M&A outlook India Australia Even as the outlook for many Like the UK, Australia offers relatively high emerging markets turns negative, nominal per capita consumer spending, investor sentiment toward India is political stability and low regulatory seeing a signifi cant recovery. The risk. Although it has a small millennial Indian Government’s pro-business population, making it a market of limited stance and an increasingly promising scale from a digital perspective, there is a economic outlook are fostering a more pent-up demand for large deals that the attractive investment landscape for Australian Government is likely to unleash inbound investment. once it relaxes media ownership rules Several government initiatives, (currently under review). Meanwhile, M&E including the digitisation of cable companies are likely to continue striking television, the Phase III auctions of FM “bite-sized” deals, as well as partnerships/ radio spectrum and an increase in FDI JVs, to build scale in traditional business limits, are expected to drive growth and create digital revenue streams. in traditional media. India is also the second largest internet market after China with over 300 million internet users. Although digital content consumption is currently tempered by low smartphone and broadband penetration, a surge in broadband adoption is expected with the rollout of 4G services and the government’s Digital India initiative.1 While the ubiquity of media consumption has not yet translated into signifi cant industry revenue – by 2016, India’s online advertising market is forecast to be a little more than US$1 billion, while the forecast for China is in excess of US$23 billion – India is expected to become the third largest economy in the world by 2030 2 after the US and China. With a triple fold increase in GDP expected over the next 15 years, M&E industry revenues and their contribution to the GDP are expected to increase signifi cantly. 1 Spotlight on India’s entertainment economy: Seizing new growth opportunities, EYGM Limited, 2011. 2 “Global Forecast Model 2000-2018,” Magna Global, June 2013. Capital Confi dence Barometer | 15