The WAVES 2025 Summit, held in India from 1 May to 4 May 2025, highlighted the rapid transformation of the country’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. Data from the handbook indicates that Television and film will continue to employ the most people overall in this industry, but their growth will be much slower. In fact, their share in total employment is expected to decline.
The WAVES 2025 Summit, held in India from 1 May to 4 May 2025, highlighted the rapid transformation of the country’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. Driven by digital innovation, affordable internet access, and rising global demand, the sector is poised for significant growth. With increasing consumer engagement and improving ad revenues, the M&E industry is becoming a key pillar of India’s digital economy.
In this first part of a two-part series on the Media and Entertainment industry, we explore key statistics and trends that highlight the sector’s growth and performance.
Media and Entertainment (M&E) Industry in India
India’s media and entertainment industry is growing steadily. In 2024, it reached ₹2.5 trillion (about US$29.4 billion) and made up 0.73% of the country’s GDP, according to the FICCI-EY report titled ‘Shape the Future: Indian Media and Entertainment is scripting a new story.’ It is expected to grow by over 10% in 2025 and reach ₹3.08 trillion (US$37.2 billion) by 2026. By 2028, it could touch ₹3.65 trillion (US$43 billion), growing faster than the global average.
In 2022, the industry saw strong growth of nearly 20%, mainly because of a rise in digital advertising. A big change can also be seen with the rise of digital creators. There are now around 2 to 2.5 million digital creators in India, according to a BCG report titled ‘From Content to Commerce: Mapping India’s Creator Economy’. They are influencing more than ₹29.6 lakh crore (US$350 billion) in consumer spending every year—a number that could grow to over ₹84 lakh crore (US$1 trillion) by 2030. It is also estimated that creators today influence $350-400Bn spends across categories, generating $ 20- 25 Bn in value for the participants in the economy.
M&E industry contributes less than 1% to India’s GVA, well below Global Peers
Even though India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry is growing fast and has huge potential, it still contributes less than 1% to the country’s GDP. Globally, India is the 7th largest M&E market and has one of the highest growth rates. However, its share in the global market is still small—around 2%. In comparison, the United States and China dominate the industry, together holding over 50% of the global market share.
The media and entertainment (M&E) industry contributed 0.6% to India’s total Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2013–14. This rose to a peak of 0.79% in 2017–18 and stayed steady at 0.78% in the following two years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the industry hard, and its share in GVA dropped sharply to 0.58% in 2020–21. Since then, the recovery has been slow, with the share rising modestly to 0.65% in 2021–22 and 0.66% in 2022–23.
Within the overall services sector, the M&E industry’s share increased from 1.18% in 2013–14 to 1.49% in 2017–18. It then declined slightly to 1.45% in 2018–19 and 1.42% in 2019–20. After the pandemic, the contribution fell further to 1.11% in 2020–21, before recovering to 1.25% in 2021–22 and 1.21% in 2022–23.
These figures show that while the industry is growing again, it has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic peak.
Digital Media drives job growth projections as Traditional media jobs shrink
The way people consume content is changing fast. In the past, television and print were the main sources of information and were seen as the go-to platforms for knowledge. But now, digital media has become a strong competitor, changing how content is created and consumed. People are no longer sticking to just one medium—they’re choosing platforms based on what they find most useful, both for getting information and for overall value. And with that change in preferences, the employment shift is also expected to change.
By 2027, India’s media and entertainment industry is expected to generate over 29 lakh direct jobs and more than 51 lakh indirect jobs. The biggest growth in employment is likely to come from sectors like online gaming, digital and OTT platforms, and animation & VFX. These sectors are growing quickly, with direct job opportunities increasing at annual rates of over 15%, and in some cases, even above 30%.
Television and film will continue to employ the most people overall, but their growth will be much slower. In fact, their share in total employment is expected to decline. For example, television’s share of total industry jobs was 38% in 2019—it’s estimated to drop to 31% by 2027. Films are expected to see a similar fall, from 17% to 13%. Print media may shrink from 6% to 3%, and the art & culture sector from 8% to 5%.
In contrast, the share of jobs in newer sectors is set to rise. Online gaming could jump from 3.3% to 14.5%, animation and VFX from 3.2% to 5%, and digital and OTT from 2% to 6.6% between 2019 and 2027. These trends show a clear shift in where the future jobs in media and entertainment are headed, and that shift says a lot about how people are consuming content today—online, on-demand, and across platforms.
Digital Media alone accounts for 1/3rd of the Revenue for M&E industry
As mentioned earlier, digital media is set to become the new normal. More content is now being created, shared, and monetised on digital platforms than through traditional ones—and this trend is expected to grow. Naturally, revenue from digital media is also on the rise.
As per the FICCI-EY report, digital media accounted for 8% of the total revenue from the M&E industry. Over the years, this proportion has risen consistently and accounted for almost one-third of the total M&E industry revenue in 2024. In absolute terms, the revenue from digital media rose from 119 billion Rupees to 802 billion Rupees.
The sectoral classification in revenues shows that the revenue from Television came down from 45% in 2017 to 30% in 2023, while that of Print dropped from 21% to 11%, and Live Events declined marginally from 4.4% to 3.8%. Online Gaming’s revenue jumped from 2% to 9.5% during the same period.
In the next part, we will take a closer look at individual segments within the industry and examine how each of them is performing.
