IBDF’s Avinash Pandey pick: Bold bet or smart play?

New Delhi: After close to six months of rigorous search, the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation found its next secretary general in former ABP Network CEO Avinash Pandey, who will replace Siddharth Jain.

IBDF recently elected Sony Pictures Networks India CEO and MD Gaurav Banerjee as its president. While presidents keep rotating following elections every two to three years, the secretary general is a permanent role, ensuring the implementation of the agenda set by the board.

The IBDF Board was seeking a leader who could repair relations in Delhi and reassert the industry’s collective voice.

Describing how Pandey fits the bill, industry insiders highlighted his political clout and networking with ministers and parliamentarians.

Moreover, his roots from Bihar was a ‘clincher’, as it ensures his inroads in bureaucracy, sources told BestMediaInfo.com.

Pandey has led several industry associations and forums, including News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) in the past.

Pandey quit ABP Network last year after two decades. He was brought in by the then CEO Uday Shankar, who is now leading JioStar as vice chairman.

Several industry veterans see IBDF’s move as bold, with the industry body representing large entertainment broadcasters entrusting a former news executive with the task of handling its office.

His news-centric background, some warn, may not translate easily to the technical and commercial complexities of Pay TV distribution or the distinct economics of general entertainment and OTT platforms.

“Pandey has spent his career in a free-to-air market, which is only dependent on the advertising revenues. He must be lacking his grip on the Pay TV ecosystem, where subscription revenues play a major role,” said a top executive who did not want to be named.

“At the same time, Pandey can play an active role in fixing news broadcasters’ revenue stream with the adoption of Pay TV in future, if he helps the ecosystem survive,” the executive added.

The large broadcast networks are betting big on their OTT platforms for their growth. However, they are facing stiff competition from global tech giants like Google and Meta, who corner the largest pie in ad spends.

“Pandey will have to quickly get a grip on both Pay TV and OTT ecosystem in order to ensure orderly growth of the industry,” said the executive quoted above.

With Pandey as secretary general, IBDF intends to usher in a slew of reforms with clear mandates.

Talking about expectations from Pandey, industry insiders listed tasks cut out for him:

1. He has to stay on top of the industry developments.
2. He has to be the voice for the media and entertainment broadcasting, including OTT, before various ministries and regulators.
3. He has to be the bridge between other industry bodies, such as AAAI and ISA, and IBDF members.
4. He has to expand the scope of IBDF powers by bringing in more members.
5. He has to make IBDF self-sustainable.

Hits and misses under Jain

Stakeholders acknowledge there were gaps across several fronts. Both IBDF and Pandey will have to draw lessons from the past four years of Jain’s tenure as Secretary General.

Jain, who joined IBDF in July 2021 after a long career at Turner International, was expected to bring a global perspective and digital focus.

He did launch initiatives like IDMIF and DMCRC to bring OTT into the fold, but insiders say aspects of the foundation’s performance fell short of industry expectations.

“Jain operated as an inward manager rather than an outward advocate, rarely meeting key stakeholders, with limited on-the-record engagement before regulators and ministries," multiple industry sources told BestMediaInfo.com.

“Membership and revenues declined, representation narrowed to large Delhi-based broadcasters, and smaller/regional members felt ignored. Meanwhile, IBDF’s near-invisibility in policy consultations with TRAI, MIB and CCI forced member networks to lobby individually or turn to courts,” the source added.

According to insiders, the most consequential miss of Jain’s tenure was not leveraging IBDF’s biggest regulatory success, the BCCC’s self-regulatory framework for TV.

“The self-regulatory model put together by BCCC worked, the controversy around non-news and current affairs channels practically vanished. Had this success story been marketed properly, the government might have extended similar leeway to OTT, giving the medium time to mature. Today, the actual number of controversial OTT shows is negligible, but the perception is that ‘everything objectionable is on OTT.’ If BCCC had been showcased better to all stakeholders, policymakers, judiciary and even consumers, OTT too would have been given that space and time. That, in my view, was the biggest failure,” a top industry veteran said.

Past four years’ assessment of the foundation pushes for the need to rebuild trust with smaller and regional broadcasters, revive its visibility with policymakers, and reposition self-regulation as a credible alternative to state control, especially in the OTT space.

Industry veterans warn that unless IBDF quickly reclaims its advocacy role, broadcasters face very real threats, regulatory fragmentation with multiple measurement currencies, widening strain between pay-TV and OTT economics, and a further slide in advertising revenues.