The great eyeball chase: How India’s digital storytellers are leaving TV behind

/7 min read
Digital dethrones TV as India’s content creators chase IP, scale, and global markets.
The great eyeball chase: How India’s digital storytellers are leaving TV behind

INDIA’S MEDIA AND entertainment sector reached ₹2.5 lakh crore in size last year, registering a modest growth of 3.3% — a sharp decline from 8.8% seen in 2023. The slowdown was primarily driven by falling subscription revenues, a drop in outsourced animation and VFX work due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, and sluggishness in the Indian content market.

The good news, however, is that it is far from a doomsday situation — the past year has actually been a milestone of sorts with digital revenues surpassing television. According to the 2025 Ficci-EY media & entertainment report, digital contributed ₹80,200 crore to the revenues of the sector in 2024, while TV’s 25-year-old monopoly ended with its contribution declining to ₹67,900 crore. Though the Sony-Zee merger fell through, the industry also saw one of the biggest-ever M&A deals, the $8.5 billion merger of Reliance Jio and Disney-Star.