Transitioning From Convergence To Transformation

CII Big Picture Forum is an interface, which aims to bring together leading minds of media and entertainment (M&E) sector to navigate a successful growth path at a time where digital transformation, convergence of technology and disruptive ideas are changing the rules of the game. The Big Picture Summit is CII’s annual flagship event for the M&E sector. Several insightful sessions on day one of the 7th edition of CII Big Picture Summit 2018 highlighted transformative policies in action, changing face of news broadcasting, piracy, leveraging blockchain for new revenue models, and importance of skill-based training in the sector, among others.

Acknowledging the growth potential of the Indian M&E sector, Sudhanshu Pandey, additional secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has called for a concrete plan to increase exports from the sector to USD 10 billion in the coming 5 years. Speaking on the first day of the summit, he stated that as one of the champion sectors supported by the Government of India, the Indian M&E industry has a huge room for growth and should target a potential export growth of USD 10 billion from the current USD 1 billion. Spelling out that India’s contribution in the USD 2 trillion global M&E space is around USD 25 billion, Pandey encouraged the M&E industry to reflect and chalk out a substantial plan to achieve this growth. The industry stakeholders need to reflect on how they grow the export pie of the audio visual sector from USD 1 billion (from the total Indian exports of USD 200 billion) to USD 10 billion in the next few years. Currently, India is ranked fourth in the global audio visual exports in the world. Pandey also emphasized the importance of intellectual property rights (IPRs), which is key to the growth of M&E sector. He cited the example of the US, where the IPR industry contributes USD 6 trillion (38% of total GDP) to the economy. The additional secretary advised that the Indian M&E industry needs to drive IPR intensive industry, as this would safeguard against infringement of originality and creativity of the makers, thereby getting them their due credit.

SK Gupta, secretary, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), expressed that business models were changing with convergence and the new 5G network technology would rapidly change the way we access content in the next 5 years. There has been a dramatic change in the M&E industry in terms of development of both devices and the ecosystem. Everything is getting smart from TV to phones to many other devices. This is modifying how the content is consumed. India currently has 400 million quality internet connections with digital media growing at 22 percent as compared to the 9 percent growth of traditional media. Indians on an average consume 9GB of data/month compared to 3.1 GB/month in USA.

Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharati, asserted that the transformation brought about through digitization of traditional broadcasting would have impact at three different levels: the consumer, distributor, and regulator levels. The consumers are definitely fast catching up in this changing scenario by embracing technology to a great extent. Also, innovations have started at a steady pace. But the regulatory environment is still lagging in terms of establishing new policies, thus needs to fast catch up.

The BCG-CII report, One Consumer, Many Interactions: Indian Media Houses of the Future, was also released at the event. The report recommends that media houses need to reorganize their traditional organizational structures, reskill current workforce, and lay down new standards for overall employee value proposition in order to retain talent in this new era of digitization of knowledge dissemination. The report also predicted that with merging of information technology and traditional broadcasting 7 to 8 lakh jobs will be created by 2023.

Sudhanshu Vats, chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO and managing director, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd, observed that consolidation and convergence of the sector would lead to proliferation of small media-tech companies. He highlighted the challenge of a moral dilemma that will emerge from the convergence of ICT, which has to be addressed due to a changing and a more demanding consumer behavior where one needs to draw a line between personalization and privacy.

Rajiv Aggarwal, joint secretary, DIPP, MoCI assured the industry that the Government of India will provide an enabling environment so that both the communication and information and technology sectors can grow in convergence. Vikram Sahay, joint secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, believes the ministry is working on a new policy framework in the changing media landscape and will be announced shortly. Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) observed that the M&E growth is predominantly being fuelled by the digital segment with increasing consumption of content over the mobile internet. Embracing artificial intelligence and blockchain as new operating system will create a new wave of smart business strategies and modules for the Indian M&E sector.

The second day addressed key topics, such as changing M&E landscape – from convergence to transformation, doing business with India, news in the changing media landscape, digital platforms leading to growth of M&E services as a champion sector, medium or content: who the real king is. A new kind of soft power will emerge of a digitally enabled India in this border-less world of internet, highlighted Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Electronics & IT and Law & Justice, Government of India while speaking at the second day of the summit. While talking about technology, the minister asserted that the M&E industry must travel with time not just content but in technology also. Content will always be the king and good content will lead to better narrative. The minister talked about the different genres that the digital platforms have created within India and the kind of consumption it has led to. He also requested CII to bring out a study on the metamorphosis of the consumer in the sector. Talking about digital media, he suggested that there has to be robust mechanism in place for measuring the ratings of television channels. A robust IP management system can be ensured with a more effective communication between industry, government, and other stakeholders. While talking about the importance of cyber security, the minister requested for inputs from the stakeholders.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII observed that the M&E industry plays a very important role in the country, especially in enhancing the country’s soft skills. The industry is working together to make the industry into a USD 100 billion in the next 4-5 years. During a special session on Changing M&E landscape – From Convergence to Transformation, Amit Khare, secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India stated that the industry is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the country. The regulatory changes have not taken place in the sector at the same pace as technological changes but the government has brought about changes in the processes. The ministry is working toward a national broadcast policy and will need inputs form the industry.

Themed Changing Media Landscape: From Convergence to Transformation, the 7th edition of the CII Big Picture Summit brought all M&E stakeholders from the Government of India – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and National Broadcaster Prasar Bharti – on one platform.