep away the biggest pie of the incremental advertising budgets.
If technology has disrupted any sector the most, it is media. On top of this, the emergence of the empowered youth symbolising the new media has had its own impact. As a result, the whole revenue and content model has been undergoing a change, necessitating a continuously evolving organization model for media companies. Implicit in this is the fact that media companies would require talent which would need to be adaptable to changing business models. With the adoption of advanced technology and content getting increasingly finely cut over digitally-defined customer segments, the media companies would need to look for talent with smart technological know-how. Data sciences and analytics have already come in as a cutting-edge skill for success.
With rural electrification drive by the Government, geographic expansion would be another area for growth for the media companies. It would be critical to have the right talent to forge collaborations and make forays into newer markets.