Audio and Podcast in India — Excerpts from PWC report 2019
June 9th 2019:
updated on July 2020
PWC released a report titled ‘Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023 India’ In its Podcast section, there are two brands mentioned, One of them is a renowned podcast brand from us and the other is from Google.
While entire team Agrahyah and aawaz.com as excited about being featured on the most trusted industry report by PWC, the entire audio on demand (AOD) and OTT category is poised for tailwinds and strong growth over the next half decade.
Some of the most fascinating numbers and insights from the report are music to our hears, and of course to every podcast, radio, and audio content creator in India: Here are the top picks:
- India continues to be one of the most-compelling consumer markets in the world, owing to its vast population and rising purchasing power. This is driving immense growth in the marketing sub-segment of business information, which is expected to grow faster at a rapid 13.1% CAGR. In 2020 marketing revenue will for the first time represent more than half of all business information revenue.
- In India there are 1.3bn mobile phone connections, with around 45% of the adult population possessing smartphones
- Total Internet advertising revenue for India in 2018 was US$1.2bn, a 40.2% year-on-year increase from 2017.
India’s music, radio and podcasts market was worth US$823mn in 2018, up from US$556mn in 2014. With streaming services finally germinating, total music revenue is forecast to hit US$1.6bn in 2023, rising at a 13.5% CAGR.
- Streaming is ripe for growth. Currently, just 150mn Indians are estimated to be using audio-streaming services.
96% of smartphone users are using their devices to listen to music, the highest rate in the world
- The country’s recorded music market posted handsome gains. Revenue from across the recorded music market grew from US$208mn in 2014 to US$276mn in 2018 and is forecast to reach US$576mn in 2023, at a 15.8% CAGR.
- The streaming market will surge to US$526 in 2023, increasing at a 24.3% CAGR, accounting for more than 97% of India’s entire digital market.
- India’s radio market is growing, with revenue registered at US$439mn in 2018, and forecast to top US$759 in 2023, at a 11.6% CAGR.
- (AIR) has the most coverage, reaching 99.2% of the population with 225 fully fledged stations equipped with studio facilities
Podcast listening has increased markedly in India in the past few years. Monthly listeners (defined as people who listened to at least one podcast in the last month) totalled 40.0mn at the end of 2018, up a sharp 57.6% from 25.4mn in the previous year.
- The above point makes India the world’s third-largest podcast-listening market (after China and the US), although it ranks much lower on a per capita basis.
Growth is set to continue over the forecast period with listener numbers set to increase at a 34.5% CAGR to 176.1mn by 2023.
- National Public Radio, is a popular provider and downloads in India of its podcasts rose rapidly to more than 335,000 in 2018 from 80,000 three years previously
- On the non-English-language front, Google Podcasts has developed a “creator program” to support the creation of local content in the market in Hindi, Tamil and Bengali, as well as in Marwari.
Mumbai-based software company Agrahyah Technologies launched aawaz.com in January 2019 with an audio platform offering podcasts in local languages. Initial content featured general entertainment, lifestyle, health and fiction in Hindi only.
- Podcast advertising activity in India remains at a low level with very little content directly monetised. Advertising revenue totalled US$7.2mn in 2018, up from US$0.5mn in 2014. But more brand communications spend will be attracted to the format as the audience grows and advertising revenue is set to rise at a 58.9% CAGR over the forecast period to reach US$72.9mn in 2023.
The Economic Times also made a nifty infographic with the above data.
aawaz.com is India’s first audio on demand destination with over 650 hours of non music audio content in Hindi & English. aawaz.com also packs in 12000+ text articles. We started as early as 2017 with a vision to create purposeful podcasts and long form reads to make technology useful for people and the app went live on January 2019.
aawaz.com is available as App on Google Playstore, IOS, Indus App Bazaar, Web, and Ola Play.
We are coming soon to more end points! Keep listening.
