Indiantelevision.com Team

(17 April 2008 9:10 pm)

LAS VEGAS: The Indian entertainment industry is seeing robust growth, speakers at NAB said.

The Indian entertainment super session at NAB, the world's largest broadcast and content technology show produced by the Indo American Chamber of Commerce, was moderated by E&Y National Sector Leader Farokh Balsara and panelists included Star India CEO Jagdish Kumar, ENIL's AP Parigi, Alva Brothers Gorup CEO Sunil Lulla, Eros Americas President Ken Naz, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting joint secretary (India) Zohra Chaterjee and exchange4media group founder and editor in chief Anurag Batra.

Interesting facts that were emphasized upon included things such as India being one of the most unregulated television markets in the world; India being one of the most free countries as far as media goes; Indian broadcast and advertising still under penetrated and under served - which spells opportunity; the growing market globally for Indian cinema including countries like Russia, Germany, Carribean, the middle east; Government's priority on digitalization; Radio and its growth potential; 66 magazines launched in past 18 months; and internet ventures of media companies.

Indeed, every segment in media is full of opportunity and international companies do stand to gain from participation.

Farokh Balsara unveiling an E&Y report on the occasion shared, "The GDP of India's entertainment economy is at $12.5 billion and is growing at twice the speed of the rest of the world. More than 52 per cent of the country's population is below 25 years of age and more than 60 per cent of the population is in the working group age. By 2010, India will have the largest English speaking population in the world and the Indian media and entertainment sector has been and will continue to be one of the largest beneficiaries of these macro economic and demographic factors."

Elaborating further, Balsara said:"More than 1100 films are released annually and 3.7 billion movie tickets were sold every year, Almost 75 million cable and satellite homes and a majority of the content consumed in India is being indigenously produced."

Jagdish Kumar pointed out that the Indian television space was underserved and under penetrated with only 55 per cent homes having TV. He also said that India was the only country in Asia where anyone could come in and set up a general entertainment channel.

Talking about programming trends, Lulla stated that programming formats were in; they reduced risk as well as brought in other kinds of revenues.

Parigi believed that radio was amongst the most effective local media and was great value for money at the price points that existed today in the Indian marketplace. An interesting figure he threw up during the conversation was that in Mumbai 40 per cent of Radio Mirchi's consumption is through FM on mobile telephony.


"FM Radio in India has been the best example of PPP (Public Private Partnership) anywhere in the world, what with 250 stations rolled out in the past 14 months. The first wave was a little bit non synchronous, but this time around we have a robust framework policy and the permission to bring in FDI. I see a great future for radio in the country. It is a 'Must Have' carry medium for media planners," parigi added.

Added Chaterjee: "Another 700 radio stations are to be put up for auction over the next 6-7 months in phase 3. FDI norms will be loosened up a little bit. We are conservative about news on radio and are conservative about content. We are looking at cross media ownership and we do not have a broadcast regulator in-spite of the growth. India is a very free country as far as media goes."

Ken Naaz from Eros International shared that there were 3.1 billion people watching Holllywood movies across the world while 3.7 billion people watch Bollywood movies. "The subjects are getting better and so are the production values," he said.

"If we look globally, for the addressable audience, there are the traditional markets including India, Pak, Bangladesh. Other than that, countries like Germany, Russia, Middle East, the Carribean are emerging markets for Indian fare," Naaz added.

He also informed that Eros set up operations in the UK 10 years ago and in the US seven years ago. He said that in the UK 97 per cent of Eros' releases were now projected onto the mainstream while 70 per cent of UK movies were scheduled for good theaters.

Sharing the box office figures, Naz pointed out that OSO did a business of $3.6 million with 111 prints released. "While that is the figure for a blockbuster, B class movies do around $800,000 to $1 million," he said.

exchange4media.com's Anurag Batra mentioned that media valuations was an important area and needed to be focused upon more as only then will it spur growth and entrepreneurship.

Can a discussion about Indian entertainment be complete without Cricket and Bollywood?

The panel also discussed the two binding agents that were common across the otherwise diverse Indian audience landscape. It opined that cricket was indeed a common topper and TV channel programming lineups were altered every time a big match came up.

Bollywood, however, was the iconic source for a lot of the content: the music, the celebrity shows and tent-pole programming.

The panel session also touched upon Internet and Mobile Interactivity as growing areas within the surging Indian entertainment economy.