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IT industry seeks moolah in Indian media

Indiantelevision.com Team

(1 July 2009 11:50 pm)

MUMBAI: With the Indian media and the entertainment sector growing at a rapid pace, the IT industry is readying to cash upon the opportunity with new offerings for the segment. These include companies like IBM, Cisco Systems, HCL Technologies and Oracle.

With new technologies like interactive television, blogs, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), social networking sites, e-polls and mobile TV surfacing, media houses are compelled to look beyond one-way communication, BusinessWeek reports.

"In India, media houses are increasingly adopting IT to improve efficiencies and streamline operations in the light of their expansion plans," Oracle VP of India applications Surya Bhardwaj told Businessweek. An example in this: Amar Ujala, the country's fourth largest daily newspaper group, which recently implemented Oracle ERP applications to speed up deployments of its new print locations.

While media houses are increasingly adopting IT to improve efficiencies and streamline operations in a bid to expand their businesses, convergence is also driving the need for better content.

"Worldwide, the Internet has replaced newspaper as the most preferred media in terms of gathering news and background information. And India is no different," said HCL senior VP and global vertical head of telecom, media and entertainment, Karan Puri in an email to BusinessWeek.

The publishing industry is moving into other media mediums like online, mobile, television and radio. The Times of India Group, India's largest media house, has diversified to create TV, web and FM radio properties.

"M&E companies also need to leverage Web 2.0 capabilities to embed third-party social networks, blogs, RSS feeds, instant messaging and other Web services directly into their business processes," Businessweek writes.

The pressure to move to Web 2.0 is providing fertile ground for several IT companies including Oracle, IBM and HCL to step in and tap into this growing market.

The broadcast environment is also changing fast with the emergence of new delivery platforms such as IPTV, direct-to-home (DTH), interactive television and digitalization.