Subhash Chandra highlights India’s media sector as a burgeoning ₹2.78 lakh crore industry that shapes cultural aspirations abroad while facing regulatory challenges and digital transformation drives.
For Subhash Chandra, India’s media and entertainment business has travelled from a tightly controlled, largely state-led space into a sprawling industry that now reaches well beyond television screens. Speaking to Business Standard, the Essel Group chairman said liberalisation has helped turn the sector into a ₹2.7 trillion revenue engine in 2025, supporting more than 12 million jobs and reaching audiences through hundreds of private channels, dozens of streaming services and a fast-growing creator economy. He argued that the industry now does far more than inform or entertain: it shapes aspiration, influences consumption and promotes India’s culture abroad.
That wider impact is increasingly visible in the numbers. Industry data cited by India Brand Equity Foundation puts the sector’s 2025 revenue at about ₹2.78 lakh crore, with the market expected to rise further by 2028 as digital media, live experiences and advertising continue to expand. Separate projections published by Livemint point to growth from $32.2 billion in 2024 to $47.2 billion by 2029, driven by broadband penetration, younger audiences and deeper online engagement. Those estimates also suggest that internet advertising, OTT video and gaming will remain among the fastest-growing parts of the market.
Chandra said the industry’s real significance lies in how it has amplified India’s image overseas. In his view, media has helped broadcast Indian food, fashion, design and culture to a global audience, while also creating a stronger sense of ambition at home. He framed that ambition as a mixed force: a driver of economic energy for some, and a source of excess aspiration for others.
He also argued that the business has not been allowed to develop to its full potential. Chandra said successive governments have treated media mainly as a communications tool rather than a strategic industry, and that regulation remains too intrusive outside matters of content and national security. He criticised the fragmented structure of the sector, saying content makers, broadcasters, multi-system operators and cable distributors have long operated in separate silos instead of acting as one industry.
On television’s future, Chandra rejected the idea that the medium is fading away. He said the “sunset” narrative has been pushed by global technology companies and reinforced by the sector’s own divisions. At the same time, broader market data shows that traditional media has held up better than many expected: Livemint reported that television revenue is still projected to grow through 2029, while print also remains resilient despite pressure from digital platforms.
Chandra sees streaming not as a rupture but as the next stage in content distribution, replacing analogue delivery with internet-based viewing. He said the medium will keep evolving, from short-form video to more immersive formats. Broader industry forecasts support that view, with digital participation, AI-enabled workflows and the creator economy reshaping how content is made, marketed and monetised. In that sense, the past 35 years have not merely expanded a business. They have altered India’s cultural reach, economic footprint and storytelling power at the same time.
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