Can The ‘Internet’ Replace Television And Newspaper In India?

On the basis of advertisement

In India, as the pattern goes, traditional media (TV and print) are on the top in terms of advertisement. However, in the past decade, the media industry has overseen an aggressive growth of the digital media. In the span of just two years (2010-2012), the internet has overpowered the radio and OOH. Digital media does stay far behind the two giants (television and print) but has been successful in maintaining its growth rate at around 30% until 2014. The growth rate decreased between 2014-2017, but the 'aggressive growth' is still sustained.

In 2018, television advertising is expected to grow by 9%, radio 10% and print, cinema, and OOH at 5% each respectively. India will be a leading digital market as internet advertising will grow at 20.4% and it will account for 15.4% market share in the country by 2020. It is however estimated that television will still be the largest media comprising the market share of 39%.

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On the basis of consumption

An average Indian adult spends about two-and-a-half hours per day on traditional media (which includes television, radio, and print). On the other hand, the consumption of digital media is one hour per day on average. The reasons range from the poor infrastructure of digital media and its poor circulation or access to the rural population since they recently came into the circuit.

In 2016, the time spent on Television accounted for 56.4% of the total time spent on media consumption. Time spent on print was 7.9%, and radio accounted for 5.3%.

In 2017, adults spent an average time of 1 hour and 18 minutes daily with digital media. Adult's average time spent per day with digital media grew by 14.4% this year, due to the newly gained access of the rural population to the internet. However, digital media still comes to the second place in contrast to television, on which 2 hours 11 minutes of daily time is spent.

In 2018, it is estimated, Television will account for 52.1% of the time and Digital for 35.9%, while print and radio will decrease to 6.9% and 5.1% respectively.

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Conclusion

We have witnessed a decline in the market share of print, radio and OOH. Though radio is increasing by 10% due to improved infrastructure, it still lags behind Digital Media. It is estimated that print will too, lag behind Digital media in the coming time. Hence, it will a competition between television and digital media in future.

Even though digital media's fast-paced and aggressive growth, it is unlikely that it will surpass the television anytime soon.