Ernst and Young (2010)
India is surging. The second fastest growing global economy and the fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, India’s increasing per capita income, growing middle class and working population are generating huge domestic demand for goods and services — including leisure and entertainment. Global enterprises are taking notice. India ranked as the most important market for sales in Ernst & Young’s recent survey, Competing for growth: how business is growing beyond boundaries, which interviewed some 400 C-suite and marketing professionals from global corporations. As global business leaders start to compete again for growth opportunities, there is an increasing sense of urgency among them to seize the prospects offered by the Indian market. With more than 600 television channels, 100 million pay-TV households, 70,000 newspapers and 1,000 films produced annually, India’s vibrant media and entertainment (M&E) industry provides attractive growth opportunities for global corporations. Enticed by economic liberalization and high volumes of consumption, many of the world’s media giants have been present in the Indian market for more than two decades. However, in recent years, with near double-digit annual growth and a fast-growing middle class, there has been a renewed surge in investments into the country by global companies because of india’s favorable regulatory environment and recent reforms are creating investment opportunities in a number of M&E sectors. Entry restrictions for foreign companies have been relaxed and foreign direct investment (FDI) caps have been recently increased in key sectors, including direct-to-home (DTH) and radio. The mandatory digitization of the country’s TV distribution infrastructure has spurred growth of digital cable and DTH and created a need for these companies to fund expansion.