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Tag: FICCI Frames 2017

  • Raghav Bahl favours ‘reverse mentoring’ in media, awaits licence to start channel

    MUMBAI: Senior media professional Raghav Bahl believes senior editors need to encourage the thoughts of young journalists as “their perspective towards news is different and connected to the new-age digital readers.”

    Bahl believes consumers prefer large format for films and crucial matches on linear media, and short format for news etc on digital media and mobiles. Some media reports quoted Bahl on his plan to launch a television channel in three months for which a licence from the MIB was awaited.

    Experienced journalists must welcome ideas of young scribes as they were well-versed with the digital media, he felt, speaking at FICCI Frames 2017 concluding session.

    Unless the two generations worked together, India would not progress, he added. About the shift of short content, information and news to smartphones, he said professionals need to work towards keeping it relevant to the audience.

  • Arnab Goswami: Best time to enter news market when there’s no leader

    MUMBAI: Whether off screen or on screen Arnab Goswami is a passionate and animated speaker, though some would say he’s given to histrionics. “The best time to enter the (news) market is when there is no leader,” Goswami said with his trademark flourish, barely few months after leaving Times TV Network as group editor where he often claimed Times NOW was the No. 1 news channel in the country.

    He delivered this almost knockout punch against his previous news platform in a sotto voice dressed casually in a jeans with a jacket draped over it. Hopefully without batting an eyelid (his eyes were hidden behind dark shades, though), he delivered his next punchline: “English news market has flattened out. There was a gap of about 15-20 per cent between Times NOW and other channels when I was leading it, but now there is no clear leader.”

    Gearing up for the launch of his entrepreneurial venture Republic TV, an English News channel, and Republic World, a digital platform, Goswami, in an exclusive conversation with indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of FICCI Frames 2017 here, noted that flattening of the news market was good for his venture

    Though Goswami sounds confident about his venture, but, probably, his previous employers do still rile him still. Remember the story of David and Goliath?

    “One TV channel constantly says that we are not going to let Republic crush us. Every morning they wake up talking about us, giving interviews. I would tell that channel to stop being paranoid,” he drops his voice — may be for effect — and goes on to add loudly, “Your paranoia about us will make you fail.” Full marks for being candid!!

    Well, even when we thought Goswami was through with rubbing it in and we could move over to other topics for discussion, he holds the line, if we use cricket’s bowling analogy: “Unhealthy practices in the TV industry have started. One news channel, which has lost considerable amount of viewership, is going around telling distributors that they would be willing to pay more money if they (distributing platforms) could stop broadcasting Republic for a month. I am horrified.

    “It reveals a sense of deep insecurity (in Republic’s competitors). They say things like ‘some small channel that has not stopped, has been renamed twice and would be renamed the third time just around the time of launch’. These are all signs of growing paranoia and nervousness. I want to tell these channels to not be worried and do something innovative and prepare for our launch. It’s a more healthy way of being in the business. ”

    So which are these TV channels that are maligning Republic and are “nervous” and “insecure”? We urge him to come clean on this name game. This time Goswami ducks the bouncer and counter-questions, “Well, everybody knows who they are. Don’t you people know the facts?”

    According to the media buzz, Goswami will launch both his digital platform and the news channel in two months’ time. Though Goswami refrained from divulging more programming and other details of his ventures, buzz says the TV news anchor, who grew bigger than the company that employed him till few months, will return to the TV screen by anchoring a show on the channel in his trademark style —- critics claim he would continue to be the prosecutor and judge making mincemeat of his panelists. “It will happen soon, much before what is been speculated,” is all that Goswami is willing to state.

    But, just as he cannot let go of a chance to add to the suspense, Goswami pulls back his long-ish hairs and noted with a flourish: “Starting with news in English, the channel (and the whole venture) will expand wherever the audiences exist.”

    The two platforms have received an array of supporters from the advertising and sponsorship worlds. “Loads of people have been lining up to advertise with us. There has been a fantastic reception from the market. There has been a tremendous response from the advertisers from all categories — those who are advertising on news and those who are working with us. They are all excited about the venture,” Goswami boasts, adding bashfully, “This is going to be the most exciting media launch in 2017.”

    For him, viewership is not just limited to market share, but is based on the total number of people watching a product. Strongly believing that unless a TV channel starts engaging with the audience, it would rapidly loose viewership, Goswami explains: “There has been a fall in viewership (of news channels), but that is because there is lack of innovation. Copycats don’t work. You must evolve your own style. I wish people in the English news business start doing different formats on their own. It will be good for them. But, they don’t have much time for that because we are coming with Republic. They just have a few weeks.”

    Is he looking for additional funding for his venture after BJP-backed MP of Rajya Sabha Rajeev Chandrashekhar put in reported over Rs. 3,000 million, apart from several other high networth individuals in their personal capacity? Goswami refused to speak on funding. But he was overheard telling a person, after delivering a keynote address at FICCI Frames 2017 here, that funding for the TV venture is over, though he is actively looking to raise additional investments for the digital platform.

    While delivering his keynote address, reeled out in his usual style with emphasis on anecdotes, theatrics and requests for support from “you all”, Goswami highlighted the changing landscape of new business in India. Some of the highlights are as follows:

    – Plain vanilla is boring. It is overused and dead.

    – Opinion is the future. Having an opinion as a journalist is necessary. Opinions are sacred.

    – Encourage speaking of English the Indian way. ‘Hinglish’ is the way ahead.

    – Content will remain the king (where does that leave distribution platforms, the vehicle on which content will ride, we wonder. More specifically, where would that leave one of his many investors, Sameer Manchanda, who also is founder-promoter of MSO DEN Networks?)

    – Television will outlive all news genres. There will be a collaboration and not competition of TV and digital.

    – Technology will be the democratic enabler for media.

    – Delivering news is what matters to India.

  • FICCI Frames ’17: Maharashtra to form IP crime unit to fight online piracy

    MUMBAI: Well, well. The Indian media industry and the government are finally getting serious about content piracy. After Telangana Intellectual Property Crime Unit (TIPCU), Copyright Force and the government-mandated Copyright Board, Maharashtra state is all set to get Maharashtra Intellectual Property Crime Unit, which may be called MIPCU.

    Announcing the go-ahead for MIPCU, a body that would be a joint endeavor of the entertainment industry and the state government, Inspector General of Maharashtra Police (Cyber) Brijesh Singh (in the picture) said, however, the initiative would have to be backed by the industry players too in terms of resources to effectively fight cyber crime and online piracy.

    “I would want it to be set up under a public-private partnership model and want the industry to come forward and help me achieve this. I want the industry to come and tell me that this is what we need and we will then help them. There is a commitment from our side,” Singh said while delivering an address at FICCI Frames 2017 session themed `Decoding the Pirate Economy in Interconnected World: From Noise to Action.’

    Though Singh, who was also slightly skeptical of the losses in terms of revenue that were often quoted by the entertainment industry, said that if the industry was serious, so were the law enforcement agencies. Pointing out that it’s often seen that the film industry’s piracy concerns were “limited” to the first seven days of a film’s release, he added, “I think this issue needs us to be more serious. I want the industry to come to us to build this sustainable and long-term partnership.”

    Motion Pictures Association of America’s Indian unit (MPA) and the Film and Television Producers Guild of India have joined hands to fight the menace of online piracy. After discussing the idea of MIPCU with the chief minister of Maharashtra and MPA last month, the state government formally okayed formation of a unit to fight cyber crimes, especially online piracy. Offline offences regarding this issue will be dealt by the regular police units.
    The budget of this new proposed unit will depend on what kind of technology it plans to offer for a solution. The entire idea is to co-create a global facility, Singh later elaborated and added that the unit’s launch was dependent on the industry’s long-term commitment in terms of negotiating that space.

    Commenting on the proposal to form MIPCU, Viacom18 group general counsel Sujeet Jain said the entertainment and TV industry would back any such move as long as results were delivered irrespective of structures and modalities.
    Incidentally, some months back, as reported by indisntelevision.com, MPA, broadcasters and FICCI had joined hands to announce formation of Copyright Force to set agendas for effective safeguarding of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy and engage with the government.

    To give an international perspective, TIPCU, Copyright Force and the proposed MIPCU have been seemingly inspired by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) of the UK , which is a specialist national police unit dedicated to protecting the UK industries that produce legitimate, high quality, physical goods and online and digital content from intellectual property crime.

    PIPCU is operationally independent and launched in September 2013 with £2.56million funding from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the UK government until June 2015. It was announced in October 2014 that PIPCU will receive a further £3 million from the IPO to fund the unit up to 2017. The unit is dedicated to tackling serious and organised intellectual property crime (counterfeit and piracy) affecting physical and digital goods (with the exception of pharmaceutical goods) with a focus on offences committed using an online platform.

    Also Read:

    Online pirates beware, Copyright Force on way

    Internet included in broadcasting for purpose of Copyright

    Telangana leads fight against online piracy in partnership with film industry

    FICCI keen on IPR awareness & enforcement to encourage innovation

    Internet included in broadcasting for purpose of Copyright

     

  • FICCI-KPMG report: Rural India fuels digital consumption; FTA channels gain prominence

    MUMBAI: The ‘Bharat’ story strengthened with expansion of rural measurement in TV and 4G data price wars deepened digital consumption, which were spurred further by mobile Internet and smartphone penetration. While print and films segments were supported by growing demand from the regional markets, demonization affected advertising revenues even as consolidation in the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry gained momentum.

    These were amongst some of the key highlights of year 2016 as enumerated in the FICCI-KPMG Media & Entertainment Industry Report 2017 unveiled yesterday at FICCI Frames 2017.

    Amongst the other highlights were roll out of 4G services, government and private initiatives around public Wi-Fi, greater emphasis on broadband rollout by MSOs and wide ranging impact of government policies and initiatives that had inflicted some short-to-medium term damage (demonization and confusion over GST implementation) on the industry as growth in annual advertising spends got slashed by about 1.5-2.5 per cent. However the report said that the industry is expected to be a net beneficiary of GST, primarily due to availability of input credits across the board and subsuming of entertainment tax within the GST.

    According to the report, the Indian media and entertainment industry in 2016 was able to sustain a healthy growth on the back of strong economic fundamentals and steady growth in domestic consumption, coupled with growing contribution of rural markets across key segments.  These factors aided the industry to grow at 9.1 per cent on the back of advertising growth of 11.2 per cent, despite demonetization shaving off 150 to 250 basis points in terms of growth across all sub-segments at the end of the year.

    The big story in 2016 has been the evolution of FTA channels after expansion by BARC India of rural measurement in the television segment, coupled with the impact of the 4G rollout and the resulting price wars. Both these factors have resulted in media consumption penetrating deeper into India, resulting in a realignment of strategy by media companies and advertisers alike.

    Compared to 2016, the industry is projected to grow at a faster pace of 14 per cent over the period of 2017-21 with advertising revenues expected to increase at a CAGR of 15.3 per cent. The year 2017 is likely to witness a marginally slower rate of 13.1 per cent as the economy recovers from the lingering effects of demonetization and initial uncertainties arising from GST implementation.

    Commenting on the industry’s performance and way forward, FICCI M&E Committee chairman and chairman & CEO of Star India Uday Shankar said, “The industry has gulped down the bitter pill of demonetization trusting its long-term benefits and yet is set to bounce back to a steady growth, thanks to strong fundamentals.”

    He added that building solid infrastructure and continued government support will help the industry reach the “tremendous potential” it holds for employment and creating socio-economic value for the country, while a commitment towards a “quick transition to digitization” will ensure growth for all stakeholders.

    Girish Menon, director, media and entertainment, KPMG India, stated that 2016 was a “mixed bag” for the industry with digital media making its way to the centre stage rapidly from being just an additional medium. While it is compelling existing players to rethink their business models, he added, “The long-term factors driving the future growth are expected to remain positive with growing rural demand, increasing digital access and consumption and the expected culmination of the digitisation process of television distribution over the next two to three years.”

    Some of the key highlights of the FICCI-KPMG report are as follows:

    Television

    The TV industry clocked a slower growth in 2016 at 8.5 per cent, attributed to tepid growth of 7 per cent in subscription revenues and a lower than estimated 11 per cent growth in advertising revenues.

    A key theme in 2016 was the emergence of FTA channels as a key focus area following the expansion in rural measurement by BARC India and the resultant increased interest by both broadcasters and advertisers. Additionally, strong performance of sports properties and increased spending for the launch of 4G by telecom operators helped alleviate some of the pressure. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7 per cent over the next five years with advertising and subscription revenues projected to grow at 14.4 per cent and 14.8 per cent, respectively.

    The projections remain robust due to strong economic fundamentals, rising domestic consumption and growing contribution of rural markets, coupled with the delayed but eventual completion of digitization rollout.

    Digital advertising

    Continuing to ride on a high growth trajectory with a 28 per cent growth in 2016, digital advertising has captured 15 per cent share in the overall advertising revenues, with a minor hiccup due to demonetization. 4G rollouts and the resultant data price wars are providing further impetus to the growth as digital consumption and habits are becoming more mainstream. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 31 per cent to reach INR 294.5 billion by 2021, contributing 27.3 per cent to the total advertising revenues. Advancement in infrastructure, evolving audience measurement technology, leading to better content and lowering data costs, will drive user habits towards greater digital consumption, driving tremendous growth for the industry.

    Animation and Visual Effects (VFX)

    The industry grew at 16.4 per cent, driven majorly by a 31 per cent growth in VFX due to increase in outsourcing work, growing use of VFX in domestic film productions and increase in demand for domestic animated content on television. The industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17.2 per cent over 2017–21.

    Out of Home (OOH)

    The industry registered a slowdown in growth rate at 7 per cent majorly due to adverse impact of demonetization. OOH is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8 per cent primarily driven by development of regional airports, privatisation of railway stations, growth in smart cities, setting up of business and industrial centers and growing focus on digital OOH.

    Radio

    Radio recorded a 14.6 per cent growth led by volume enhancements in smaller cities, partial roll out of batch 1 stations and a marginal increase in effective advertising rates. However, weak uptake in batch 2 auctions of FM radio Phase 3 and delays in the rollout of majority of batch 1 stations, coupled with adverse impact of demonetization, dampened the overall sentiment. Nevertheless, it is expected to be the fastest growing amongst the traditional mediums at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent, arising from operationalisation of new stations in both existing and new cities, introduction of new genres and radio transitioning into a reach medium.

    Print

    The revenue growth rates of print continued to witness a slowdown at 7 per cent in 2016, as English newspapers remained under pressure. Regional language papers demonstrated strong growth, but were adversely affected by demonetization given their high dependence on local advertisers. Print is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent, largely driven by continued growth in readership in Indian languages markets and advertisers’ confidence in the medium, especially in the tier II and tier-III cities. Rise in digital content consumption poses a long-term risk to the industry.

    Films

    Films grew at a crawling pace of 3 per cent in 2016. The segment was impacted by decline in core revenue streams of domestic theatricals and satellite rights, augmented by poor box-office performance of Bollywood and Tamil films. Expansion of overseas markets, increase of depth in regional content and rise in acquisitions of digital content by over-the-top platforms are expected to be the future growth drivers that would help the segment bounce back at a forecasted CAGR of 7.7 per cent. However, factors such as dwindling screen count and inconsistent content quality could prove to be limiting factors.

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    FICCI-KPMG report projects TV sector to reach Rs 1166 bn by 2021

  • FICCI Frames 2017: Stakeholders feel regulations cripple monetization

    MUMBAI: In keeping with the tone set in the morning about the changing scenario as far the political climate and censorship were concerned, every participant was keen to hear what the Government had to say about this on day one of the FICCI FRAMES meet here.

    Clearly not wanting to disappoint the M and E sector, Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Ajay Mittal said the Ministry was conscious of these issues and was working on them.

    He expressed optimism that the entertainment industry will soon get an effective solution to their complaints, though he said he was not liberty at present to give more details about this. But the Government appreciated that “Creativity is a great thing, is the soul of society and it should not be affected”.

    Earlier in the same session, film producer Siddharth Roy Kapoor said, “I would strongly urge the government when it comes to the sub-titling and the litigation of the businesses, these issues must be left to the industry. The maximum support from the government should come from the tax regime, infrastructure sector and censorship.”

    Even as everyone appreciates the growth of the sector over the year, the ‘Do the Lions still roar: a reality check for the M&E industry’ was largely devoted to exploring whether the players in the content ecosystem have done their part to address the industry’s shortcomings or has the plot got lost in translation.

    The M&E industry has been a steady contributor to national revenues, employment growth and socio-economic development; it has shown a trajectory of growth over the past 15 years, been at the real cusp of ‘Make in India’ while promoting Indian culture and its soft power globally. And yet, it was largely dismissed as a glamour hub rather than a serious economic nerve centre.

    Of late, the industry has seen a battle of wits between stakeholders and the Government, thus preventing the sector from realizing its full potential. But the question sought to be explored in the session was whether the industry had done enough to highlight its own story.

    Moderated by The Times of India consulting editor and South Asian History and Culture senior fellow, IDF and editor Nalin Mehta, the session was attended by Union Department of Commerce joint secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, the Film and Television Producers Guild of India president Siddharth Roy Kapur, BAG Films & Media chairman and managing director Anurradha Prasad, Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration Bharat Anand, Viacom 18 Colors CEO Raj Nayak, TataSky MD and CEO Harit Nagpal, and UFO Moviez India Ltd joint managing director Kapil Agarwal among the panelists.

    Asked about the impact of digitization of content and on the business, Nayak said, “People say that the data is the new oil but my philosophy is that the content is the new water. Digitization is no longer a new word. It is just that the number of pipes delivering the content has multiplied in different platforms. If I look at digitization, what is happening is that people have the choice of watching content wherever they want to. But the television audience today is 180 million households and still expected to grow by 80 billion households.”

    He added, “When we look at the monetization, 85 per cent is between Google and Facebook.Of the balance 15 per cent, the growth may be 30 to 35 per cent but it is so fragmented that everybody is losing money. Even when Netflix came, it came via television. If some breaking news is happening people will watch it, if there is some live speech going on or may be for sports, people will watch it on their television sets. As we evolved, we wanted bigger screens to watch television sets that show reality. For content creators, it is a great thing and it is not a golden but a diamond era for them. But the problem is when it comes to monetization because there is so much fragmentation I really doubt how most of these platforms will survive unless of course you are able to get subscription. If you are not able to make the right subscription revenue model, a lot of digital platforms will find it difficult to survive.”

    Asked whether the DTH players were making money from the content, Nagpal said, “People consume content in different ways. Some will spend Rs 20 on the content and some might take different channels in a bundling. So there are different segments. But the purpose of television digitization is to create the infrastructure which is digital and the customer can make his choice. We created a box between the customer and the television, but is that addressable? Officially, DAS Phase 1 and 2 are digitized. We were also supposed to bring transparency. The Government is one stakeholder, the broadcaster is the other stakeholder and the platform that distributes is the third one and the money is divided between the three of us.”

    Nagpal said, “DTH took 33 per cent of phase1 and phase 2 market and two-thirds is sitting with cable. On the service and entertainment tax, this 33 per cent component of digitization would be paying 80 to 90 per cent entertainment tax and 66 per cent of the digital cable sector is paying 10 to 20 per cent of the taxes. Is that addressability? So let not the government waste its time in deciding how I should be pricing myself. They should be making sure whether the digital transparent addressable platform that has been created rightfully.”

    Prasad asked, “Do we still roar? Sorry to say we don’t roar, we don’t have a voice. We have so many issues and for every issue we are going to the court. The stakeholders and the policy makers have divested their power and authority in the organization called TRAI and they vote themselves as they do not know how to move forward. Content needs to be curated, you have to be innovative and for that you need to spend money. You don’t have money flowing back to the system. So the money is getting divested. We don’t get the money back.”

    Sudhanshu Pandey said the service sector in India largely remained unorganized and had to find its own way to develop and grow. Fair market practices have to come in, and the finances should be there for that industry to grow. Some sectors regulators have come but there are many sectors without regulators.

    Agarwal asked: “How do you monetize the film content? The first window of monetization of the film content is theatre, then it goes to the satellite channel and then to other platforms. As a country we need more than 20,000 screens. The capital is there, the facilitation is there but it is restricted by regulations because at least 40 approvals are required. Today the screens are growing only by 2 per cent per annum. When we move from regulation to facilitation, the growth will start and the growth will just not come from the multiplexes but has to happen all over the country. The multiplex sector is very expensive.”