M&E sector share of GDP must increase to 2%: Sudhanshu Vats

Addressing the 8th CII Big Picture Summit held in New Delhi -- an annual gathering aimed at discussing, deliberating and decoding policy options to unlock the potential of our M&E sector, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18 said, “Our industry is seeing the entry of global firms that have enormous capital, patience and experience (Disney, TikTok, Google). At the same time, we are seeing emergence of smaller players, better talent and balancing of value chain within the sector with all the constituents beginning to partake in the value creation. We are also witnessing a Direct to Consumer revolution with OTT platforms driving consumption fueled by inexpensive data plans.”

In his address on the theme ‘Create, Connect & Converge for Transformational Growth’, Sudhanshu pointed out that for the M&E sector to be transformational, it has to meet two conditions: (i) The growth has to be more widely distributed within the value chain – in fact it must be over-indexed towards smaller participants who wield lesser power than their larger counterparts. This will create a more competitive industry with a strong base – one that is more resilient to disruptions; (ii) The growth has to ensure a rightful share and size at a national and global level.

“Nationally, we need to move the sector’s scale from 1% share of GDP to about 2% of GDP like the developed world. Globally, we need to top the tables not just when it comes to metrics that measure product output (India is the 2nd biggest pay TV market in the world, largest producer of films) and audience metrics (world’s largest English newspaper audience, world’s 2nd largest internet user base etc.) but actual revenue and spend pools (even if we take the most liberal estimates of our industry size -- say $26 billion that in PPP terms is $100 billion -- we are about 14% of the US industry which is closer to $780 billion),” he said, while adding that “In PPP terms, India’s overall economy is ~50% of the US economy.” This growth – transformational growth – can be a huge driver of the $5 trillion Indian economy.