Amidst strong global headwinds on the economic front, India is set to emerge as a major player in the 5G revolution, semiconductor and chip technology, live sports, and AVOD with private deployment networks likely to take off in a big way during 2025-2028 period, according to Deloitte’s 2023 TMT (Technology, Media, and Entertainment, Telecom) predictions.
Deloitte predicts the Indian semiconductor market to reach US$55 billion by 2026 with more than 60% of the market being driven by three industries—smartphones and wearables, automotive components, and computing and data storage. With growing demand, the industry is poised to play an important role in enhancing the global value chain, as it will expand to a market size of US$85 billion and generate employability for 600,000 by 2030.
Predicting about the media sector, Deloitte’s analysis shows that the Indian sports market is estimated to touch US$100 billion by 2027 from US$27 billion in 2020, a CAGR of over 20%, which is about twice as fast as the global sports market. Deloitte further predicts that the success of new talent in sports and government initiatives will accelerate the growth of diverse sports in India. Additionally, the rising popularity of NFTs, merchandise and IP-related sports commerce among sports persons and fans, especially Gen Zs, is expected to benefit a diverse range of sports.
Furthermore, while television will remain to be relevant, digital will roar, and ad pricing may witness slow growth or even a plateau. However, an increasing focus on the sports infrastructure ecosystem, sports commerce, and international sports are some trends that will remain steady in the Indian sports market.
The telecom sector predictions shows that the growth of 5G Standalone (SA) networks is expected to witness and further accelerate private network deployment. Satellite companies are also at the forefront of innovation in communication technology, developing next-generation, powerful, high-throughput Ka-band satellites, increasing coverage area and utilizing cutting-edge technologies for secure connections.
Deloitte’s predictions mainly capture the critical roles of these technologies in a hyperconnected world and underscore India’s strong ecosystem to support the growth of digital, blurring the lines between urban and semi-rural.
Other highlights include:
India’s rendezvous with satellite broadband: India reached the highest wireless data consumption per user in the world with average monthly wireless data consumption per user reaching 16.4GB in 2022. Deloitte predicts that this figure is only projected to triple to ~54GB per month by 2028. Additionally, it also projects India’s satellite broadband service market size to reach US$1.9 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 36%.
5G standalone networks can transform enterprise connectivity: The economic impact of 5G could potentially be US$450 billion by 2040, driven by cross-sector contributions for productivity and efficiency gains through 5G use case deployment across industries. Telcos are expanding their 5G reach at a commendable pace, extending their enterprise connectivity and private network-based offerings. In addition, a multitude of approaches available in India for the deployment of private networks, and the existence of both stand-alone and non-stand-alone modes, will drive the proliferation and adoption of 5G private networks.
M&A in Software-as-a-Service and agri-tech enterprises would be the theme of deal activities in 2023: Heading into 2023, funding and M&A activity in India are expected to gather steam and ramp up substantially. While the deal flow in gaming M&A is likely to accelerate globally, M&A activities in the Indian gaming industry could be limited, owing to regulatory challenges and social norms. Deloitte predicts that M&A activity in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space, and in impact sectors such as agritech, is expected to emerge as key investment themes in India’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications industry.
Key SaaS verticals expected to garner interest from financial as well as strategic investors in 2023 are cloud-native, Hyper Intelligent Automation (HIA), Web 3, and verticalized SaaS solutions. Industry estimates reveal that the Indian agritech sector is poised to become a US$34 billion market by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 50% over the next five years, a steep rise from the current US$4 billion market size. Start-ups in this space raised around US$4.6 billion in 230 deals in FY22, from US$2.1 billion in FY21, with the total start-up count closing at 1,300 in June 2022.
Balancing content and cost-effectiveness: AVOD revenues in India grew much faster than in developed markets, as customers were willing to opt for the flexibility to watch content across multiple platforms at a lower price. OTT accounts for 7-9% of the overall media and entertainment industry, and this share will continue to accelerate in the foreseeable future. In addition, India’s OTT market revenue was about US$2.35 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach almost US$5.3 billion by 2027. SVOD revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19% to reach US$2.9 billion in 2027 from US$1.2 billion in 2022.