Media Industry Under GST

The Indian Media and Entertainment industry is a sunrise sector for the economy and is making high growth strides.

- John Pereira

Proving its resilience to the world, the Indian M&E industry is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues. India is one of the highest spending and fastest growing advertising market globally. The industry has been largely driven by increasing digitalization and higher internet usage over the last decade. Internet has almost become a mainstream media for entertainment for most of the people. While the growth track is impressive, a number of challenges are posed by the industry. The implementation of GST impacts on the sector and its verticals like broadcasting, print, television, digital etc.

Though the media industry is growing leaps and bounds due to the rise in consumer demand and mammoth advertising revenues. With a growth rate of 15.8% the Indian television industry alone has stood strong among the other major developed economies. The increasing digitization and high use of internet since last few years has also contributed to its growth. The Indian media and entertainment sector combined is growing with 14.3% CAGR while revenues from advertising are growing by 16% year on year. With such eyeopening figures, the impact of GST on this industry is heartening.

Impact of GST on Media Industry

The implementation of GST is likely to have advantageous impact on the media sectors like print, television, digital etc. In the current tax regime, the broadcast services of cable TV providers and DTH service providers like Tata sky, Dish TV were the sufferers of dual taxation. After the implementation of GST, they might get some respite. After the GST rule where the service tax and the state-level entertainment tax will get subsumed, the Multi-system operators (MSOs) can expect to lower their tax incidence by 5-10% on their cable TV services.