Media and Entertainment industry growth in India

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India television informs that the Indian media and entertainment industry is set to grow at twice the rate of the country’s GDP and the main factors of these would be -  a) regional players b) technology c) digitization of the media.

Wider access to Internet and change in consumer behaviour - with the latter migrating fast towards interactive platforms, will force the marketers also rethinking their strategy in terms of spending spots.
Earnst & Young estimates that though currently the online advertising revenue contributes a meager Rs 350 crores to a total of Rs 22,000 crore advertising market in India, advertising in the digital era is revolutionising the way brands connect with its consumers.
"To connect with these consumers, marketers are being forced to look beyond the traditional mass advertising model of 10-second spots and adopt interactive mechanisms to engage with them," the report says.

But to achieve this I think some greater push is required from the industry and also from the government to create the infrastructure to support this growth.

Television:

Most of the Indians have a ‘Home - Office - Home ‘ life and that wouldn’t change much hence Television is something that would not stop growing and there is sort of mimicing localization effect which seems to work very well. One successful show in Hindi or English - convert into a regional show and you have the local audience glued to the TV. Even with poor service from cable operators or DTH, people can live without food but not without TV. But these guys have to be more cautious while treating their young and influential audience - as these people are now spending more time on social networks and social media. The more you dumb down the more you would loose the creamy audience for which the advertizers pays for.

Mobile:

Again this caters to the aspirations of all the classes of people - strivers, aspirers and achievers, just the screen size and feature list changes for the mobile phones. Majority of the people are still voice customers but have taken on well some VAS stuff like - cricket scores, stock market updates, banking updates, and other basic stuff. All the major corporate now provide their employees with mobile internet and email equipped handsets and connection.

But the mobile operators have still very mediocre VAS applications - nothing beyond exploiting ringtones and cricket updates. I don’t really understand why they have no plans for personal communication & personal media sharing between their users. Every phone is now a camera phone and Indians love to stay connected and chat with their friends. Their goal should not be to push VAS offering but VAS which generates intercommunication between their users - MMS, Chat, Mobile Content and all that.

Online:

This is where you see lots of stuff happening and I think now you have established players in all the vertical segments you can think of, and that’s a good thing. I would really appreciate people like Indian Railways where you can book  a ticket in midnight and get the ticket at 10 am on your doorstep. Then we have lots of engaging portals offering news, entertainment, videos, social network, user generated media and all the latest stuff happening online. Main stream media is trying hard to get into this space, but they end up doing offline things online and fail. Online user is not a commodity - he is a user, he is a consumer, he is contributor and he himself is a moderator. Think platform and do not think just as a publisher.

Government:

I think instead of just minting money from licenses and delayed policy implementation, the government should push for early adoption of technology and creating a healthy competition in all the sectors. Just try getting a broadband connection in financial capital - mumbai and the silicon valley of India - Bangalore and you would realize the level of ‘growth’. The delay in mobile spectrum allocation may really prove costly. Government should also involve private players in spreading the reach - why can’t we have free wi-fi on airport terminals - powered by some ISP with their ads all over the place - or a kiosk in village sponsored by a FMCG and internet access in Schools and Colleges through similar sponsoring. Make it open, make it bidding based and make it fast - business are dying out for such places to advertize.

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