Focus 2012: Dawn of the Digital Age

Digitisation is undoubtedly affecting every aspect of media, and how

Ananya Saha | Delhi | May 7, 2012

The new digital paradign is all set to restructure the working models for the television, music, publishing and film industries. Movies and television shows are gradually embracing the 'on-demand' mode on any digital device while books, newspapers, magazines and other forms of publications are reinventing themselves on interfaces such as mobile phones and tablets. With information getting commoditised, several media firms are switching from subscription fees to 'freemium' pricing business model combining free services with paid-for-premium services.

The session on 'Print Media: Challenges and Opportunities in Digital Age' highlighted how the emergence of e-newspapers and viewership going online offers a new challenge and opportunity for leading print newspapers and magazines, and why are industry players unbundling products to increase profitability.

Sukumar Ranganathan, Editor, Mint said that the misconception that print will die in India stems from the fact that US saw this trend, “However, since newspapers' revenues are not dependent on circulation and only on advertising revenues, it might just not happen here.” He highlighted how the business newspaper Mint uses social media to amplify the fact the news they have put on their website and print publication.

The Economists' MD Suprio Guha Thakurta was of the view that Kindle and tablets have brought to the 'lean back and read the magazines' back to fashion, which is a step ahead from print magazines putting up their websites and sharing content online. Raghav Subramanian, COO, Lintas Initiative Media pointed to the fact that the strength of advertising on print is locally-driven with retail, real estate and education leading the pack. “Advertising is increasing on television, and decreasing on print. But that does not mean newspaper is threatened by digitization, it is only being challenged by it,” he said. Adding to the discussion was Vandana Das, President, DDB Mudra who opined that agencies no longer look at mediums and media but at touchpoints where they can connect with the consumer.

The session on Radio and Music Theme: “New Avenues for Revenue” talked about the issues like royalty payment between music companies and radio industry; content innovation as key for the success of Radio; increase FM-enabled mobile phones are driving radio growth in India; digital music on Mobile; key devices for music industry revenue; monetisation of music rights in Digital medium and copyright issue between music and radio industry.

Anand Raj, Head Non Traditional Revenue, Red FM suggested that the radio stations should exploit social media, and VAS over mobile phones to create revenues. He said that the archived content can be marketed to audience though parallel platform of social media. Pallab Mitra, Head Consumer VAS, Tata Teleservices highlighted that the future belongs to cloud-based streaming that would increasingly shift from content acquisition to content curation.

Ananya@BestMediaInfo.com

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