Television: industry overview

The television industry is booming -- markets, profits and viewership are all rising.

Like many fields, the entertainment and media sector has benefited from the country's overall economic growth. The sector is expected to grow to Rs 1 trillion in revenue by 2011 from Rs 437 billion now, according to a 2007 report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Television will continue to contribute the largest share of revenue to this sector, as it has for the past three years. Revenue from this segment is expected to more than double to Rs 519 billion by 2011 from Rs 191 billion now.

"India is on its way to a stage where it can compete on a global platform," said Zarina Mehta, CEO, Bindass, one of UTV's youth channels. "The programmes - the quality and content -- are far superior that they were a few years ago. The new generation of actors and
other professionals in the sector is very talented."

She added that the target audience was well-segmented and knew what its preferences were, which had given rise to many niche channels.
India is the world's third-largest TV market, with 109 million television homes and 61 million cable TV homes, she pointed out. It is also the fastest growing cable TV market in Asia.

But some impediments to growth exist. "With the rapid entry of new channels, the distribution capacity must expand," said Manoj Vidwans, executive vice president, marketing, research and communication at NDTV Imagine, a channel dedicated to soaps and reality shows. "There is a huge opportunity that the DTH players and telecom operators are looking at closely."

Eye grabbing stats