Press Trust of India Fuelled by increasing smartphone penetration and affordable data-pricing in the country, the number of ‘digital-only consumers’ of content is set to more than double to 4 million by 2020, a report by Ficci-EY has said.

The report titled ‘Reimagining India’s M&E sector’ estimates that there are around 1-1.5 million digital-only consumers’ in India today, who do not normally use traditional media.

“This customer base (is expected) to grow to around 4 million by 2020 and generate significant digital subscription revenues for the media and entertainment (M&E) sector,” it added.

It noted that the proliferation of digital infrastructure will enable shifts in consumption patterns, which will be based not as much on geographic, gender and age criteria, but more on the ability to pay.

Tactical digital consumers — who consume both paid television (cable and DTH) and have at least one OTT subscription (such as Netflix, Hotstar or Amazon Prime Video) or are driven by sachet pricing of content — will provide high volume-lower value subscription base to content distributors. “This segment could, on the back of digital and micro payment systems being rolled out in the country, reach as high as 20 million households by 2020 (from six million now),” the report said.

By 2020, India is expected to become the second-largest online video-viewing audience globally, given the exponential growth of video consumption over digital media.

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