| These
were some of the points made yesterday at
the Digital Entertainment session during the
Sixth International conference on communications,
convergence that was organised by the IMC.
The speakers were Hinduja Ventures president,
corporate affairs Ashok Mansukhani, Indiantelevision.com
founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari,
Indusind Media and Communications MD Ravi
Mansukhani and IOL Netcom senior VP Anil Pandya.
Ashok
Mansukhani noted that with new technologies
coming the convergence commission needs
to be revived. Wanvari countered that saying
that it had been tried in the past but fell
flat on its face. Wanvari also drew attention
to the fact that there are regulation issues
that need to be looked at. For a while now,
there has been talk that one body should
oversee the media and entertainment industry.
That has not happened, he pointed out.
Wanvari
stated that regulation should pave the way
for more consumer freedom in the marketplace.
So far regulation has not been satisfactory
in some areas. For instance while the government
had mandated Cas in certain areas it has
not picked up.
Ravi
Mansukhani called for the government to
mandate the digitisation of cable across
the country. On the issue of pricing, he
noted that at the moment due, to the upcoming
elections, the pricing has been fixed for
channels at Rs 5 in Cas areas. The expectation
is that when Reliance and Bharti launch
DTH services they will shake the ground.
Wanvari noted that due to the distribution
quagmire, channels have to pay carriage
fees upto Rs 300 million. “Is the government
ready to monitor the cable system? Will
it be a proactive or a retroactive mechanism?”
he asked.
Another
issue that needs addressing if service providers
want to achieve the Wow factor is service,
which Wanvari noted is not of a uniformly
high caliber in the broadcasting industry.
In some areas, consumers are neglected.
For instance broadband connectivity speeds
in many areas leave much to be desired.
256kbps is not broadband and one for instance
has to wait for a while for a video on Youtube
to appear.
It
also does not help that there has been confusion
in the minds of consumers regarding which
technology is the best. Ashok Mansukhani
noted that DTH operators have teething problems.
IPTV has few takers. Will mobile TV work?
The key to providing a Wow entertainment
experience lies in service providers and
broadcasters upscaling customer interfaces.
Problems relating to delivery of content
need to be sorted out fast or else the consumer
will migrate elsewhere. As technology and
entertainment choices grow the consumer
will become more and more fickle he warns.
The challenge for the service providers
will be to create a viable business model
that caters to different demographics.
In
terms of the importance of consumer education
and awareness, Wanvari expressed disappointment
that the IPTV service providers were not
doing enough to market their products. For
instance, MTNL has a thousand IPTV subscribers
in Mumbai. The consumer has to be educated
about it. This is all the more important
as consumers are simple and if there is
too much choice we are likely to get confused.
Offering
his view on the future of entertainment
Ashok Mansukhani noted that that reduced
Arpus has led to telecom operators offering
video services. Meanwhile MSOs are now focussing
on broadband. He sees the television landscape
changing by 2010 wherein channels as we
know them now will die and in their place
you will have a million customized choices.
Niche casting of consumer-selected shows
will happen. “News, sports and reality
shows will continue to be popular. Content
will shift to an issue of time and choice.
Broadband penetration can come in by using
the 72 million cable and satellite homes
as a base.”
One
issue that the panelists agreed upon was
that there is a place for different technologies
to co-exist. At the end of the day the person
who offers better services, choice, width
and depth will win.
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