Indian media and entertainment industry will reach the $100 billion mark soon: Apurva Chandra

The Indian media and entertainment industry has been continuously growing in the past 20 years and will reach the $100 billion mark soon, said Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Apurva Chandra, at the 10^th edition of the CII Big Picture Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with Prasar Bharati. He also said that the government would like to have light-touch regulation and act more as facilitators.

Chandra also said that the creation of a Broadcast Seva Portal provides a single point facility to various stakeholders, providing an efficient and transparent regime for the Broadcast Sector. The government is also working towards creating a National Centre of Excellence for AVGC and the Film Facilitation Office is working to help with theatre opening approvals, he added. He also announced that in addition to participation in all major international film festivals, India will also participate in international festivals in animation, gaming, and visual effects from 2022 onwards.

The theme of the summit was Scaling New Heights of Content, Creativity, and Innovation.

CEO, Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, spoke about the public broadcaster scaling new heights of content, creativity, and innovation by converting archival footage into modern shareable file formats. He also stated that the convergence of television and radio content through technology was the way forward.

The two-day summit, which kicked off on November 17, was attended by several prominent members from the media and entertainment industry who shared their views on the possibilities for growth and requirements of the sector.

K Madhavan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media and Entertainment and Country Manager and President, The Walt Disney Company India, and Star India, gave an overview of the media and entertainment sector at the Summit. After the IT sector, it is the media and entertainment sector which has the potential to change the fortunes of 1 billion Indians, he said. Madhavan also called for a single national policy for the sector, which captures the industry’s aspirations and will help bring greater clarity for industry and regulator alike.

PD Vaghela, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI), promised simplified, and time-bound procedures for applications and approvals thereby creating end to end solutions for all the stakeholders of the industry. From a 13 million broadband subscribers and eight hours of monthly consumption of content in 2011, to 800 million subscribers and five hours of daily content consumption today, the industry had come a long way. He added that with 55% television penetration, the paid television sector still had a lot of potential to expand. He urged industry stakeholders to work together and strive to ensure 100% television penetration.

Touching upon the problems being faced by the industry in his address, Siddharth Roy Kapur stated that the creative sector is facing a threat to freedom of expression because of frivolous elements. A few words from the authorities at the Centre, condemning such acts of vandalism, would help curtail them, he said.

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