Foreign Direct Investment in Indian Print Media
In the print media segment of India, the permitted FDI Cap is 26% (which is most likely to be extended up to 49% soon in forthcoming years), made through the government approval route. This webpage offers brief but very useful information about the current status of the print media segment of India, and our legal services for making foreign direct investment in indian print media by foreign investors, NRIs, and PIOs.
Basically and broadly associated with the printing and distribution of news and current affairs mainly through newspapers and magazines, the print media is a vital complementary to the overall media in every country worldwide, including India. But today, the competition of this print media with the digital media has become intense in most of the countries of the world. But in India, the print media is still showing a strong upsurge, despite the ever-growing prominence and popularity of the digital media, mainly because of the unflinching and constantly growing magnitude of advertising revenues to this print media segment, especially from the newspaper category. At present, the size of the Indian print media industry is over INR 250 billion, and is very hopefully expected to grow with CAGR of around 9% to reach the level of about INR 375 billion by the year 2018, as per the recent projections cast by FICCI-KPMG. Also, in the Indian print media, the bulk part of newspapers are published in Hindi; the rest being published in English and regional (Vernacular) languages, such as Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, etc. Again, the demand for regional print media is steadily thriving at a faster pace than that of English language print media in regions all across the country.
Highly fertile foreign direct investment in print media of India can be made under the following main categories by NRIs, PIOs, FIIs, FPIs, and other foreign investors, in strict and close compliance of the rules and regulations of FIPB, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and other relevant bodies:- Publication of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, etc., which deal with news and current affairs. Allowed percentage of equity/FDI Cap in this case, at present, is 26%.
- Publishing the Indian editions of the foreign magazines covering news and current affairs. In this case also, the permissible percentage of equity/FDI Cap is 26% at present.
- Printing/publication of scientific and technical magazines, specialty journals, periodicals, etc. The allowable FDI Cap in this case in 100%, (through government route).
- Publication of the facsimile edition of foreign newspapers. The permitted FDI Cap in this case is also 100%. Here it must be noted that, FDI in this category should be made by the original owner of the foreign newspapers, through registering an entity under the Indian Companies Act of 2013.