IT spending by the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry expected to grow to US$300 million by 2010; IT vendors who offer industry-specific technology solutions to M&E will outpace the competition.

The author’s estimates put the growing M&E market at US$300 million by 2010 with a compound annual growth rate of 32%. A vast majority of the M&E companies. have either invested or plan to invest the largest portion of their IT budget on industry-specific solutions. A further 47% said that their largest IT investment was for a technology solution tailored towards the Media & Entertainment industry.

“From this research, we are seeing that one of the key ways for IT Vendors to gain traction in this industry is to market the M&E industry-specific benefits that they can provide,” said Nilotpal Chakravrti, Market Analyst. “While many of the IT challenges Indian Media & Entertainment companies are experiencing are similar to other industries, they are perceived as being specific to Media & Entertainment and these companies are looking for industry-specific solutions to these challenges,” added Chakravarti.

Drivers for IT spending in the M&E industry include the urgency of Indian M&E firms to reach new markets (named by 27% of M&E respondents) and the focus on solutions that better manage and deliver M&E content (according to 24% of respondents). IT is viewed as an enabler to help M&E firms achieve these two business goals and deliver their content more efficiently within the Indian sub-continent.

“Many Indian M&E firms are looking at investments in technology as a way to more effectively deliver their content to new audiences, especially cities and towns outside of the major metropolitan areas,” Chakravarti explained.