After two years of 2x growth, the OTT dream run will end but growth will still be there

• The OTT market will expand at an impressive 14.1% to reach ₹21,032 crore in 2026.
  
• Cinema is all set to grow at a staggering 38.3% to reach ₹16,198 crore by 2026.
  
• By 2026, India will leapfrog both France and the UK to become the fifth-biggest newspaper market.
  
• The global VR headset sales in 2021 were at 21.6 million and is expected to grow to about 66 million in 2026.

In 2020, during the first year of Covid lockdown, the revenue of OTTs like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar and more doubled. The next year as the Covid second wave and its troubles progressed, it doubled again – indicating that there is a lot of juice left in the market.

This year on, it might now show double yet again but the growth in the OTT segment is far from over.

“While growth rates will slow, the market will still expand at an impressive 14.1% to reach ₹21,032 crore in 2026. It is subscription services that are driving this rapid growth, accounting for 90.5% of revenue in 2021 and set to account for 95% in 2026,” said a PWC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report, released on June 23.

Even as it looks like India is all set to get on to the digital bandwagon to fulfill their entertainment needs, it’s not completely so. Old style entertainment too will grow and remain important in the years to come. On the top of this list is the cinema.

A billion ticket market – cinemas

Even in the lockdown year of 2021, 379 million cinema tickets were sold in the country. This is much higher than 278 million admissions in 2020 – which itself was higher than 226 million admissions in the US during the same year.

Without the pandemic however, India averages to a little less than a billion tickets every year.

The report says that it will exhibit the highest growth rate amongst all the segments at a staggering 38.3% to reach ₹16,198 crore by 2026.

The report says that the Indian media and entertainment industry is quite ‘unique’. “There is an exciting pace of growth of digital media and advertising led by the deeper penetration of internet and mobile devices in our market. At the same time, traditional media will hold their steady growth rate over the next few years,” said Rajib Basu, Partner & Leader – Entertainment & Media, PwC India.

While India is embracing the new, it’s also not abandoning the existing forms of media. Its newspaper revenues are expected to grow too. By 2026, it will leapfrog both France and the UK to become the fifth-biggest newspaper market.

It will also be the only country to grow total newspaper print revenue consistently across the five-year forecast period. It will also be the only country in the world to grow daily print newspaper copy sales by volume, as well.

Metaverse and its potential expands

Globally, a lot of newer age trends are picking – the best of them is the metaverse. While it's still a very small segment, the global spending on it has grown by a massive 36%, which indicates the potential for growth.

The Virtual Reality (VR) headset sales in 2021 were at 21.6 million and it is expected to grow to about 66 million in 2026.

“The metaverse is an evolution that may profoundly change how businesses and consumers interact with products, services and each other, its potential financial and economic value goes far beyond VR. In time, much of the revenues associated with video games, music performances, advertising and even e-commerce could migrate into the metaverse,” the report said.
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