TV industry records 24.7% ad revenue growth in FY21-22: TRAI

The Indian television industry has witnessed a steady growth in revenue over the past year, with the industry size increasing from Rs 68,500 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 72,000 crore in 2021-22, thereby registering a growth of around 5%, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) annual report for FY 2021-22.

As per TRAI's report, despite this growth, the industry has seen a decrease in subscription revenues from Rs 43,400 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 40,700 crore in 2021-22. On the other hand, advertisement revenue increased by 24.7% from Rs 25,100 crore in 2020 to Rs 31,300 in 2021-22.

TRAI in its report stated that the year 2021-22 has been another busy and eventful year for the broadcasting and cable services sector. The last decade has witnessed significant changes in the dynamics of the Cable and Satellite (C&S) TV market.

TRAI notified the new regulatory framework for Broadcasting and Cable Services provided through addressable systems on March 3, 2017. The aforesaid new regulatory framework was inferred with effect from December 29, 2018.

TRAI said, “The new regulatory framework was quite successful in establishing harmonised business processes in the sector, level-playing-field, bringing-in transparency in TV channel pricing, reducing litigations among stakeholders and providing equal opportunities to smaller Multi System Operators (MSOs). As a result, there was a pronounced reduction in disputes among stakeholders as well as in entry barriers. New Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting and Cable Services also gave freedom to consumers to select the television channels they want to watch, as per the report.

During the year 2021-22, several key consultation papers were released on topics such as ‘Promoting Local Manufacturing in the Television Broadcasting Sector’, ‘Ease of Doing Business in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector’ and ‘Market Structure/Competition in Cable TV services’. No recommendations were given to the Government during the year 2021-22 as these consultation papers were in progress.

The TV broadcasting sector encompasses approximately 350 broadcasters, out of which there are 42 pay broadcasters at the end of March 2022. Further, there were 1764 (Multi System 3 Operators (MSOs) registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), 1 HITS operator, 4 pay DTH operators and 20 IPTV operators, at the end of March 2022, in addition to the public service broadcaster - Doordarshan, providing a free-to-air DTH service in India. Further, as per the information provided by MIB, as on January 1, 2022, there were a total number of 81,706 cable operators registered in the country.

As per the report, at present, there are approximately 898 private satellite TV channels permitted by MIB at the end of March 2022, out of which, 248 were SD pay TV channels and 97 were HD Pay TV channels, the report stated.

As reported by the private FM Radio broadcasters to TRAI, there were 386 private FM radio stations operational at the end of March 2022, besides the public service broadcaster- All India Radio (AIR). As far as the data relating to Community Radio Stations is concerned, as per the information provided by the MIB, out of the 467 licenses issued so far till the end of March 2022 for the setup of such stations, 349 community radio stations have become operational.

The reported advertisement revenues by the private FM Radio broadcasters have increased from Rs 941.47 crore in the year 2020-21 to Rs 1227.15 crore in the year 2021-22.

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