On September 29th faces behind the camera from the media sector, started emerging and converging at JW Marriott as early as 9am. The company to organize this event was afaqs! The gathering was to attend the two day conference - TV.NXT .
The Key note Address “Creating hits across the tv, mobile and the internet-the do's and the dont's” was read by Richard Fernandes ( Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific).
Panel Discussion: Do Investors make money in TV business.
In fact it looked like one of the speakers had not done his homework when asked “what was the age of television in India?” he thought that TV broadcasting started in this country around the 70’s. One of the audience had to inform him of the correct date which was 15th September 1959, in order to set the record straight. At one stage it looked like the TV broadcasting in this country appeared to have started when the satellite channels started beaming in India in the 90’s. They pretended to forget the national broadcaster Doordarshan, maybe because they can never match its sheer reach and the nation building work it did after Independence.
After networking tea, registration and the welcome address by Prassanna Singh of afaqs! the day began on a sombre note. Then came the most important part of the meet, the overview of the report, on the Indian media industry and its future trends was presented by Vivek Couto (Media Partners).
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| A speaker at TV.NXT in Mumbai |
Highlights of the Report
1. Global Media, increasing exposure to India
Sony, News Corp., Walt Disney, Viacom, Time Warner & Discovery will increase their presence in the Indian Sub continent.
2. India TV sector sales i.e TV distribution and TV advertising will reach more than US $15 Billion by 2016
3. By 2016 the CAGR in TV Markets of US will be 3.45%, China 10.3%, UK 2.5%, India 12.1%, Indonesia 16.0%.
4. Indian TV advertising will grow at a CAGR of 15% by 2016
5. As of today Indian TV markets stand at no.5, after Japan, China, Australia and Korea. But by 2016 India will overtake Australia and Korea to be the 3rd largest market in the Asia Pacific region.
Full report can be read at afaqs!.com.
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| Richard Fernandes Key note Speaker with Mukesh Sharma, DD |
He emphasised on the use of Multimedia platforms for the broadcasters. He opined that TV watching is a passive activity. It needs to be clubbed with other media platforms to make the viewing interactive. Clubbing tv , mobile & laptop will garner better results for broadcasters. Richard suggested that broadcasters in the concept developmental stage should work out if the content will work for all platforms.
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Pre Lunch Panel Discussion: Do Investors make money in TV business.
Anchor: Vivek Couto ( Media Partners Asia)
Speakers: Bala Deshpande (NEA India), Manjit Singh (Multi Screen Media), Jayant Mathew (Malayala Manorma ) and MK Anand (UTV Broadcasting).
Bala felt that "media sector can be highly profitable". Darius was of the opinion that "most creative people are not the best commercial people. We need to look at the best of both". Jayant Mathew from the print media informed all about the journey of Malyala Manorma to the electronic medium, more so their change over from journalism to entertainment segment. MK Anand of UTV felt that a team at the right place can create profits to any upcoming or new brand. To him TV business was like a real estate, quite safe & profitable. In a response to a public broadcaster as to why a health channel is not being perceived by the broadcasters as a profitable venture? These were the famous words uttered by MK Anand of UTV: "As long as the channels live on ad support, no one would like to cater to old and poor, only the rich and youth will be looked after. Hence a health channel may not find a place in this country." Indeed famous last words of this session.
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| Many facets of the conference |
After the coffee break Phu Truong of BBC Worldwide was invited to talk about “Thought Leadership- The power of Content”. He started by saying that we tell stories to keep dreams and hopes alive, to make people laugh, to bring out emotions etc. The power of content of BBC lies in its in-depth coverage, impartial presentation, stimulating content. He shared that BBC has learned 5 things over the years.
1. Tell the story that fits the page.
2. Tell the stories where people want to hear them. (the device etc.)
3. Never underestimate more. (if users want more information, pl provide)
4. Don't be afraid when people tell you their stories (we must respect if people want to talk to us)
5. Be true to what you started in the first place. (don't change your vision statement just to make profits)
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| A session in progress |
Pre –lunch panel discussion-2- Getting the game right in sports broadcasting
Anchor:- Sundeep Misra, Network 1 Media.
Speakers:- Sharmista Rijhwani (Independent Media advisor), Anish Dayal (Adv Supreme Court of India), Prasana Krishnan (Neo Sports), Sanjay Trehan (MSN India).
Sanjay felt that sports broadcasters should realise that the audience have shifted base from TV to new technologies, hence the broadcasters should now take a call from the audience point of view rather than just monetization opportunities.
Prasana from NEO was of the opinion that there is an opportunity for regional sports channels.
Sharmista emphasised that cricket will continue to have its place over and above all other sports and with IPL there is no turning back now.
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| L.V Krishnan CEO TAM Media Research |
Anish Dayal the advocate felt that stealing footage from the right holder broadcaster is one major issue that all channels are facing. He added that it is better for broadcasters to issue guidelines vis-a-vis use of their footage. He narrated his experience about the problem he faced with the Public Broadcaster during India Pakistan cricket series. Mr. Mukesh Sharma Deputy D G marketing and Sales of Prasar Bharati, clarified DD’s position vis-a-vis cricket rights.
After a well laid out sumptuous lunch at J W Marriott, the broadcasters were back in business and the post lunch topic was “Thought Leadership – Redefining the Indian TV viewer – the new SEC” by L V Krishnan (CEO TAM Media) and Sharan Sharma (TAM).
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| The TAM team at work |
Through a power point presentation the TAM team gave insight of the new classification system which it tends to bring out. This system will take care of both urban and rural audience measurement since the cable penetration has now entered into the rural areas significantly.
After the coffee break Sreekant Khandekar (AFAQS!) spoke to Sailesh Rao of Google on “Why TV firms need to take new media seriously”
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| Phu Truong of BBC Worldwide |
Sailesh Rao (Google) gave quite an insight on youtube videos and how in the last couple of years the uploading of videos have doubled per minute, i.e. 48 hours of video every minute. Youtube boxoffice has also become very popular to watch films. There is a significant rise of youtube on mobile devices. Over 100 million people are active on the internet today making it the main form of media consumption. He summed up to say that “It is more important to go to where people are than wait for them to come for the first time to you. Youtube is doing this”
The last panel discussion of the day was – “Why content firms can’t seem to scale up”
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| Last Session of the Day |
The anchor Vanita Kohli Khandekar (Business Standard) threw open the discussion for the panellists to analyse that in spite of the fact that the TV market has grown to more than 15000 cr, the maximum annual turnover of a production house still hovers around 150 cr which is miniscule. The speakers namely Anil Arjun (Reliance Media Works), Sunman Sood (Acendo Capital), Karan Ahluwalia (Yes Bank), Richard Fernandes (Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific) and B Srinivasan (Vikatan Televistas) shared their experiences with the audience but did not impress much.
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| Mukesh Sharma Deputy DG Mktg , Doordarshan at TV.NXT |
