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MUMBAI: “It’s the end of TV, the way we know it.”
That was Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra introducing his keynote
at the plenary session today - Digital Entertainment Living.
The thrust of Chandra’s presentation could be said to be the
common strand running through most of the sessions on Day 2 of Ficci
Frames 2006, which is that the future was the consumption of content
would be according to individual requirements and on the go as it
were – how you want it, when you want it, where you want it.
Chandra spoke of a five point agenda that his company had laid
out as its course into the digital future.
These included the need for segmentation of content; innovation in
pricing; experimentating with new content ideas; seamless delivery
across various platforms; and fourthly, essentially extending the
preceding points, the absolute need to prepare for the future if loyalty
of consumers was to be preserved.
Said Chandra, “We have to segment our content. Segmentation will
become very important. Content needs to be individualized, personalized.”
He also pointed to the possibility that it would not just be programming
that was customised but advertising as well. Advertising directed
at individuals rather than a mass audience will become possible, the
Zee head honcho averred.
Expanding on the point of seamless delivery across platforms, Chandra
made a strong case for the need to move towards opens standards
rather than focusing on proprietary control.
Chandra warned that it was essential that broadcasters “prepare
for the future otherwise consumers will desert us.”
Chandra said that the huge effort that was currently on to digitise
Zee’s entire content library (1,500 movies, 50,000 hours of
TV) in partnership with IBM was part of that effort. Chandra estimated
that it would be another year before the process was complete.
Another key initiative in that direction, announced earlier in
the day in partnership with chip maker Intel, is a separate company
Digital Media Convergence Ltd (DMCL) to be headed by Zee Telefilms
president Abhijit Saxena, Chandra said. DMCL’s brief was to
acquire, digitize and make available on various platforms, a wide
variety of content, he pointed out.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of another
session, Saxena said that DMCL would become fully functional only
after Zee’s content offering had been completely digitised.
The interim period (one year) would be spent in acquiring content
from a variety of vendors across the globe, Saxena said.
Also read:
Essel,
Intel partner on digital content
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