
WAVES 2025: India is generating 200,000 hours of original content annually, says EY report
Mumbai: Content growth, creator boom and media services are driving India's rising global influence in media and entertainment (M&E) despite significant piracy losses, various reports highlighted at the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 here.
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A report by EY, 'A Studio Called India', underscored India's transformation into one of the world's largest content production ecosystems, generating over 200,000 hours of original content annually. This includes 1,600 films, 2,600 hours of premium OTT content, 190,000 hours of television programming, and 20,000 original songs. The report said India's media infrastructure is supported by more than 1,580 global capability centres (GCCs), with around 50 focused on M&E.
According to Deloitte and the Motion Picture Association, India's M&E sector contributed '5.14 lakh crore to the economy in FY24, with projections of reaching '6.88 lakh crore by FY29. Television led in gross output ('3.18 lakh crore), followed by film ('1.22 lakh crore) and online curated content ('74,756 crore), it said. The sector added '2.78 lakh crore in value in FY24 and employed 2.7 million people, with expectations to exceed 3 million by FY29, it said.
A joint study by IP House and Media Partners Asia (MPA), in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said
online video piracy
led to an estimated revenue loss of $1.2 billion in India in 2024 alone. This loss could rise to $2.4 billion by 2029 without decisive measures to check piracy, said the report titled 'The Impact of Piracy on India's Online Video Sector and Creative Economy'.
With robust anti-piracy initiatives, the industry could recover up to $1.1 billion in revenues by 2029 and create around 158,000 additional direct and indirect jobs across the country's video ecosystem, it said.
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BCG's report, 'From Content to Commerce', highlighted the rapid rise of India's creator economy.
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