India’s digital spend to overtake TV in 2023 | WARC | The Feed

India’s digital spend to overtake TV in 2023

This is the year that digital media spending finally overtakes TV in India, according to a new report from Dentsu, which says a “generational leap into the new digital economy is revolutionising the Indian advertising industry”. 

Key stats

The agency’s Digital Advertising Report 2023, in association with e4m, reveals that: 

• Total advertising spend in 2022 stood at $11.09bn, with that figure set to rise 14.6% this year to reach $12.72bn and to continue growing at a similar level (15.5%) into 2024. 
• TV’s current 40% share will decline to 37% in 2023 and to 34% in 2024.
• Digital media’s current 35% will increase to 40% in 2023 and to 45% in 2024.
• Print media’s share will decline from 21% to 19% in 2023 and to 17% in 2024.
• Radio remains steady on 2%, as does OOH; cinema is flat on 0.3%.

Context 

Government policy is playing an important role in developing the country’s digital infrastructure, which in turn is leading to digital transformation across businesses. At the same time, growing data penetration has created a mass market in areas like OTT and e-commerce. 

All that is helping to make India’s advertising industry – and digital advertising in particular – one of the fastest-growing in the world. Remember that, pre-pandemic, digital media spending took just a 20% share of the total so the speed of change has been dramatic. 

Why it matters

Brands and agencies are having to adapt to a rapidly changing environment: for example, retail media is now increasingly significant, video has exploded with the growing penetration of smartphones and cheap data plans, and mobile commerce now allows for new targeting possibilities.

Few winners

“While the outlook for ad growth on digital looks rosy, the unevenness of revenue spread is only likely to grow, with a handful of large players likely to continue to corner a lions’ share of revenue,” notes exchange4media co-founder Nawal Ahuja.