The next five years of IPL rights are going up for auction soon. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has started releasing news ratings since March after being suspended since October 2020 and digital media is dominating both the ad pie and our mind space. To understand all this and more, CNBC-TV18’s Anuradha SenGupta spoke to Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands, India, and Chairman of BARC India.

Sinha said that last two years have been so uncertain that there is no way of predicting the future. Media industry and entertainment industry “went through hell”.

Sinha said, “Two years have been flat, virtually, we are not back to 2019 yet. So I would not want to predict I will only put out certain trend lines and amongst my industry, probably I am slightly more conservative than others.”

On growth numbers, he said, “I would say about 10 to 12 percent growth is on last year, which is just about getting close to 2019. I see a lot of problems here not only the war, even otherwise commodity prices are going up.”

He added, “It is best to be realistic. So about 10-12 percent if we get there will be very good. 10-12 percent is value included because volume growth is hardly coming, it is all value growth which is coming.”

For full interview, watch accompanying video

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