How Covid-19 pandemic changing the way we consume media and entertainment ??
According to the CRISIL report, the media and entertainment sector is expected to witness a 16% decline in revenue for FY-21. The industry would lose 18% of revenue because of advertisements.
Well, because of lockdown and social distancing all external forms of entertainment like movie theatres, amusement and theme park, events, concerts have stopped. Now, most of the people have switched to digital entertainment. Advertisers are spending less on print and television media and more on the digital mediums.
According to the KPMG India report, Even when a crisis will be over people will take time to engage with external entertainment. This could lead to innovation and technological advancements to bring outdoor entertainment to consumers. The future is of course 'Digital'. In digital also new segments like online gaming and live streaming will see a significant surge. OTT platforms and digital media has added more consumer in the last 60 days and attracting many new consumers. Voice is becoming the next big thing! people are consuming music on audio streaming platforms like Jio-Saavn, Spotify, Ganna, Hungama, and many other players. Many people are consuming new forms of audio streaming - Podcast. While the podcast has been there for a long time, but it has seen a significant increase in the last couple of months.
Most media segments earn their revenue through advertisement. But COVID-19 has affected big sectors like FMCG, Automobiles, and E-Commerce who spend a significant amount on an advertisement on various platforms.
There will be a difference between the consumption of media in India and Bharat. Covid-19 has affected small, medium businesses the most. It is more likely that people of Bharat who reside in tier-3 cities, villages will spend less on media and entertainment. While people of India who reside in tier-1 and tier-2 cities will consume more in-home entertainment than outdoor entertainment.
Companies could place greater confidence in technologies like Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Big data, and virtual reality. While now many big brands are building stronger relationships through digital media because Indians are spending more time on social media, It will be interesting to see how different brand will take advantage of these technologies to predict consumer behavior, how they will pivot their strategies to cope up with world post this pandemic. We could also see significant changes in the supply chain in the media industry.
While most of the Media & Entertainment industry stalwarts are saying " Work from home and video conferencing will be new normal". But I loved what Kunal Jeswani (CEO of Ogilvy India) said recently that, " This will be not our new normal".You can't build teams, relationships, or culture through video conferencing. Culture doesn't rest in posters or emailed that lists company values. It rests in the people we work with. The people make culture, they bring it alive through human interactions.
I too believe that human interactions are the most important part of our lives. The real magic happens on the ground when people meet and communicate with each other. I hope this pandemic will be over soon. And we will meet again in person, will interact again face to face and share our stories.
What are your thoughts on this? Please let me know !! 😊
-Nayan Mohitkar
