Voor wat het waard is............kutkoers
New Delhi, Dec. 31 The Indian media industry spread its wings this year like never before, and went places, both in new platforms, technologies and new geographies. Multi-platform entertainment and digitisation is set to change the dynamics in the industry in the coming years.
The year, which started off with the Conditional Access System (CAS) being introduced in pockets in three metros, saw viewers upgrading to digital television. For the million-odd CAS viewers with set-top boxes on the cable platform, there were about 7-8 million others enjoying the benefits of the other new digital platform, Direct-to-Home (DTH).
Dish TV (2.6 million) and Tata Sky (1.5 million), were bringing multi-angle cricket highlights and live darshans to their viewers, some of whom lived in places not yet served by the cable and satellite network which feeds 75 million viewers. The service, which reached Kargil this year, is expected to spread much faster next year. Following Sun network’s launch this year, Reliance, Videocon and Bharti are all expected start their services in 2008.
Tata Sky’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Vikram Mehra, says, “Digitisation was a wake-up call for broadcasters who had for too long been dependent on advertising revenue, which is quite fickle. There is a lot of content and a lot more coming next year, the bigger issue is how to monetise this content,” he says. The DTH operators themselves are facing a shortage of transponder space, and will be forced to choose and pick from the multitude of new channels expected in 2008 from both new players and existing ones.
Television networks such as Network18, NDTV and UTV headed to the Alternative Investment Market in London to fund their new plans. The first two, current affairs specialists, announced their plans for entertainment. Network18, which distributed the hit movie Jab We Met, will work with Viacom, MTV’s parent company. UTV and NDTV may also announce strategic investors or partners in 2008. Turner, in association with Miditech, has planned a Hindi entertainment channel for next year. INX Media, UTV’s youth channel Bindaas and B.A.G. films’ news channel were among this year’s launches. Next year’s possible long list includes NDTV general entertainment channel, Imagine, Vir Sanghvi-led NewsX from INX, and UTV’s new proposition. Even BBC and Al Jazeera got more serious about India this year.
However, says Mr Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN, “There does seem to be a crisis of content. And that’s paradoxical given the explosion of content across multi-media platforms. The question is whether quality is keeping pace with quantity.” The news during the year was not always good: the untiring coverage of the Rai-Bachchan wedding, of crime, Rakhi Sawant and fake sting operations had the I&B Ministry worried. Its proposed code of conduct in the controversial draft Broadcast Bill is being reworked after the industry raised serious objections.
The debate continues: the new draft bill is expected to be ready early next year. During the year, the government also introduced a new ordinance that forces broadcasters to share live feed with Prasar Bharati of any event judged to be of national interest, particularly cricket.
For, when television viewers were not watching reality or talent shows, they were watching cricket. And there was a lot to sing and dance for those involved with cricket this year. “The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 will top the list of events of the year,” says Mr R. C. Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd. “Never before has any tournament in any sport created such a huge euphoria.” The network’s 2007-born Star Cricket channel achieved record viewership for the India-Pakistan finals.
With India’s victory, advertisers proclaimed the new Twenty20 format as the cricket of the future. BCCI’s Indian Premier League is to reinforce this idea. The new off-the-pitch features seen during Essel’s Indian Cricket League tournament may also continue. Expect to see a lot more cricketainment as well as a slew of advertising starring actors and cricketers together. In short, 2007 was like an episode of a K-soap. All about a prosperous family going places, lots of drama, some melodrama and twists and turns. There is no happy ending, it’s television.