Growth trends in the Indian print media

BY ANKITA PANDEY| IN Media Business | 10/05/2017
Latest data released by ABC on May 8, 2017 highlighted continuing growth of print media, but other data suggests that future growth of print will be slower than other media.
ANKITA PANDEY presents the data

 

Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC-India) issued a press release on May 8, 2017 highlighting the growth of print media: “2.37 crore copies added in the last 10 years."

During 2013-15, Indian print media not only registered an absolute and significant growth in the number of publications, but also a substantial increase in circulation (Table 1).

This is unlike other major democracies in the West, where circulation dropped across the board and the number of publications stagnated or decreased in all but one case (Table 2). The drop in circulation of print media in the West is driven by stagnating or declining population and much faster growth of digital media. In contrast, India’s population and literacy are still increasing and internet penetration remains weak.

 

Table 2: No. of titles- paid for dailies

Country/Year

2013

2014

2015

Australia

47

47

47

France

84

84

84

Germany

345

349

343

India

5767

6730

7871

Japan

104

104

104

UK

93

96

104

USA

1395

1355

1347

Source: WAN-IFRA WPT 2016 report

 

Globally, India continues to be one of the few growth markets from print media. However, within the country print media is likely to grow at the slowest rate among other comparable industries such as radio, TV, etc. Print media was the second largest industry in this sector, behind only TV. Projections suggest that while print will remain the second largest industry, its share in the sector will drop from about 25 per cent at present to about 18 per cent in 2021.

 

Table 3: Overall Industry size-projections

Overall industry size (INR billion)

Calendar year

Growth* (2016-2021P)

2016

2017P

2018P

2019P

2020P

2021P

TV

588.3

651

750.9

876.8

1014.5

1165.6

14.70%

Print

303.3

325

350.4

378.5

405.6

431.1

7.30%

Films

142.3

155

166

178.2

191.6

206.6

7.70%

Digital advertising

76.9

101.5

134

174.3

226.5

294.5

30.80%

Animation and VFX

59.5

69.5

81.2

95.5

111.9

131.7

17.20%

Gaming

30.8

37.2

44.2

52.2

60.7

71

18.20%

Out-of-home advertising (OOH)

26.1

29

32.5

36.4

40.8

45.7

11.80%

Radio

22.7

26.4

30.7

35.9

41.5

47.8

16.10%

Music

12.2

14

16.3

19

22.1

25.4

15.80%

Total

1262.1

1408.7

1606.2

1846.7

2115.2

2419.4

13.90%

* Compound annual growth rate

Source: KPMG India’s analysis and estimates 2016-2017

 

Projections about advertising revenues, an important measure of health of industries in this sector, tell a similar story. Advertising revenues of print media are likely to grow at a much slower rate than other industries.

 

Table 4: Advertising revenues: projections

Overall industry size (INR billion)

Calendar year

Growth*

(2016-2021P)

2016

2017P

2018P

2019P

2020P

2021P

TV

201.2

225.4

256.9

298

342.7

394.1

14.40%

Print

201.3

215

233.3

254.9

276.2

296

8.00%

Digital advertising

76.9

101.5

134

174.3

226.5

294.5

30.80%

Out-of-home

 advertising (OOH)

26.1

29

32.5

36.4

40.8

45.7

11.80%

Radio

22.7

26.4

30.7

35.9

41.5

47.8

16.10%

Total

528.2

597.3

687.4

799.5

927.7

1078.1

15.30%

* Compound annual growth rate

Source: KPMG India’s analysis and estimates 2016-2017

 

The robust growth of the Indian print media with respect to most other countries is to a large driven by the growth in Hindi-speaking North India. Like in the past years, Hindi print media and the northern region again registered the highest growth in the country. Hindi-speaking areas have a higher population growth rate and their literacy rates have begun to pick up only in the last two decades. So, these areas are witnessing significantly higher growth compared to the South where population is not growing as fast and literacy levels reached high level as early as the 1990s.

 

Table 5: Growth in circulation 2006 to 2016

Zone

Growth*

North

7.83%

South

4.95%

West

2.81%

East

2.63%

 Overall

4.87%

* Compound annual growth rate

Source: ABC

 

Hindi publications registered highest annual growth followed by Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. So, Hindi newspapers not only enjoy larger circulation, but are also growing at a faster rate.

 

Table 6: Maximum growth in circulation by language (2006-16)

Language

Growth*

Hindi

8.76%

Telugu

8.28%

Kannada

6.40%

Tamil

5.51%

Malayalam

4.11%

English

2.87%

Punjabi

1.53%

Marathi

1.50%

Bengali

1.49%

* Compound annual growth rate

Source: ABC

 

Half of the top ten newspapers by circulation are published in Hindi. Rest of the newspapers among the top ten include two publications in Malayalam and one each in Telugu, Tamil, and English. The average circulation of the Hindi newspapers among the top ten is nearly double that of other non-English language newspapers in this category.

 

Table 7: Top 10 publications as certified by ABC for the audit

period July-December 2016

No.

Title

Language

Average qualifying

 sales (July- Dec 2016)

1

Dainik Jagran

Hindi

3,921,267

2

Dainik Bhaskar

Hindi

3,813,271

3

The Times of India

English

3,184,727

4

Amar Ujala

Hindi

2,961,833

5

Hindustan

Hindi

2,611,261

6

Malayala Manorama

Malayalam

2,441,417

7

Eenadu

Telugu

1,866,661

8

Rajasthan Patrika

Hindi

1,840,917

9

Daily Thanthi

Tamil

1,710,621

10

Mathrubhumi

Malayalam

1,473,053

Source: ABC

 

In sum, India’s print media is likely to continue to register robust growth compared to other major democracies because its population is growing and it has not yet achieved universal literacy. However, within the country is likely to steadily lose ground to digital media.

 

 Ankita Pandey is an independent researcher based in Bengaluru.