As per the latest released FICCI-EY Media Entertainment Annual Report for the year 2021, DD Free Dish has crossed the 40 million subscribers base.

Expressing his happiness, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati took to Twitter on Friday and wrote, “Happy to note that DD Free Dish now has an estimated base of more than 40 million households as per the latest FICCI-EY Media Entertainment Annual Report for 2021.”

Changing their earlier stance, four large broadcast networks, Star India, Viacom18 Media, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and Sony Pictures Networks India, who had pulled-out their content from DD Free Dish in March 2019, made a comeback on DD Free Dish during 2020 to capitalize on advertising revenues.

The 2021 edition of the FICCI-EY Media Entertainment Annual Report also highlighted the present and future growth scenario of every segment of the M&E sector.

According to the report, a 24% fall had been witnessed by the Media and Entertainment sector in the year 2020.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020 halted the activities around the globe, also resulted, film industry becoming one of the worst survivors. As per the report, the stoppage of film production in India for over six months resulted in a fall of the revenues by INR 119 billion. During the lockdown, the television industry saw a 22% fall in advertising revenues. In addition, television also witnessed a 7% fall in subscription income, led by the continued growth of free television.

According to the report, a 24% fall has been recorded in Print’s circulation revenue and 41% fall in advertising.

Whereas, Digital and online gaming saw a significant rise in the year 2020 adding an aggregate of INR26 billion. Consequently, their contribution to the M&E sector increased from 16% in 2019 to 23% in 2020.

The last quarter of 2020 showed a marked improvement in revenues for most segments and we expect the M&E sector to recover 25% in 2021 to reach INR1.73 trillion, the report further stated.

The other segments witnessed an aggregate fall of INR465 billion in year 2020.

As of January 2021, 161 TV Channels have been listed on DD Free Dish including 91 Doordarshan channels (comprising of 51 cobranded educational channels), 70 private channels, and 48 radio channels.