BackMedia business set to double, creating jobs: Star India’s Uday Shankar
Shankar says the biggest challenge for the media and entertainment industry is the growing climate of intolerance
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Mumbai: India’s media and entertainment business is expected to double in size to ₹ 1.66 trillion by 2017, offering the prospect of being an employment generator without needing large public investments, Star India chief executive officer (CEO) Uday Shankar said on Tuesday.
Shankar said, however, that the biggest challenge facing the industry was the threat to freedom of expression, sounding a warning about the growing climate of intolerance in India.
Shankar said the media and entertainment industry should be more ambitious about its vision for the future.
“In business and creative terms, the Indian media and entertainment sector still remains much smaller than it should be in a country of 1.2 billion people," said Shankar at the opening of the annual Ficci Frames conclave on media and entertainment in Mumbai. “Our collective and individual ambitions should be taking wings around this big opportunity."
Increased digitization, the growth of regional media, forthcoming election, the strength of the film sector and fast-increasing new media businesses will see India’s media and entertainment industry grow 11.8% to ₹ 91,700 crore this year, the report said.
Shankar said in his inaugural address that a consensus approach would be critical to growth. Star India is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
“In my view the single most important enabler towards all this would be a strong alignment within the industry, and with other stakeholders in the government and the policy establishment," he said.
Shankar cited the digitization exercise—a government mandated switch to digital TV signals from analog—as being an example of this. The shift is aimed at improving signal quality and plugging leakages in the form of under-reported subscriber numbers.
Shankar said it was important to recognize that “media and entertainment is a real economic enterprise, not just a vehicle of glitz and glamour".
This was “particularly relevant in India because it can be an employment generator without massive public investments and without being hampered by the deficiencies of public infrastructure," he said. “Just to put things in perspective, as a $15 billion industry, we employ over 6 million people. This can be so much more significant and meaningful."
One of the big gaps that the industry needs to fix is the absence of accurate data, for instance, when it comes to ratings and viewership.
“There are 140 million cable and satellite homes but the measured universe is 62 million households. I do not know how many subscribers I have with a particular MSO (multi-system operator) and the MSO doesn’t know how many households his LCO (local cable operator) delivers the signals to," he said.
“Same is true in advertising too. The country’s premier media agencies can’t even seem to agree on a fact as basic as the size of the advertising market."
Andy Bird, chairman, Walt Disney International, said that he was pleased with the progress of digitization.
“We see tremendous opportunity in rapidly growing markets like China, Russia, Latin America, South Korea and, of course, India. Connecting with consumers in these regions is a key strategic priority," he said.
Walt Disney last year acquired a controlling stake in Ronnie Screwvala’s television company UTV Software Communications Ltd, which runs film and youth channels. Disney also operates its own children’s channels in the country.
“The more clear policy and firm decisions the government takes, the more investment India will attract," Bird said at the conference.
The lack of adequately trained talent is holding back the Indian industry, Shankar said.
“We have a real crisis on both supply and quality. While it is not unique to media and entertainment, what is different is the lack of recognition of the scale of the challenge," Shankar said.
“While other fast growing sectors like IT (information technology) and financial services are actively working to find the right talent and building the right skills, we, as a community are complacent in our belief that this sector is different."
Shankar said, however, that freedom of expression was the biggest challenge facing the industry. “It is time for us to recognize that free speech is what is sacrosanct, not the right to be offended," he said.
“This perhaps is the only major democracy in the world where, after over 60 years of independence, there continues to be a debate on how much freedom can be given to the media," Shankar said. “I am shocked that there are still groups and interests who continue to debate on the right amount of freedom that can be granted to media; as if this is something to be granted and as if this is even negotiable."
Robert Bakish, president and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks, said consumption of content was at an all-time high globally.
In India, Viacom has a joint venture with TV18 that runs the Hindi general entertainment channel Colors along with MTV and Nick, among others.
TV18 is a subsidiary of Network18 Media and Investments Ltd. Network18 also holds a 50% stake in Viacom18.
Sai Kumar, group CEO, Network 18, said, “Entertainment has no boundaries... We are now seeing reverse migration. Soaps from the local market, such as Balika Vadhu and Uttaran are now making their way to broadcasters in the rest of the world."
He added that the potential to exploit content across platforms was much higher than it used to be. Earlier, content production was tied to the platform of distribution. “It’s a good problem to have," he said.
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