Stakeholders' role key to successful audience measurement mechanism: Manish Tewari

The Broadcasting industry would have to initiate measures to mainstream the BARC process

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | March 11, 2013

Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Manish Tewari, has said that the success of digitisation and a viable Audience Measurement System would depend on the measures taken holistically by all key stakeholders especially the broadcasting industry. The initiation of such measures would ensure an enabling environment leading to changes in the media landscape in the future. For an effective implementation, the industry would have to put in place a roadmap that included critical measures reiterating the growth prospects in the future.

In case of the audience measurement mechanism, the Broadcasting Industry would have to initiate measures to mainstream the BARC process so as to ensure an effective measurement method of audience tastes. The minister stated this while delivering his address at Assocham Infocom Mets Forum 2013 in Delhi.

Elaborating further, Tewari said that in the current scenario the idea of convergence had to be examined within an overall framework that took into account techno-commercial parameters. Synergy between different tools and platforms would provide the opportunity for the Media & Entertainment industry to reach out to newer audiences and engage with them.

The Minister further said that the advent of New Media tools and platforms have revolutionalised the global media space which had led to the democratisation of the information space.

Speaking on the contribution of the film industry, Tewari stated that the industry had grown on its own adopting innovation and creativity at every stage of development. The industry needed to be appreciated for the role played by it over a period of 100 years through the cinematic portrayal of moving images which had contributed to India's soft power. The endeavour of the government was to initiate suitable measures so as to ensure the growth of India as a soft power in the centenary year of Indian cinema. On the specific issue concerning the industry, the Minister said that he was confident that a lot of taxation issues would be resolved for the industry once there was a shift towards the GST regime.

On the Certification process, Tewari said the ministry was mindful of the fact that the whole process needed to be examined in the light of recent events. In this context, the ministry had set up a panel under Justice Mudgal to review the mandate and functioning of CBFC and recommend measures including statutory changes to enable CBFC to deal with contemporary requirements of certification and increased transparency / efficiency.

Secretary I&B, Uday Kumar Varma, mentioned that the proposal of the Ministry of setting up a Films Commission was in an advanced stage. The proposed commission would work as a single window clearance mechanism for Film Producers. Secretary also outlined the changes that had taken place in the realm of Technology, Financing, Business of Distribution, Promotion and Exhibition of Films which had led to the growth of the film industry.

Regarding digitization process, Varma mentioned that the process of implementation during the second phase had been quite satisfactory and the progress was being constantly monitored. He also mentioned that India's prowess could also be explored to unleash its potential as a digital hub.

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