FICCI Frames'15: Democratizing Indian Broadcasting, Films and Radio

Day Two at FICCI Frames was focussed on the different challenges and trends for the Indian Broadcasting, Films and Radio.

Dancing or Duelling? – The interplay of content and carriage in a converged world.

Are devices and platforms improvising enough to usher in Convergence; what are the implications for Content and Carriage; how does underpinning policy ensure the fundamental differentiation between Content Networks and Distribution. Experts converge to ideate on the opportunities and minefields ahead.

The session which began by an address by Bobby Bedi, Managing Director, Kaleidoscope Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. By stating that India as a country is still grappling with the change that is happening. Change that is happening between content and technology.

Rita Teotia, Special Secretary, Department of Telecom, Government of India started the session by addressing to the problems in the telecom industry. She said, “There is no clear definition of what convergence is. Content can be provided through broadcast, TV, Radio and internet. But today, everyone is trying to diverge into their own fields that it is becoming difficult for us as a body to define certain categories.”

She adds, “One of the most important challenges of convergence is internet, because it has good delivery of content. It gives the consumers a wide range of choices of what content to watch and he can watch it when he wants to.”

There are huge changes in consumer behaviour. The extent of competition is very different from other sectors. In the Telecom sector we have the Telecom network, the cable operators, broadcasters, content distributors, content owners, online content producers, etc. the list is never ending. There needs to be a clear definition as to what convergence really is and that’s a major challenge.

Summing up her point on whether we are dancing or duelling she said dancing will ensure sameness but that will take time in our country.

Taking off from where Teotia ended, R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM raised a question, as to, is it simple to remove internet barriers? There are lot more things that need to be considered. It’s a question to the gatekeepers who manage the interplay. He adds, “Technology has blurred many barriers and we might see a mix of both dancing and duelling in time to come.”

Pramath Sinha, CEO & Founder 9.9 Media, Founder ISB, Ashoka University and formerly partner McKinsey took off at a digital note by making a point that today, we have examples of movies be released online and making more revenue than what they would have done in theatres or off the digital platform. It is all about how one wants to utilize a medium to reach to its audience.

Anuj Gandhi, Group CEO, Indiacast Media Distribution Pvt Ltd had a different point to make in this session. He said, “It’s about premium content. If we see globally everyone has converged. Not only that, monetization of content is also important and in India that is one of the major issues that content producers face.”

Nikhil B Shah, Director, Cloud Networking and Virtualization, Crest Data Systems sums up by saying that there are three trends that will be seen in time to come. One is Mobile, second being Video content and third being the Internet of Everything. He elaborates, “By 2020, almost 50 billion connections will be there and there will be machine to machine communication for the smallest piece of work.”

While this session took off, Technological Edge: The Future of making movies was another interesting one. Technology has always disrupted how things are made and movies are no different. What we’re seeing now is global workflows that are happening via collaboration, outsourcing and vertical integration. This session will analyse the trends that are driving these changes in consumer demand, entertainment content and production methods and how companies can prepare for this future powered by technology.

The gist of the session was in time to come we will see more of VFX being used in movies as the number of VFX shots in movies are growing. There was a time when Film and Television were old concepts from an era when content was defined by the medium on which it was consumed. But today things have changed drastically.

We will indeed see an era of more effects being used to make big banner movies.

Film Marketing – More Bang for the Ad Buck, the panellists highlighted the importance of different mediums to advertise themselves.

Nabeel Abbas from Epigram started off by giving a very important fact about the print industry in India. He said, “Newspaper may be a dying medium in the world, but in India it’s an expensive one and it growing in line with digital.”

Gautam Talwar – Chief Strategy Officer – Rediffusion who has been in the advertising industry for long stated that for every brand, about 50% of advertising is wasted. He is not wrong when he says that because brands always look for value for the money that they spend on advertising and they are never satisfied.

He adds, “There are three things one should realize. One is the agenda of the brand. Second is what conversation does the brand want to have with their consumers. Lastly, is the fact that how many people really understand the consumption pattern of content on different screens? We can’t have the same content for different screens.”

Vikas Gupta – Marketing Head 9.9 Media added on to say that the industry will benefit when there is motion control (control over content, distribution and marketing of what one does). The industry needs to be democratized. Lastly, he said, “Digital disruption is yet to make a mark for Indian cinema and that will happen soon.”

Rising Ascendancy of the Asian Regional Exhibition Phenomenon and India’s Special Role

Panelists like Pankaj Kedia, Regional Director, South Asia, Dolby, Mike Ellis, President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific Region, Motion Picture Association, Javier Sotomayor, MD, Cinepolis India were a part of this discussion.

Ellis highlighted the power of cinema in international markets by saying that America is open to international cinema but the only challenge is people don't adapt to any other language but English. Giving his view on cinema in India he said that Indian Cinema is as huge as Hollywood and it is indeed going global.

One of the key ways to ensure growth for the cinema sector is to increase the number of screens in the country - both multiplexes and single screens. There are many constraints within a federal governmental set-up - with a maze of infrastructure and taxation issues. If India is to become a serious player in this aspect and it is critical that we have a game plan.

In an interesting session, India 2015: Role of the Public Service Broadcaster and Lessons from the World Jawahar Sircar addressed the audience about the importance of a public broadcaster. On a panel with two public Broadcasters one being from Russia Ayuna Badmaeva, Dy CEO, Digital Television Russia and two private broadcasters Jim Egan, CEO, BBC Global News and Javad Mottaghi, Secretary General, ABU the discussion went on to address problems not only in India but also globally. There are similar challenges globally as well and it is not India alone that is facing issues on the public broadcaster front.

Russia’s pub caster has 18 channels all of which cater to 4 plus age groups and they want the public sector to grow with the private sector.

Sircar made a point about the cost of a pub caster in India as compared to international broadcasters is very low. He said, “We have people paying from $40-60 globally for public broadcasters and private broadcasters, while in India the cost per person for a public broadcaster is 40 cents. One can’t expect much out of 40 cents.”

Radio Phase 3: Opportunities and Challenges – From Content, Advertising and Regulatory perspective.

In the last session of the day an interesting topic was discussed by an eminent panel. 

With phase 3 auctions for FM radio are finally happening with 294 cities and 839 frequencies being covered and the first batch covering 69 cities and 135 channels (by March 2015), the FM market is on the brink of a reinvention and a much-needed expansion in content, audience measurement, frequencies, advertising and the emerging online segment.

The session majorly discussed on how content can be driven on radio. Of course everyone is positive about the Radio Phase III auctions, as it is expected to add 130 plus channels which can give vast information across the country. Measurement as usual is a problem in this industry as well and there needs to be a better measurement system.

Day two also launched the FICCI Women in Media Forum where Barkha Dutt addressed about the problems women face in the corporate world. She said, “If you want to grow in the industry you will be hated as women you need to get used to that.”

Overall, the day two at FICCI focussed on how the industry will fare in time to come, innovations in the moving making and importance of the digital medium. By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit

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