Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation, in its 24th AGM held in Delhi on Tuesday, relected K Madhavan, Country Manager and President, Disney Star India, as its president for the year 2023-24.
India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma was re-elected Vice President (News & Current Affairs) while Rahul Joshi was re-elected Vice President (Govt. & Regulatory Affairs).
Zee’s Punit Misra was re-elected Treasurer.
Following Directors were re-elected to the Board during the AGM:
K. Madhavan
Punit Misra
I. Venkat
Rajat Sharma
The other Directors on the Board of Directors of IBDF are:
Rahul Joshi
Aroon Purie
N. P. Singh
Nitin Nadkarni
Punit Goenka
R. Mahesh Kumar
Gaurav Banerjee
In the IBDF Board of Directors meeting that followed the AGM, John Brittas and Kevin Vaz were Co-opted to the Board.
Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary (P&A), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting also joined the IBDF members at a lunch hosted after AGM.
Addressing the members during the AGM, IBDF President, K. Madhavan said, “despite the ongoing geo-political issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle-East due to the Israel-Hamas war and accompanying economic volatility, the Indian economy in general and the Media & Entertainment industry, in particular, have shown extreme resilience”.
“India has firmly embarked on a digital transformation journey with 868 mn internet users in India, and within a year of launch, 5G services have been rolled out across 97% of Indian cities resulting in internet speeds going up by 3 times. Connected TV continues to grow with 90% of TV sets sold in India being smart TVs. 2023 will be a defining year for the Indian M&E industry with digital ad revenue expected to surpass ad revenue on traditional media,” he added.
On the Linear TV penetration in the country, Madhavan said, “With 900 channels, Linear television continues to enjoy an unparalleled reach of 900 million viewers and is the largest media platform in India. Unlike in other developed markets, there is significant growth potential for the Linear TV as one-third of households in India do not have access to television. It will require the collective might of the IBDF members to connect the left out 100mn households to our fold.”