Indians spent 1.1 trillion hours on their smartphones in 2024!

The Media and Entertainment (M&E) segment in India has undergone a significant transformation with the rise of digital media. The M&E segment recorded a 3.3% growth in 2024, reaching ₹2.5 trillion (US$29.4 billion) and contributing 0.73% to the GDP.

FICCI-EY’s latest report “Shape the future: Indian media and entertainment is scripting a new story”, revealed that digital media led the growth by accounting for 32% of total revenues, while traditional media like television, print, and radio saw declines in core advertising and subscription revenues.

The research also showed that Indians spent more than 1.1 trillion hours on digital platforms in 2024. India ranks third globally in smartphone screen time with users spending an average of 4.95 hours per day on mobile apps, up 3.1 per cent from the previous year, while Indonesia led with 6.3 hours per day, followed by Brazil at 5.3 hours.

Time spent on media (including social media, films, entertainment, music and casual games) increased to 779 billion hours (69% of total time spent) in 2024. The report also highlighted that despite the spike in both downloads and time spent, India lagged on mobile monetization, not featuring in the top 20 markets by revenue.

Digital advertising grew 17% to reach ₹700 billion, accounting for 55% of total advertising revenues. Search and social media (11%) and e-commerce advertising (50%) drove growth, reaching ₹147 billion.

As per the report, “Linear TV revenues fell for the second consecutive year with a 6% drop in advertising revenue and a 3% decline in subscription revenue. Pay TV homes decreased by six million, while Free TV and Connected TV homes increased. Connected TVs grew to 30 million from 23 million in December 2023.”

While India spent 1,127 billion hours, it mobile monetization stood at only US$0.9 billion. On the other hand, countries like Indonesia, US, Brazil and Mexico logged 355 billion hours, 323 billion hours, 230 billion hours and 146 billion hours respectively, monetization was significantly higher at US$1.0 billion, US$52.4billion,  US$1.6 billion and US$1.1 billion respectively.

Revenues from live events, driven by government spending on elections, weddings, and concerts, grew 15%. While revenues from the radio segment grew by 9% in 2024 to ₹25 billion, print segment grew only 1% in revenue. The print segment recorded a 1% decline in subscription revenue.  

However, growth in online gaming slowed to single digits due to the 28% GST on deposits and the rise of illegal offshore sites. Net revenues fell by 6%, while casual gaming grew by 16%, resulting in an overall 2% decline.

India emerged as the second largest broadband subscriber base in the world after China with over 945 million broadband subscriptions. According to data published by Ookla in December 2024, India ranked 23rd in the world for mobile speeds.

Ashish Pherwani, M&E Sector Leader at EY India, pointed out that digital media has not only changed how content is created, distributed and monetized, but it has also redefined the fundamentals of the M&E sector. He observed that the M&E segment has transformed from being a provider of knowledge and escapism to providing consumers with value across four tenets. These include: Information to live life better, through news and communities; Escapism to forget troubles by getting immersed in fiction and reality content; Materialism to enable commerce through funded content and e-commerce; and Self-actualization via social media, professional portals and the creator economy.