The Future of Entertainment in India

A Case Study by BookMyShow

The Story of BookMyShow

The birth of BookMyShow was a series of events during Ashish Hemrajani's trips to South
Africa and Botswana in the late 90’s and early 2000s. It was a road trip and a backpacking
journey, and while here he heard on the radio that people could buy rugby tickets. This got
Ashish thinking about how this was something that could be done in India. It was the seed of
the thought that would be a point of establishing BookMyShow. But here again it was alcohol
that actually pushed Ashish towards starting the business. Explaining how, he says: "I
remember standing in these long queues. There were these pigeon holes for ticket bookings, a
customer would get lathi charged by the cops for standing for long in the lines. I didn't think
too much and continued my journey."

His journey took him to a wine growing region, where you can have wine for free. Explaining
his experience, Ashish recalls that when people have cutting chai, everyone becomes colloquial,
but when they drink wine, they speak differently. "But I am different; I am an Indian, and
I didn't want to waste any good red wine (by spitting it out). So by three in the afternoon, I was
smashed out of my brains. It started with smoking and ended with alcohol. I was on my youth
hostel bed and I sent the most expensive message worth Rs 186 to my boss, and said I was
quitting. I realized this only the next day."

Coming back to Mumbai the next day, Ashish realized he was out of a job and started with a
business plan and spoke to a couple of investors. After that he sent a fax to Chase, and
BookMyShow was funded with Rs 2 crore. Those were the days of the dotcom boom. In 1999,
BookMyShow had more calls than any online bookings and was probably one of the few
companies to start cash on delivery. Though BookMyShow received funding from Newscorp in
2001, by 2002, the dotcom bust got the team down from 150 people to six. And the team moved
from a 2,500 sq. ft. office to a house in Bandra.

That is where the hockey stick growth happened and the team decided to focus on building the
ecosystem. "We started running call centers, installing ticketing software, running white label
services for events. But you can find simple solutions to complex problems by using common
sense. “The ride, however, wasn't easy. But as an entrepreneur you do not have any options.
Ashish says: A pessimist says the glass is half empty, an optimist says it is half full. An
entrepreneur looks at the empty section and adds some scotch either to enjoy the journey or be
too drunk to bother.

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About BookMyShow
BookMyShow is India’s biggest entertainment destination. Over the years, the company has
transformed from a purely online ticketing player for movies, sports, plays and events. Today,
with presence in over 650 towns and cities in India, BookMyShow works with partners across
the industry to provide unmatched entertainment experiences to millions of customers, on par
with global entertainment standards. It is constantly innovating to increase its ownership share
in the Indian entertainment value chain by relying heavily on its analytic capabilities and
incisive understanding of customers. Along the way BookMyShow has produced music
concerts and theatricals, introduced audio entertainment service Jukebox, built India’s largest
organic reviews and ratings engine for movies and has driven technology innovations, such as
the m-ticket, impacting both users and the industry at large. Demonstrating category
leadership, BookMyShow has expanded its operations to Sri Lanka and Indonesia and has
invested in companies including Do-It-Yourself events registration and ticketing platform Town
script and Fantain, a fantasy sports platform for Cricket and Kabaddi. It is also committed to
society at large by way of their charity initiative BookASmile, which provides entertainment
experiences to the underprivileged.

Media & Entertainment Industry in India

Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry grew at a CAGR of 12.25 per cent from 2011-
2017; and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.6 per cent to touch Rs 2,032 billion (US$ 31.53
billion) by 2020 from Rs 1,308 billion (US$ 19.46 billion) in 2016. The never before seen growth
in the sector has been the result of the growing number of television channels, FM radio
channels, rising popularity of social media, growing demand for content from mobile operators
which is expected to further increase with the growth of 3G services and innovations of
technology. This has resulted in the availability of entertainment anywhere and at any time at
the touch of a button and has ensured wide spread reach of the industry.

India is now the second largest smartphone market in the world, and more than half the
country is expected to have access to affordable broadband by 2020 which could result in over
500 million online video consumers. Rural and women audiences are expected to grow fastest,
which will change the type and genre of content being consumed. The digital micro-payments
ecosystem is also growing rapidly across both urban and rural markets. These changes will
grow digital content consumption significantly, and this presents M&E companies, both foreign
and domestic, with an exciting opportunity to develop businesses and cater to the new
generation of Indian digital consumers.

Case Overview
In 2018, a focus on the changing dynamics of media and entertainment is more critical than
ever, given how rapidly content creation, distribution and monetization are being disrupted.
Disruption is now so universal and palpable that it demands serious focus and commitment to
transformation. Inertia is no longer an option as companies contemplate what will drive
customer and brand relevance, strategic growth and operational excellence.

So, BookMyShow is asking themselves the question: Are we transforming quickly enough?
Regardless of which trend resonates most with a company's business reality, there is no
question that a keen focus on transformation is imperative, given how quickly the dynamics are
changing in media and entertainment. It is a moment to focus purposefully on customer needs

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and experience, challenge the silos of the organization and commit to strategic and operational
transformation

Challenge in Ticketing Business

In India, ticketing revenues continue to remain under-indexed. Ticketing and F&B revenue is
currently a small chunk of the overall market, estimated at 10%—25%. This is unlike in matured
markets, where ticketing and F&B drive major revenues.

BookMyShow is aiming to scale its non-movie business over the next two years and wants to
bring it on par with its movie ticketing business. It will be venturing into segments such as
international sports, live entertainment, and experiences across countries. About 30% of
BookMyShow revenues currently come from the non-movie ticketing segment. It intends to
grow this to 50% by 2020.”

The Digital Age

Digital is driving growth, as companies feel that marketers’ spends on digital events would
grow at 20% by 2020. Digital activation can be provided at a fraction of the cost of in person
activation, and while the number of digital activations will increase significantly, the value of
each will reduce. Driven by numerous sports leagues, as well as grassroots activities, and
spurred by mandated social spends for profitable Indian corporates, companies also feel that
sports would significantly grow at 18%. Rounding off the growth drivers were personal events,
activations and concerts, on the back of increased disposable incomes and growing spends on
ticketed events, which are expected to cross INR6.5 billion in 2018.

Live Events: Growth Rate next 2 years

Corporate Events & Brand Launches
Activation Campaigns
Personal Events
Sports
Exhibitions & Conferences
Awards & Concerts
Digital Events

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Role of Technology
Top entertainment companies the world over are beginning to invest in AI and ML to improve
revenues, reduce costs, enhance efficiencies and create new digital products and services. AI
applications are going to have a big impact on the entertainment industry going forward. From
content processing and content recognition to speech recognition and ML, there are myriad
ways in which AI and ML are impacting the media and entertainment industry. Some of the
areas where AI is gaining increasing traction are detailed below:

 Ad scheduling: AI can enable OTT and linear media platforms to schedule advertisements
based on expected viewership for each brand’s specific desired audience by targeting them
most efficiently

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 Sub-titling: Technologies have also been developed to automate sub-titling of content
across multiple languages. These technologies can not only enable better content search
(critical for news companies) but also enable content to be sweated more efficiently across
languages and formats
 Storytelling/Content evaluation: Algorithms are being created to analyze content and story
— a process that measures and interprets emotions on content by mapping characters,
plotlines and moments. These are tagged across emotion categories such as “happy,” “sad”
or “love
 Sports highlights/data: AI is being developed to enable the creation of immediate and quick
highlights of sporting events and capture metrics to enable statistics and scoreboards
automatically. This is done by combining a review of on-screen action, historical data,
crowd reactions

Problem Statement
1. BookMyShow recently announced its foray in the audio entertainment space with the launch
of JukeBox. Define an area/segment where BookMyShow should venture next and propose a
Business Model (including the Financial Analysis) along with a Go to Market Strategy.

2. How can BookMyShow integrate emerging technologies (AI/ML) in its current offerings?

Format
• The case analysis document must be in MS Word/PDF format (.doc/.docx/.pdf)
• Must not exceed 2000 words (excluding exhibits and excel sheets)
• Font Type: Arial/ Calibri with text size of 11

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