DELHI: The Indian entertainment and media (E&M) industry is poised to grow at 19 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach Rs 837.4 billion by 2010 from Rs. 353 billion (Rs 35,300 crore), according to a new study.

The television segment is slated to grow from its present size of Rs 148 billion to Rs 427 billion by 2010, according to a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( FICCI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report titled Indian Entertainment and Media Industry -- Unravelling the potential.

The radio sector is projected to grow four times to Rs.12,000 million by 2010, while filmed entertainment is slated to reach Rs 153 billion during.

The print medium, according to the study is poised to grow from the present size of Rs 109 billion to Rs 195 billion.

Economic growth, rising income levels, consumerism, coupled with technological advancements and policy initiatives taken by the Indian government, which are encouraging the inflow of investment, will prove to be the key drivers for the entertainment and media industry.

The industry has been forecast to outperform the economic growth in each year till 2010.

Two factors that will contribute to the growth of the industry are low media penetration in lower socio-economic classes and low ad spends a statement quoted Deepak Kapoor, executive director of PwC and leader for the organisations Entertainment & Media Practice in India, as saying.

Today media penetration is poor in lower socio-economic classes, but efforts to increase it even slightly are likely to deliver much higher results, simply due to the absolute numbers being large, he added.

Strong economic growth, rising consumer spending and regulatory corrections are drawing foreign investments in most segments of the E&M industry, especially the print media.