Category: Ficci Frames

MUMBAI: Is media socially responsible? What are the constituents of social responsibility? Does free speech entails any social responsibility on the part of the speaker? These are some of the questions that were asked in the session entitled “Is media socially responsible: Where does freedom of speech and expression ends, and responsibility begin?”

Media personality Pritish Nandy, who moderated the session, clearly maintained that “media has nothing to do with social responsibility,” adding that “freedom is an absolute concept – there‘s either complete freedom with no restrictions or total bondage.”

Social responsibility is thrust upon the filmmakers by the government. The govt collects taxes from cigarette manufacturers, yet it wants us to stop showing smoking on the screen. The govt makes choices, but most of these choices are hypocritical.

In our age, free media is the most reliable vehicle for discovering truths. Bereft of this freedom, media is powerless. The state is not our father or guardian, as filmmakers we are free to do what we want to.

He ended, however, on a more tolerant note by saying, “But freedom is an ongoing dialogue, and that‘s why we‘ve to listen to others.”

In her speech, veteran actress and chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Sharmila Tagore discussed the role of the CBFC vis-?-vis films.

“India is a multicultural, multilingual and multireligious country. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech but since society is media dominated the govt is required to purge films of anything that might affect the larger social and cultural unity. This doesn‘t mean, however, that the CBFC intends to stifle creativity.”

To bolster her point of view, she said that a great number of movies are full of disturbing images that have a detrimental effect both on the conscious and on the subconscious psyche, and invited the audience to a screening of those movies that the censor board does not certify.

“Our responsibility also lies with the marginalised remnants of the society. CBFC acts as an enabling body between producers and audience. Moreover, I don‘t think India is ready for self-regulation; I disagree with Pritish on this point.”

Taking issue with Nandy‘s advocacy of absolute freedom, noted filmmaker and Rajya Sabha member Shyam Benegal said, “The censor board is a ‘negative institution‘ – it dictates what you are required to remove. A number of factors act as deterrents when it comes to making a good film. A CBFC certified film can be shown to anywhere in the country.

He then gave the example of Aaja Nachle, which, despite having a certificate from the censor board, was subjected to much social ado. This incident, according to Benegal, proves that a certificate from the board has lost its meaning.

Director Mahesh Bhatt said, “The bedrock of the media and entertainment industry is going away. My first film was banned. When I was 50, the NDA govt banned my film Zakhm. But ironically, when the censored version was released later, the film got a national integration award.”

He called the present state of affairs “freedom within the prison” and called for 100 per cent artistic liberty.

Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna said, “Instead of absolute freedom, what we have is absolute anarchy. There‘s anarchy everywhere in govt regulations.”

“Social responsibilities come from within. To initiate a healthy dialogue with the people, we need to educate them and dispense with the I&B ministry that imposes restrictions on the media.”

Admitting that the media itself has got into “the business of manufacturing news,” he maintained, “Frame a law that‘s conducive for a country like India.”

The panelist discussed the compelling need to ink international co production deals citing the demand for global films. A formal treaty, however, looks difficult at the moment.

India is a new entrant among the existing players like Italy, Germany and Switzerland, who have already signed co production deals with many countries.

The first co production deal that India did was in 1985 with France, which included import and export of films produced in both countries.

Currently India is locked in international co-production deals with UK, Italy, Germany and Brazil.

Countries like Hungary, Spain, China, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand are in the process of making it to the India list.

Ministry of Information and broadcasting director Sangeeta Singh says, “At the moment we do not offer any direct financial incentives to the filmmakers, but we have a very vibrant industry which is full of opportunities and will help the filmmakers grow.”

“India does not offer any subsidies to the international producer, unlike UK which offers 20 per cent subsidy. However individual states can do that,” added Singh.

In such cases international producers informally tie up with local producers to make a film.

American Icing Sherley is an example, as pointed out by the US-based American Pride Films Group president and director of the film Namrata Sing: “Sometimes due to the lack of funding and of political support, we go for such deals. My film will be distributed by iDreams in India.”

“But creativity and good content rules, no matter whether the deals happen or not. A good comedy or a drama or an action film will be appreciated beyond boundaries,” maintained Namrata Singh.

The panelists agreed that sometimes to work out a deal, the film has local actors from the countries involved in the treaty. That helps to market the film in both the countries as well internationally.

Tandoori Love, one such film is an example of that. The film has Indian actors in it but has been co-produced by Switzerland, Germany and Austria based producers.

Switzerland based filmmaker Oliver Paulus says: “Although we have shot some scenes in India, but we never found a producer to co-produce our film from here.”

“Co-production deals always turn out to be beneficial if done between countries with similar political and economic conditions,” said Department of Canadian heritage director Gordon Platt.

Platt adds that such deals are improvement tools for the existing film industry in a country.

“It gives a chance to share your resources and creativity to create a bigger product which can be made known worldwide with right mix of marketing,” Platt adds

Carlo Donzella, Italy‘s consultant for EU and International Affairs says: “We need to build up a regulation for incentives which can be offered to the co producers. All of us need to work out a scheme for financing flexibility.”

MUMBAI: As mobile and online media grow in India, broadcasters have a triple play opportunity to explore the three screens: broadcast, net and mobile. TV channels can create online and mobile communities around shows.

This was a key point that came up in a session on “Online Media Platforms: Creating an audience of one and a billion.”

“NDTV Convergence, which looks after the new media space, will grow in three years to become a top priority business. While TV will not shut down it is important that broadcasters embrace the net and mobile. These are already mainstream media. Broadcasters have a strategic advantage to use the three screen method to enhance brand value among viewers,” said NDTV Networks CEO Vikram Chandra.

The net and mobile allows broadcasters to build communities around TV shows and campaigns. Elaborating on this, Chandra offered the examples of ‘Save The Tiger‘ and Jessica Lal where the broadcaster used the mobile and the net to galvanise people.

Petitions were signed and SMS‘ expressing support were sent. “This way a channel can migrate its audience from the TV onto the net and mobile and then back to the TV,” Chandra said.

Chandra also cited the show Gadget Guru where the net has been very useful in building up viewer affinity. He predicts that there will be a “secular rise” in spending on new media. That is why NDTV a few months back launched a Wap portal. In course of time, the revenue that content providers get will grow.

MSN is talking with Indian companies to get them on board. Globally, MSN Video has 500 content partners like NBC and Fox.

“MSN Video gets two billion streams a year globally all of which are monetized. It offers content providers the chance to express their editorial voice. So for the Oscars, for instance, in addition to actual footage there will also be some behind the scenes content, the fashion on display etc. We have grown our business by 1000 per cent by looking at the whole story. While there is a lean back audience, the trendsetters want content when it is convenient. That is what we offer. The net offers a vast distribution network and one can narrowcast. As a content provider you know who the consumers are and what they want. As a consumer you have control in terms of content access,” said Vij.

Speaking about web 2.0 Infoedge Media founder and CEO Sanjeev Bikchandani said that it uses more intelligence like algorithms and collective intelligence. “This has allowed for democratisation of production tools. But while some web 2.0 companies like Bebo were successful, they eventually became a part of a large online media enterprise.”

Revenue is a challenge, though. Some like MySpace are able to generate $100 million in revenue while others aren‘t so lucky. Online advertising is shifting towards search marketing. “Google has monetised this. Technology has to evolve in order to make the net a reality on the mobile. At the moment the mobile is mainly good for email. In India broadband prese3nts a major challenge for the development of web 2.0. In addition Indians are not used to putting videos of themselves,” said Bikchandani.

BigFlicks COO Kamal Giachandani laid emphasis on the long tail effect that online media platforms offer. He offered the example of Netflix, saying that 30 per cent of its sales happen from DVDs that are not available offline. So the net has the advantage of giving a bigger choice compared to traditional outlets. At the same time one must remember that the audience is loyal to content as opposed to the platform. As broadband penetration grows in India, it is the niche content creators who will benefit the most.

Canada‘s Now Public co-founder and CEO Leonard Brody spoke about the importance of citizen journalism. “What we have noticed is that people do it for social engagement. We get two million readers a month and 700 pieces of content a day. Consumers are moving towards a higher personal locality. One reason why Facebook news feeds are checked out more by users than traditional news sources is that you get information that is personally relevant.”

The site uses the crowd source model and gives complete editorial control to users. Since they use citizen journalists, often they get videos in places where other agencies have not been able to go. Brody says that the agency has 140,000 reporters, out of which 10,000 are active daily.

“The newspaper business is dying abroad. Newspapers will have to focus more on analysis as opposed to breaking news as it would already be known,” said Brody.

MUMBAI: Advertiser apathy and crippling music royalties are eating away at the FM radio indstry in the country, that‘s registering fast growth and is poised to grow even bigger in the coming months with the increasing penetration of mobile phones.

Industry players, who converged at the “Radio Rocks” session on the second day at Frames 2008 were unanimous in their opinion that while radio is increasingly emerging as a sexy medium that captures more attention than TV, it is still perceived as a passive medium by the advertiser.

Radio Mirchi CEO Prashant Panday in fact averred that the industry has grown at a rate of 55 to 60 per cent over last year, a figure much higher than the PwC report that estimates radio growth at 24 per cent.

“Radio is a sexy urban medium that one consumes on a daily basis, and people spend more time on radio than on TV,” he pointed out.

Advertisers however are not looking at radio as a medium that can deliver on a local basis, with separate creatives for separate markets, he rued. Red FM COO Abraham Thomas agreed, saying that operational efficiency still drives radio revenues although “radio has moved beyond radio.”

“Radio rocks because radio is simple to access and use, and 49 per cent of listeners have radio on their mobile phones,” Abraham said. While out of home listening will grow faster in the coming months, content creation too has changed to adapt itself to various media like television and mobile, said Abraham.

Concurred Tata Teleservices VAS and Enterprise Market planning president Pankaj Sethi, ” ‘Not at home‘ opportunities will grow. 50 to 60 per cent of handsets today are already FM enabled”.

“85 per cent of radio listeners are still at home”, Sethi said, adding that the patterns of radio listenership will change when the nature of content changes with the advent of genres like news and sports and different formats, allowing radio to monetise content and claim its share of the Rs 70 billion VAS market in the country.

However, radio stations will continue to be unviable till the issue of music royalties is settled, Panday said. “125 of the 200 odd stations currently operational in the country are financially unviable due to the crippling royalties charged by ‘monopolistic patterns followed by the music industry‘”, he added.

“If radio spreads, the music industry will do better. You download songs when you hear it on radio first,” he pointed out.

Radio Today Broadcasting COO Anil Srivatsa, one of the few players who plays differentiated content on radio, stressed that the medium needs to raise its own respectability, if it has to be taken seriously by the advertising and media planning community.

MUMBAI: It has been a landmark year for the media and entertainment sector. A spate of 45 private equity deals have dotted the landscape in 2007 while one company has raised money through an initial public offering.

“It signals the coming of age of not only the media sector but also the companies. Indian promoters have taken their outfits to a scale where even Walt Disney and Time Warner have gone ahead to do equity deals with them,” said ICICI Securities SVP Ravi Sardana.

The market cap of the media companies has touched $15 billion. “The media and entertainment sector, which is at Rs 500 billion, is expected to double in the next 4-5 years. This is something which is exciting investors,” said Sardana while addressing a session at Ficci-Frames 2008 on “Raising Capital: Showbiz attracts the moolah.”

The business has also become scalable with the opening up of multiple platforms. “There are lots of markets in India which are still under penetrated. Media companies can expand their business by entering into new geographies,” Sardana said.

The missing segments in the piece are movie companies, animation and new platforms like IPTV. The sector also needs to consolidate and make structural changes for making it more attractive for equity capital infusion, Sardana said.

The challenges are shortage of talent and scaling up. “In India largest production houses do less than four movies a year. In Hollywood, the big six studios account for 90 per cent of the US and Canada box office,” said Sardana.

MUMBAI: With the explosion of multiplexes, Indian filmmakers are increasingly putting importance on the performance of a film in the first weekend. The days of the Silver and Golden jubilee are long gone.

While a strong star cast and a well-armed publicity machinery play a big role, filmmakers must also be honest with audiences and to themselves when they market and distribute their films.

This was one of the points made during a session on “Opening Weekend: How To Get The Audience In?” The speakers were Eros Multimedia COO Jyoti Deshpande, Specialtreats CEO Colin Burrows, film critic Komal Nahata, P9 CEO Naveen Shah and filmmaker Kunal Kohli.

Nahata made several points about what film distributors should keep in mind. One of these is that they should be honest while marketing and distributing their films. Having cameos of huge stars in big flicks and keeping that under wraps works the best for a project. Examples of this would be Aishwarya Rai in Mohabbtein and Salman Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hain.

He highlighted the lack of new talent in the industry. Along with that, Nahata added that a hit pair may not necessarily guarantee a sure-shot success story. For instance, Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer Jodhaa Akhbar did not garner a good opening weekend.

As far as the smaller, independent films are concerned, it is very important that they offer novelty in terms of content and presentation. In addition, hit music makes a great package.

Deshpande stressed the scientific way of achieving the desired opening weekend. She notes that unlike the US, in India the DVD market is not big enough to help a film that has done poorly in theatres. So relying on the opening weekend helps mitigate risks. She also addressed the new trend of individual producers hopping to big distributors, and the entry of corporates changing the scenario for existing production houses.

But is the opening weekend the be-all and end-all? Kohli answered in the negative saying that a good film can survive a slow start. He offered the examples of Munnabhai MBBS, which had absolutely no marketing gimmicks lined up, but did very well.

He also offered examples of Chak De which did well beyond just the opening weekend. Intelligent marketing can help a film that does not have big stars. He gave the example of Hum Tum where the distributor did tie ups with MTV, Sony for the show Jassi as well as cartons in The Times of India.

Another way of marketing a movie today, rightly pointed out by Navin Shah, CEO, P9, is merchandising. The best example of the same would be 2007‘s Om Shanti Om which tied up with Shoppers Stop. And if that doesn‘t work for the production house, myriad television channels are waiting to cash in on big stars to augment their TRPs. And in return, the forthcoming film gets huge mileage.

However, lastly what does a small-budget project do in situation like this? The solution offered by Kohli is market it the big way and pitch it against a big-budget film. Loins of Punjab and Mithya are the perfect instances of the same.

MUMBAI: Content is King and distribution is God. A cliché to some but that was what came out as the main concern of broadcasters in the session “Redefining Television Content: Shifting Patterns.”

Tam media CEO LV Krishnan threw open the session with a question, “How many hours of fresh content were telecast on TV in 2007?” The answer: Somewhere between 30,000 to 35,000.

According to Krishnan, the genres that saw tremendous growth were Kids, Hindi news channels, Hindi GEC and music channel. Content has seen a vast change, and was the engine that drove the industry both in terms of revenues and costs.

“Viewers have become very experimentative in nature and this sudden surge in the audience movement has led to new channel launches. The space is getting fragmented and average time spend by the viewers has gone down as well,” said Krishnan.

Speaking about his recently launched Hindi GEC 9X, INX Group chairman Peter Mukerjea said, “The core TG for 9X are married females, not the absolute 4+ age group provided by Tam. In the GEC front, we require a deeper segmentation of TG to reflect numbers. Finding demographic segments is the need of the hour.”

Surprisingly, the new emerging trends in content were not discussed. The focus of the discussions was digitisation of content and better revenue streams across different platforms.

A major chunk of revenues goes into managing distribution and that leaves the broadcasters with less to exploit content for other platforms. Alva Brothers director Sunil Lulla said, “It is important to establish content but the most important thing is distribution. Viewers should be aware of your brand. Enough is offered for free in this country. Now if the viewers want the content to be delivered on their mobile or through internet, they will have to pay for it. A regulation is urgently required to get in radical change.”

MUMBAI: Reasonable men confronting unreasonable challenges. In the pursuit of more eyeballs – and by extension ad revenues – content of most Hindi news channels are increasingly driven by entertainment, sports and cinema stories.

Agreeing that the face of TV news in India is changing, TV Today Network CEO G Krishnan says, “Hard news co-exists with tabloid coverage. Fun seems to be the only currency for stickiness.”

At the session “Is News Entertainment: changing face of television,” news broadcasters said that there is an overlap of commerce and journalism among news channels. News channels are heavily dependent on ad revenue as subscription revenue is very low.

The ad revenue size of Hindi news channel is Rs 6 billion while that of English news channel is only Rs 2 billion, NDTV India executive editor Sanjay Ahirwal points out.

Sahara Samay MD Rajeev Bajaj argued that in the last five to six years, there has been a paradigm shift of news content. It is the viewers‘ taste that matters. News content is driven by stories which affect the viewers. Therefore, a story on Khali and Rakhi Sawant is as important.

Said Bajaj, “With increasing aspirations, viewers‘ choice of content is changing.”

Sounding a cautionary note, senior journalist Satinder Bindra warned that the trend of news broadcasters increasing the number of entertainment stories on their networks would lead to questions about their credibility. “Once credibility is lost it can never be retrieved,” Bindra said.

“Almost all the news channels carry the same story with an ‘exclusive‘ tag. The news consumer feel betrayed. The news channel then lose credibility,” Bindra says.

MUMBAI: While the government has decided to up the foreign direct investment cap on distribution platforms like DTH (direct-to-home) and HITS (Headend-In-The-Sky) to 74 per cent, the cable TV sector will have to stay content with its current limit of 49 per cent.

The government‘s logic: there are too many cable operators and it doesn‘t want foreign investors to gobble them up.

Replying to a query by Indiantelevision.com, information & broadcasting secretary Asha Swarup said, “There are 70,000 cable operators spread across the country. We don‘t want to lift the FDI cap on cable at this stage. Besides, even with 49 per cent being allowed, foreign investors are not exercising this limit to the full.”

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), however, wants the cable TV sector to consolidate as a step up to attract investments. Digitalisation, the sector regulator feels, will pave the path to consolidation in the sector.

In order to push digitalisation, the government will come out with the HITS policy in a month‘s time. “We have looked at the Trai recommendations and are largely in agreement with it. We are looking at C-band for HITS,” said Swarup.

The government will also come out with the IPTV policy. “We should have it by April-end,” said Swarup.

On the content front, Swarup urged the industry to look at increasing the amount of children‘s content available. “Our children should not only have access to Tom and Jerry and Pogo,” she said.

Swarup said it is a welcome sign that the broadcasters and advertisers are setting up a national TV ratings system. The government has been concerned with how TRPs are arrived at for sometime now, she explained.

On the price freeze issue, Swarup said that broadcasters should take this up with Trai.