Even as media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently sounded a warning to newspaper houses that digital is the future, print media in India is likely to put up a strong show in the coming years. "The relative share of each of the segments of the advertisement pie is not expected to change very materially in the next couple of years," contends executive director and leader (entertainment & media practice), PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deepak Kapoor. Currently, the largest share of the advertising pie in value terms goes to the print segment followed closely by television.
"Internationally, internet advertising is growing stronger as most of the entertainment is becoming available to consumers online in digital mode," Mr Mr Kapoor said. Net advertising is the fastest growing media segment globally. "Local advertising is key to the growth of internet advertising in India. For this medium to grow rapidly, facilitation of access to local websites will play a crucial role," he adds. Online advertising, quite small in India right now, is picking up and is expected to show high double-digit growth in the next five years, say analysts.
Initiative Worldwide in a recent analysis says that in India, print advertising is expected to grow at 23% in 2005, compared to an expected growth of 11.6% in TV. "This is agains the world trend, which is expected to see a 6.8% rise in television advertising, compared to just 3.9% in the case of print media," it says.
As per estimates, TV ads in India were up 13% in 2004 at Rs 4,860 crore, from Rs 4,300 crore in 2003. Print media ads rose 14.6% in 2004 to reach Rs 5,450 crore, up from Rs 4,752 crore in the previous year. The largest growth has been in Net advertising, though, perhaps due to the low base, Initiative Worldwide says. In 2004, online advertising doubled to $200m (Rs 900 crore) over the previous year. In 2005, online advertising in the country is expected to grow 35%, according to the study. Mr Kapoor says that increased broadband access, expanded internet infrastructure and promotion of internet usage are factors "that will facilitate internet access in our country and thereby boost internet advertising".
