Digital to overtake traditional media by 2021-22: EY

Mumbai : Digital mediums are likely to surpass traditional ones by 2021-22, when smart phone and broadband penetration increases in the country, according to EY India. “When does digital overtake physical? When smart phone penetration becomes 50 per cent of the population, which in our case will happen in 2019-2020.

Second factor is when broadband is equal to one-third of the smart phone penetration, which in our case will happen only by 2021-22, according to our estimate.

The third factor is parity between cost of the two services,” EY India media and entertainment advisory leader Ashish Pherwani said.

According to market research firm e-Marketer, Indians spend about two-and-a-half hours per day on traditional media including television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, compared to the one hour they spend on digital media on average.

He pointed out that the cost of a cable pack in US is $80-90 a month and that of broadband is $25-30, while in India, it is the other way round, with cable costing Rs 250 and broadband at Rs 500-1000.

“That equation will change by 2020-2021. Therefore you will see a big uptick in digital and a downfall of traditional in may be 2021-22. In traditional, English (print) will get hit first because that shift is already pretty strong,” he said.

With the rising vernacular print circulation, Pherwani said regional has scope to grow. “With the penetration of digital, the upper SECs may move to digital and actually give up on print and the biggest hit will be on English (print) and the more pricey magazines, but regional will still take time for that impact to happen,” he said.