Impact of deregulation and FDI on media and entertainment industry

Abstract

The television industry in India is witnessing strong growth. Today there are 300-odd channels catering to audiences across the country, and the size of the industry is around Rs.176 billion1. With 100 million televisions households, India is the third largest television market in the world, next only to China and the USA. The penetration of C&S television has also been increasing steadily. From 42 million subscribers at the end of 2002, the number of C&S subscribers has shot up to 68 million in 2006. According to CRISIL, by 2010, the number of C&S subscribers will reach 109 million, implying a penetration of 80 per cent of the 136 million households projected to own television by this timeframe (as against current penetration of 64 per cent). The sector landscape is also changing rapidly with the emergence of conditional access system (CAS), Direct-to-home (DTH), Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), digitalization of cable TV networks etc. Regulation would play a major role in all these developments. In this study we will study the impact of deregulation and FDI mainly in Broadcasting and Cable industry including DTH and IPTV.