CII-Pickle Big Picture Summit 2015 issue by Pickle -- Indian M&E Biz

POLICY SPECIAL : MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT O C T O BE R 2015

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NATIONAL POLICY FOR

High Growth of M&E TO WA R D S $ 1 0 0 B I L L I O N I N D I A N M & E I N D U S T RY

CII CEOs Roundtable with Mr Sunil Arora (Lâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;R): Mr J S Mathur, Special Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India Pvt Ltd, Mr Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd at CEOs Roundtable with Mr Sunil Arora, on 12 October 2015, New Delhi

CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT October 19-20, 2015, Taj Palace, New Delhi Best minds, Best talent, Best content

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POLICY SPECIAL : MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT O C T O BE R 2015

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NATIONAL POLICY FOR

High Growth of M&E TO WA R D S $ 1 0 0 B I L L I O N I N D I A N M & E I N D U S T RY

CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT October 19-20, 2015, Taj Palace, New Delhi Best minds, Best talent, Best content

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Chandrajit Banerjee Director General Confederation of Indian Industry

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CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT

EVERYONEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S INVITED An innovative push from the government in an enabling regulatory infrastructure and policy reforms will create a world class knowledge driven entertainment economy for India. says Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII

he CII Big Picture Summit has become the essential meeting place for everyone associated with the Indian M&E sector to do a reality check on where do we go from here. We welcome you all to the fourth edition of the CII Big Picture Summit with focus on National Policy for High M&E Growth -- Towards Achieving $100 billion by the end of this decade. We have brought together the finest of the creative and business minds of the M&E sector -- the government, regulator, academia and civil society -- to chalk out a path that could guide us in scaling this vibrant sector to new heights. We are thankful to all media and entertainment industry leaders from all over the country for their participation. At this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Summit, we will be honouring film icons Ajay Devgn and Sharmila Tagore for their contributions to the Indian cinema.

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From its current $20 billion contribution to the Indian economy, the Indian M&E sector aims to touch the $100 billion mark in the next five years. This means we have to more than double our growth every three years. The objective of assembling the industry stakeholders is to deliberate challenges and accelerate to work toward an ecosystem to make this happen. Our vision is to create growth templates in all M&E verticals and bring the industry together to speak in united voice for all major issues. CII Big Picture Summit would not have been successful without valuable knowledge inputs from Mr Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, National Media & Entertainment Committee, Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, industry veteran and former chairman Amit Khanna and members of the CII Media & Entertainment Committee. The M&E industry is undergoing an extremely fast and impressive change for the last few years in terms of content technologies, delivery channels, access devices, digital consumer behavior, revenue models, marketing techniques, advertising paradigms, rights management, cross-sector competition, market fragmentation and revenue redistribution, talents and skills. We believe that soft power of the Indian M&E sector can bring innumerable benefits to the Indian economy. India has the potential to emerge as a global media and entertainment hub. The media and entertainment sector in India is growing at a rate of 15 percent per annum. Some of the factors that are driving this growth are favourable demographics, growing literacy, increasing affluence and evolution of technologies. Opportunities, content and players are all becoming universal and India - backed by a stable macroeconomic outlook and the government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ blueprints - strongly positioned to exploit such trends. The CII-BCG Report Vision 2020 has captured many of the emerging trends in the sector. Today, the industry is significant on the global map - with the third largest TV audience, second largest print circulation and largest number of films made - and is a large contributor to the Indian economy, providing employment opportunities to nearly 10 million people. The next decade will see a consumption

explosion with the rapid growth of digital media. India already has 250-300 million digital screens which include smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs. This is more than the number of TV and film screens put together. This number is projected to multiply to 600 million screens by 2020 implying that every second Indian will have a personal media consumption device. The impact of this will be massive. To attain this stature as the world’s media and entertainment hub, India needs to establish itself as a global production hub and attract global investment. While India is one of the most liberal media markets in the world, we feel that there is no defined roadmap from policy and regulatory level. CII’s Big Picture Summit 2015 provides the platform for discussions and debates towards a policy framework and clear roadmap. Indian entertainment sector is still bracketed with archaic laws of circus of the British Era. Also, when Br it comes to taxation, M&E M& sector is bracketed akin to liquor ete and an spirits. We need to rewrite our rules and rew laws law to match today’s business reality. bu On a bigger picture, empowering a large em number of people usnu ing mobile connectivity would make them a part of the knowledge ed revolution, which would ultimately conwo tribute to economic tri growth. For example, gro there the is already a rise in i smartphone usage in the country and 4G launch will further increase Internet penetration and users in India. We should work towards creating monetization mediums for small budget films and regional films to reach out to new audiences across the world. The future is clearly mobile and this platform is set to go faster than ever before. Wearable gadgets, speech technologies are set to transform this sector. This gives us an idea of where the M&E industry is headed and their future scope of growth. Innovation would emerge as a critical factor in sustaining economic growth. India has many more challenges to be sorted -- be it infrastructure, education and poverty alleviation. It is the entrepreneurial zeal that is driving the M&E sector today. An innovative push from the government in an enabling regulatory infrastructure and policy reforms will create a worldclass knowledge driven entertainment economy for India.

We need to rewrite our M&E rules and laws to match today’s business reality

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CII BIG PICTURE SUMMIT 2015

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I N D U S T R Y M & E

BIG PICTURE SUMMIT

B I L L I O N

I N D I A N

NATIONAL POLICY FOR HIGH GROWTH OF M&E

T O W A R D S

$ 1 0 0

The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) Industry, one of the most vibrant and exciting industries in the world, has had a tremendous impact on people’s lives and the Indian economy. As the M&E industry widens its reach, it plays a critical role in creating awareness on issues affecting, channeling the energy of and building aspirations among India’s millions. With over 832 television channels, more than 139 million Pay TV households, 94,000+ newspapers, over 1,000 ﬁlms produced annually and multiple delivery platforms India’s vibrant media and entertainment industry provides exciting growth opportunities to global and domestic companies. With the growth of broadband, mobile technologies and emergence of digital media the sector is poised to take off to a new level in a converged world. CII organised a CEOs Roundtable with Mr Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on issues related to the National Policy for High Growth of M&E. 7

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Coming up, a Comprehensive Policy

We should have a mental time frame of two to three months to give some kind of a tangible document. And, we will involve all stakeholders at various stages Mr Sunil Arora Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India

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articipating at the CII CEOs Roundtable on October 12 with media and entertainment industry leaders, Mr Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said the Ministry will soon draft a comprehensive policy document that will give a roadmap for the M&E industry to grow and scale new heights. However, Mr Sunil Arora made it clear that a “robust self regulation” is what will be looked into. In a candid 120-minute discussion with M&E CEOs across verticals, Mr Arora gave a patient hearing on roadblocks faced by industry -- single window clearance, ease of doing business, infrastructure, screen density, skills, increase in FDI among others. Mr Arora promised collaboration with the M&E industry initiating more than “baby steps” needed by the sector to grow to new heights. Bearing issues impacting national security, Mr Arora maintained that “all issues raised by CEOs are eminently doable”. Mr Arora said that within the I&B Ministry there is already is a subgroup headed by Mr J S Mathur, Special Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting whose terms of reference are now being recast. A new terms of reference (including the policy related issues) will be issued after deliberation with the M&E industry. “We should have a mental time frame of two to three months months to give some kind of a tangible document. And, we will involve all stakeholders at various stages,” said Mr Arora. “When a certain document is ready it will be put on the website for a wider consultation.” The comprehensive policy framework is likely to encompass all M&E verticals. As issues related to films come under the ambit of state governments, few secretaries from states will be included in the sub-group.

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CII CEOs Roundtable with Mr Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

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FRUITFUL DISCUSSION, IT WAS Media and Entertainment CEOs were jubilant and encouraged after two-hours of interaction with Mr Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, during a roundtable conference in New Delhi on October 12, 2015. Senior government officials Mr J S Mathur, Special Secretary, Minstry of I&B, Mr Sanjay Murthy JS (Films), Ms R Jaya JS (Broadcast) and Mr Punit Kansal JS (Broadcast) were also present during the discussion with Mr Arora. CEOs representing across M&E verticals were optimistic and expressed a new air of confidence. “We have not seen this kind of frank discussion in recent times.” This was the constant refrain among media leaders who were present at the discussion. Issues related to ease of doing business, creating business-friendly environment, film certication, single-window clearance for film shootings, spectrum for radio, carriage fees among others were discussed during the roundtable. “It is a very progressive meeting attended by all major stakeholders. The Secretary has a clear plan with timeline of three months. We look forward to working with the group led by Mr J S Mathur,” said Mr Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

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DESIRED

POLICY

Need for a clear policy to achieve explosive growth similar to sectors like IT & Telecom which were backed by supportive policy

Improve ease of doing business

Make India a leading force in creative industries globally

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CHANGES The Indian M&E industry looks forward to a national policy that will visualize a clear cut roadmap to make India a media super power of the world

Build M&E into an economic powerhouse & target growing contribution to 2% of GDP Give potential investors a clear roadmap for the next decade Incentivizing investment in content & technology through innovation and protecting IP

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A â&#x20AC;&#x153;feather touchâ&#x20AC;? regulatory approach to facilitate growth in the new converged and changing media space and business models Policy to take care of evolution of new technologies across all verticals of the sector

CII CEOs ROUNDTABLE

Create an objective & transparent construct for freedom of speech and social responsibility

14 14

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Market led pricing with parity across different media â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pricing deregulation, transparency in distribution/value chain Infrastructure status to media and entertainment industry as information industry Fair property rights regime - IPR policy. Pro-active policy initiatives are needed to do away with piracy

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IN ANTICIPATION OF FUTURE-READY ROADMAP Given the extremely complex issues faced by the M&E sector, Mr Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd, anticipates a sacrosanct roadmap for the sector that is future-ready, transparent, and based on consultations with key industry stakeholders

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What Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to see is a sacrosanct roadmap of how we can move towards a futureready, light-touch regulatory framework that is cognizant of the converged reality we operate in Sudhanshu Vats Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd and Chairman, CII National M&E Committee

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the recently-held Facebook meet in the US that his aim was to make India a $20 trillion economy. How can the Indian M&E sector contribute to this goal? What will be your three prescriptions for the Indian media and entertainment industry to reach the goal of $100 billion by the end of this decade? Firstly, I must say that I am amazed at how our honourable Prime Minister has galvanised the entire nation with a slew of innovative themes ranging from ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’ to ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ and ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’. The wave of innovation being witnessed in the public sector is worthy of emulation by private sector organisations including those in the M&E sector. For our sector to enter its next growth orbit, we need to focus on three key issues: O Improvement in ease of doing business: This refers to the licensing and permissions regime for channels, events, films, satellite bandwidth, etc. Firstly, we need to create consensus on which ones out of these are absolutely crucial. Once we’ve arrived at that consensus we need to create an online, timeline-based, single-window and transparent mechanism for receiving these permissions. Time to market is an extremely critical metric for media organisations. O Growth in Infrastructure investments: These refer to investments to improve connectivity, build talent and improve the physical ecosystem for making India the M&E hub of the world (e.g. venues, production studios, hotels, travel, convention centres and the like). You see our sector finds itself in the unique position of a force multiplier. We drive many other ecosystems. For our sector to grow, these ecosystems also have to grow and vice versa. O Transition towards a free marketbased regulatory paradigm: The sooner we move towards a free marketbased regulatory construct the more competitive we can be on the global stage. We need to unshackle pricing, ensure parity of norms across different media platforms given the reality of convergence and announce a fair, well-thought and equitable intellectual property rights regime. Media in immediate future will be very different from how we consume media today. Please share your thoughts on this? I think that while many aspects will change, several will remain unchanged.

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For instance the art of storytelling remains crucial to any form of media at any point in time. What is likely to change – and change fast - is the medium of access. To some extent the medium does shape the message and we will see (in some way we are already seeing) that impact in terms of shorter duration of episodes, ‘snacky’ content on the web that can be consumed on-the- go and more user generated content. However, a thought that has captured my imagination recently is the belief that ‘the screen will become the new store’. Consumers will be able to purchase what they see on their screens (it’s already happening in some cases) and the lines between say e-commerce and media are already blurring (remember the home shopping slots?). For this to become a reality, we have to become more tech-focused or find partners in the tech space who can help us provide advertisers and brands with direct consumer access. The minute you start seeing yourself as an access provider, many things that till date seemed out of your ambit (payments, delivery, etc.) will suddenly become high-interest, operational areas for you. This key change in media consumption will have critical implications for the way we view our business. I&B Secretary Mr Sunil Arora met with key M&E stakeholders at the CII CEOs Roundtable to discuss issues concerning the National Policy for the M&E sector. What should be the way forward? It was an extremely positive meeting. A lot of us were enthused by the proactiveness and candidness of the new I&B Secretary, Shri Sunil Arora ji. I am confident that several of our concerns will be addressed. In my opinion several of the issues faced by us are extremely complex and in general a systemic revamp is needed. That said, the route to this must be based on careful consideration for the incremental changes. As an industry player, I’m all for timely implementation of policies, but not at the cost of well-thought formulation of policies. Given the frantic pace at which our sector is evolving, several market players find themselves behind major tech-driven changes. It is only natural that policy will take even longer to evolve. What I’d like to see is a sacrosanct roadmap of how we can move towards a future-ready, light-touch regulatory framework that is cognizant of the converged reality we operate in. This roadmap too must be created after transparent, frequent and broad-based consultations with key stakeholders, both within and outside the government.

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Q A

There have been very few innovations and disruptions in the M&E space from India. How do we nurture this space? I won’t go as far as to say that there have been very few innovations. That said, have we been the land of origin for global disruptions? Not exactly. As an industry we need to have a more institutionalized mechanism to tap into external innovations. Also, with advances in consumer tech, we have a chance to strengthen our connect with the consumer by becoming more ‘direct’ and offering more than just entertainment. To do this, we have to tap into an external ecosystem. Whether we do this at an individual organisation level or industry level or both is for us to decide. Sudhanshu Vats Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd and Chairman, CII National M&E Committee

Each media vertical has its own challenges. How do we bring consensus to take this sector forward? What should be the approach of the industry in this regard? I’ve always believed that we have a shared future as an industry. This does not necessarily mean that we will have shared interests over the short term, but in the medium to long term these interests have to align. In the larger scheme of things, we are a nascent industry- especially when compared to those that have been thriving for over four-five decades. I do believe that we have made considerable headway through platforms like the CII Big Picture Summit and with the help of industry associations. The key is to focus on issues faced by as many industry players as opposed to those faced by only a few. At the CII National Committee on M&E (which I have the privilege of chairing), we’re in the process of creating nine points that impact different sub-sectors and/or several sub-sectors. This approach is based on the belief of inclusiveness. Hopefully, we’ll be able to create far-reaching impact. What will be the impact of OTT and 4G in the media space going forward? Will we see Viacom18 Player launched

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in the Indian market? Access to content will grow exponentially. Analytics will become more important. We’ll come much closer to the consumer than we already are. These are the three fundamental impact areas in my judgment. Viacom18 has been a pioneer in several areas. We have the ability to create impact at scale by being innovative and nimble at the same time. We are closely listening to our consumers and will not disappoint them. There have been very few innovations and disruptions in the M&E space from India. How do we nurture this space? I won’t go as far as to say that there have been very few innovations. That said, have we been the land of origin for global disruptions? Not exactly. As an industry we need to have a more institutionalized mechanism to tap into external innovations. Also, with advances in consumer tech, we have a chance to strengthen our connect with the consumer by becoming more ‘direct’ and offering more than just entertainment. To do this, we have to tap into an external ecosystem. Whether we do this at an individual organisation level or industry level or both is for us to decide.

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Media Policy is one that will enable, facilitate, create opportunities and provide certainties for businesses and investors Uday Shankar CEO, Star India

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CLEAR OBJECTIVES MUST FOR GROWTH The National Media Policy should act as a vision document for all stakeholders, defining clear objectives for a healthy growth of the M&E sector, says Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India

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How would a National Media Policy help the Indian M&E sector at this juncture? India has all the necessary ingredients for a vibrant and thriving media and entertainment (M&E) sector — large volumes, heterogeneity of content and a rich cultural heritage to draw from. Yet, we seem to be stuck at less than 1% of the GDP for a long time. In fact, our share of the GDP has only decreased in the last three years. We all acknowledge the potential of this sector, but there is an absence of enabling regulatory framework which encourages entrepreneurship, capital flow and creation of infrastructure. To be fair, the M&E sector’s fragmented nature and a large number of stakeholders each with different objectives and goals have also created distortions and complexities. Also, both the policy makers and the stakeholders failed to leverage the new technologies, emergence of multiple delivery platforms and a voracious appetite for high quality content amongst consumers. Combined with the fact that there are structural flaws such as lack of transparency, hygiene and archaic

in content and technology through innovation and protection of intellectual property and an objective, transparent construct for freedom of speech and social responsibility are some of the key tenets that need to be addressed. Given the complex nature of emerging media, can we have a Media Policy that stands the pace of fast changing media and technology landscape? The role of the Media Policy is not to create or remove regulations. It is to create a reference post that guides the way for all future regulations. Specifically for new media, the objectives would not be any different from the ones I’ve mentioned. But the manifestations of these regulations could be completely different. A fertile environment for entrepreneurship and robust infrastructure are as much a requirement for new media initiatives as they are for existing businesses. How will a supportive National Media Policy drive the M&E growth? Can this give boost to the ‘Make in India’ and ‘digital India’ ini-

The role of the Media Policy is not to create or remove regulations. It is to create a reference post that guides the way for all future regulations Uday Shankar, CEO Star India media laws and regulations, the sector was denied its rightful place as an ‘industry’, thus failing to attract both foreign and domestic investments. What the sector, therefore, needs at this juncture is a ‘vision document’ which sets out some clear objectives for a healthy growth and economic viability of the sector and guides all stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, to fulfill their respective obligations. Such a vision document is also critical for aligning the growth objectives of the businesses with consumer interest for creating a robust M&E sector. What are the main issues the new media policy needs to address? What according to you should be primary principles/objectives of the National Media Policy? We would need to take a holistic view of all stakeholders across all media verticals. There are many archaic laws that need to be reviewed, but overall we need to align regulations to the objectives set for the sector. Promoting ease of doing business, improving penetration and access to media, incentivizing investments

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tiatives of the government? In my view a Media Policy is one that will enable, facilitate, create opportunities and provide certainties for businesses and investors as opposed to the current situation where there appears to be confusion, indecisiveness, legal and financial risks. This is certainly not a conducive environment in which growth objectives of any sector can be achieved. A National Media Policy will therefore help bridge the gap between technologies, business objectives, laws, regulations and provide a roadmap for stakeholders to align and work together with policy makers to encourage investment, create employment opportunities, fulfill consumer demands and contribute to the GDP growth of the country. As far as ‘Make in India’ is concerned, in my opinion the M&E sector has already been ‘making in India’ for over two decades, i.e., all the majority of the content created by the media sector is home grown — local, regional and pan-India —and the content thus created has

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Q A

What are the main issues the new media policy needs to address? What according to you should be primary principles/objectives of the National Media Policy? We would need to take a holistic view of all stakeholders across all media verticals. There are many archaic laws that need to be reviewed, but overall we need to align regulations to the objectives set for the sector. Promoting ease of doing business, improving penetration and access to media, incentivizing investments in content and technology through innovation and protection of intellectual property and an objective, transparent construct for freedom of speech and social responsibility are some of the key tenets that need to be addressed.

been actively consumed by the Indian diaspora across the globe. The cable TV sector is at the forefront of the ‘Digital India’ initiative. Cable service providers have already digitized 65 million out of 135 million homes, which can now be connected through broadband. So, it would be fair to say that the M&E sector is far ahead of any other sector when it comes to ‘making in India’ or creating a ‘Digital India’. For an example, India has a thriving animation sector which is currently exporting to the world, and we should look to scale this up. India is home to some of the most breathtaking visuals in the world and has abundant labour, yet our filmmakers choose to shoot movies abroad given easy clearance and tax rebates outside. There is no reason to believe that the trend cannot be reversed. It is just a matter of forming an enabling policy. The M&E sector is one of the greatest generators of consumer pull for ‘Digital India’. The services that will ride on this digital infrastructure are mushrooming day by day, but we will need a robust backbone for them. Do you still believe that India can leapfrog from what was lost to the policy paralysis in the last one decade or so in the M&E sector? Yes I do, but we need to act fast. There have been numerous consultations on this but the needs of the industry were not addressed much in the last few years. Pushes and pulls

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from different verticals and sectors combined with policy paralysis and overbearing regulatory interventions have acted as stumbling blocks and, as a result, India’s M&E sector has lost a lot of valuable time. The I&B Secretary met with key M&E stakeholders at the CII CEOs Roundtable to discuss issues concerning the National Media Policy. What should be the way forward? A beginning has been made and there is a consensus amongst the participants that there should be a National Media Policy. The next step should be follow-up meetings to finalize the terms of reference and then sub-committees of experts need to be formed for each of the media vertical to formulate policies which can be incorporated in a holistic manner in the final draft of the National Media Policy. What challenges do you foresee in the drafting of National Media Policy? In India, the media and entertainment sector is highly fragmented and there are many challenges and issues which call for deliberations at various levels. At least the stakeholders have finally realized that there should be a National Media Policy. So, the next logical step should be that all stakeholders engage amongst themselves as well as with policy makers to come out with a National Policy within a stipulated timeline.

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The need of the hour is to have a media council with robust media ethics andcode of conduct, similar to the due diligence as provided in the Banking sector by the RBI

Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group, which runs the ZEE TV Network

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REGULATORY NORMS NEEDED FOR TV NEWS CHANNELS: SUBHASH CHANDRA

Describing media as a soft power, Subhash Chandra says that the government should set up a Media Council with a code of conduct and apply the same “ﬁt and proper” criteria that the RBI applies before allowing permission to a company in ﬁnancial services

ith the growing number of television channels, the critical issue facing the news media industry today is about ownership and security licenses of these mushrooming channels. The industry is in dire need of a proper regulatory framework, to create stricter entry checks. Concerned about the issue, Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group opines, “The media houses were started by our freedom fighters, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy to inform and empower people. However today, a few entities have started news media businesses as a shield for their illegal activities. Regulatory complexities are a concern for the industry and with skewed business models, no serious corporate wants to invest in this industry. It is high time we realize the need for a defined framework of rules under the media regulator in order to screen out these illegal players.” Media is a soft power which in a large democracy like ours creates public opinion so that the other pillars of the society like the executive, legislature, judiciary and even business, do not use the democracy for their own gains. The TV medium is different from the print medium, as newspapers are read only by the educated class. But television being a mass medium has a far deeper penetration, reaching even

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the remote rural areas of the country and in their respective regional languages. Hence, television as a medium has a far greater impact on the society. The Reserve Bank of India applies ‘fit and proper’ criteria before issuing any permission for entities entering into the financial services. The criteria unveils the corporate whole and searches for sources of funds as well as the relationship of the promoters in a vertical and horizontal manner, as these services impact the finances of the common man. So the question to be asked is, ‘Is protecting the common man’s mind from getting misled and polluted less important than protecting one’s money?’ Elaborating further, Dr. Chandra said, “Today, ownership of media, particularly of news channels is opaque. We should not be surprised if some of these news channels are owned by underworld elements. The need of the hour is to have a media council with robust media ethics and code of conduct, similar to the due diligence as provided in the Banking sector by the RBI.” Re-iterating the need for transparent media operations, Dr. Chandra emphasized “the criticality of the industry players coming together to raise a joint voice on these crucial issues.”

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Justice Mukul Mudgal (Retd.) Chairman, BCCC

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MEDIA CHANGING EVERYDAY The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) is in favour of the government to come out with a broad policy for the M&E sector, which has been necessitated by its fast-paced growth driven by technology, says BCCC Chairman Justice Mukul Mudgal (Retd.). “A static media policy in my view may not be right because with technological advances media is changing everyday. From TV content to digital advancements, i-magazines and e-portals it is changing every day. So, on broader principles you can have a long lasting policy,” the Indian TV ombudsman said. Emphasising that the self-regulatory mechanism is doing well in India, the BCCC chief said there has been 100 percent compliance of its directions by member channels of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation. “Self governance is working. If guidelines are clearer on media policy it will be helpful,” he said. Mudgal added that soon viewers will be able to register complaints regarding content on TV via twitter. The modalities are being worked out, he said. “We have taken action against channels. We issue warnings. The penalty which hurts the most are when TV channels scrolls apology on screen,” Mudgal said.

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SOFT CENSORSHIP

THE MEDIA FACES TWIN THREATS TO ITS FREEDOMS AND ITS VERY EXISTENCE

Rachna Burman Senior Vice President-Times of India Group Corporate

Media must be free from threats ranging from intimidation to advertisement bans for coverage to over-regulation. The following is excerpted from an article published in The Times of India on November 19,2014 by Rachna Burman

he Indian media today is subjected to all kinds of pressures from authorities, institutions, governments and corporates. Reporters are denied access to information or simply banned from entering certain offices even as media managements are threatened with legal notices and other forms of bullying the moment there is an uncomfortable report. Governments deny media advertisements and misuse taxpayers’ money to pressure or influence media entities which are critical of them. Some private sector companies also try to influence news coverage by using similar intimidatory tactics and by withdrawing advertising. Simultaneously, regulators, systems and processes are misused by introducing rules and laws that have the potential of further squeezing media freedoms which are already abridged, and enfeeble media companies, using the pretext of content regulation or quality of “service”. This is nothing but “soft censorship”. And the practice is rampant in India. In its most overt form, soft censorship is

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the practice of influencing news coverage through allocation or withholding of spending/advertisements. Covertly, it promotes or diminishes the economic viability of sections of the media, or of all of it. “Soft censorship” by governments, corporates and regulators was highlighted in a recent report by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, which had described the practice as a “very serious threat to media independence and the very viability of media companies”. WAN, which is the umbrella organisation of newspapers representing more than 18,000 publications and 15,000 online sites in 120 countries, has urgently called for rapid action to stop this blatant repression of media and press freedom, pointing out that “soft censorship” is less noticed than direct attacks on press freedom like assaults on journalists, but is much more widespread. The report pointed out that the “abusive allocation of government advertising to reward positive coverage and punish critical coverage is doubly pernicious,

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A robust intervention is today necessary to guarantee media freedom as well as to ensure viability of the industry as taxpayer money and public wealth is used and abused to promote partisan or personal interests”. In the Indian context, apart from ad bans, governments try to keep the industry constantly on tenterhooks either by threatening to bring new content “regulators” or by outlining new media laws on top of the several layers that already exist, or by dusting out settled industry issues and reopening them. Hardly any of these initiatives aim at growing the industry — basically, they are excuses for greater controls over the media. Governments have also been seeking to weaken the media by getting into nuts and bolts of the media business in all sorts of ways. Till now the media has held back hoping that better sense will prevail, and governments as well as corporates will desist from chipping away at this key pillar of democracy. However, it is now important for the media to come together and name and shame those who indulge in soft censorship. The social media too can play an activist role in identifying these ills and individuals responsible. This is not all. All those who cherish our democracy and believe that media plays a crucial role in it, must press for laws with strict criminal and financial penalties to act as a deterrent against these anti-media freedom practices. Think of it — would you vote for a government or buy the products/shares of companies

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which indulge in these practices? A robust intervention is today necessary to guarantee media freedom as well as to ensure viability of the industry. The Indian media industry can still become the next big sectoral story with great potential for employment, technological edge and growth, as well as push India as a soft power across the globe. But this potential can be realised only in an enabling environment — and not when reporters are threatened, newspapers banned, corporates and governments deny advertising for inconvenient coverage, or when policies are designed to emasculate media entities or when there is a subterranean war against the media to prevent it from becoming strong, independent and free. The practice of using financial leverage and regulatory powers against the media whenever coverage is “adverse” has to stop, otherwise it will all-too-quietly strangle free media — especially when people are unaware of these insidious tactics and their pernicious impact on our democracy. Soft censorship is pervasive in India today, and needs to be fought to ensure media independence and basic press freedoms. Reproduced with permission of The Times of India Group, ©BCCL. All rights reserved.

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PRESCRIPTIONS FOR VIBRANT MEDIA

I have always advocated a feather touch regulation based on a robust self-regulatory regime, says Ashok Mansukhani, Wholetime Director, Hinduja Ventures Limited From your perspective how has the definition of media changed and will change in future? Today, media has shifted from the traditional arena to a new web-based instant reaction audience involved ecosystem. There is greater movement to individual interaction with other media consumers but always based on individual desires. This makes conventional media obsolete and gives web media its primary existence. In 2020, media will remain as vibrant as today but will have to guard against too much dependence on ratings and profit motive. How can the ease of doing business influence growth of the Indian M&E sector? Ease of doing business is really having a regulatory regime, wherein after primary registration all government agencies help in setting up of the business. This includes satellite capacity/fibre optic permission or cinema halls, but also must be accompanied by graded financial incentives along with a fair and transparent tax regime. GST is a great opportunity to sort out multiple and inefficient tax regimes. Issues like taxing electronic media both as an entertainment industry as well as a service industry must get greater attention. What would be your prescriptions for the ideal regulatory regime? I have always advocated a feather touch regulation based on a robust self-regulatory regime. The convergence of media technologies has made existing laws and regulations obsolete. Earlier, I used to believe that we need a multimedia electronic media regulator but looking forward to 2020 we must develop consensus to set up a convergence commission based on the independent autonomous regulatory authority in the CAB judgement of 1994. We already have a 2002 draft on this.

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How will a supportive national policy drive M&E growth? A National Media and Entertainment Policy must not be framed as cast in stone due to leapfrog and convergence of technology. It can function as broad indicator and must have full participation of three important constituents: Industry, Public and Parliament. The principal philosophy must be to preserve freedom of expression under Article 19 (1) (a) but ensuring safeguard for abuse under Article 19(2). I&B Secretary met with key M&E stakeholders at the CII CEOs Roundtable to discuss the issues concerning the National Policy for the growth of the M&E sector. What should be the way forward? Today we have a stable Central Government. Initiative must come from industry organisations like CII and industry bodies from all sectors of media to discuss the way forward. Greater private-public participation is the key. The way forward is to hold a series of roundtables within media sectors and then the assimilation of these discussions into an approach paper which must then be put on web for wide public participation. A policy should really be viewed as a support document and not the one which limits growth. Each media vertical has its own challenges and how do we bring consensus to take this sector forward? Media verticals naturally concentrate on their own concerns but must develop a pan media approach where they appreciate and contribute to a policy document. In conclusion, the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right to know, be educated and entertained is sacrosanct. Industry ultimately perform these services and therefore need help to be vibrant and forward looking.

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We must develop consensus to set up a convergence commission based on the independent autonomous regulatory authority in the CAB judgement of 1994 Ashok Mansukhani Wholetime Director of M/s. Hinduja Ventures Limited

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The media policy must respect the disruptive nature of the field and recognise that it can only grow if there are no walls 36

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KVL Narayan Rao Executive Vice-Chairperson, NDTV Group

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MEDIA POLICY NEEDS A PREAMBLE

The National Media Policy needs to have a preamble that enshrines complete freedom of speech, independence from government and basic principles which cannot be altered, says KVL Narayan Rao, Executive Vice-Chairperson, NDTV Group Do we have a free unrestricted, unhampered media in India today? The print media has evolved fairly well and we can say that it is generally free, unrestricted and unhampered. So far as the broadcast media is concerned, I believe there is too much regulation governing business as well as content. Recent problems of security clearances even in respect of established and previously-cleared players have come in the way of getting fresh licenses and in some cases even renewals. We have given ourselves independent regulations and set up a body (the NBSA) to deal with content issues, but we still get notices from the MIB on content related matters. Barring these issues, I suppose one can say that we are reasonably free. The fact is that media has to be independent and free in a democracy like ours. We perform a public service and one of the key facets of such public service is independence. What is your take on the working of a draft National Policy for growth of the M&E sector? Will a supportive policy drive media growth? Media is a huge “industry” and poised to become even bigger. Its contribution to the economy in terms of revenues, taxes, jobs, etc will be massive. Its role in educating, informing and empowering people and transforming societies will always be significant. All this, to my mind, does require a National Media Policy to govern all aspects of the sector’s functioning and set high standards that all must comply with. A comprehensive policy will be a driver for growth. But I will insist on one thing that should

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be fundamental to any National Media Policy. We will need to have some sort of a preamble that enshrines complete freedom of speech, independence from government and basic principles which cannot be altered. Media in immediate future will be very different from how we consume it today? What are the main issues/ principles that should be addressed in the new policy? The way media is being consumed is changing very rapidly and that change is even more apparent as more and more young people are entering the field. In India the demography will always be important. It is the young people who are bringing in the change by adopting new technologies and innovative methods. Innovation and change can only be brought about by disruptive attitudes and not by predictive steps. The beauty of the Internet and technology is that it is disruptive. The media policy must respect the disruptive nature of the field and recognize that it can only grow if there are no walls. I&B Secretary Mr Sunil Arora recently met with M&E stakeholders at the CII CEOs roundtable on the issue of National Policy for M&E. What should be the way forward? I think it was an excellent meeting with the new secretary who has an open mind and seems to be a man of action. We need to put together a consultation paper to solicit views of all stakeholders and follow that with the creation of drafting committee that has representation from all the media

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disciplines and some crisp legal minds to get a draft out in a reasonable period of time. Not more than six months for the entire exercise. How can the ease of doing business influence growth of the Indian Media sector? It is critical for pushing growth in any sector. FDI rules must change, security and other clearances must be streamlined, satellite and other such constraints have to be removed. There are so many obstacles in the rules and regulations. All that must change. Also, the business model must follow world norms. Every broadcaster must be able to get appropriate advertising and subscription revenues. Carriage fees must go. Once this happens, the broadcast media will see unprecedented growth. What would be your prescriptions for the ideal regulatory regime going forward for news broadcast? Also please share your views on self regulation of content. Well there should be no government-imposed regulation on content. News and other broadcasters have created robust systems for dealing with content. Apart from comprehensive guidelines that ensure that content is always of a high standard, we have set up the NBSA and the BCCC, both independent bodies manned by eminent jurists and other distinguished persons to look into complaints and violations. The aim is to always improve standards. This system must be further strengthened by giving it a statutory status. But regulation is necessary for non-content matters like satellite and spectrum utilization, ownership norms, etc. Perhaps a body specific to broadcasting like TRAI was originally meant for telecom, is needed. Former TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar had said that “media itself must be subject to safeguards, whether that comes through other forms of in-

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dependent regulator. You cannot have an institution which has right but no duties”. What is your take on this? We have independent regulations already in place and an independent body that oversees them and their implementation. You should look at the kind of work that they do and have done in the past by visiting the NBA website. The safeguards are there. Now they need to get statutory recognition. There have been calls from newspapers on the abolition of Wage Board for newspaper employees. Now, there is also a fear of Wage Board coming to TV news broadcast? How do you view this scenario? I think there is a historical background to the constitution of a wage board for newspapers. That includes the economic and social conditions of the time, archaic employment rules, the condition of working journalists, etc. Much of that has changed today, at least at the national level. I don’t think a wage board is necessary for TV news. Do you still believe that India can leapfrog from what was lost to policy paralysis in recent times in the media sector? I won’t call it a policy paralysis. There is no comprehensive policy handled by a single agency. While the MIB is our nodal ministry, there is the MHA for security related issues, ISRO and department of space for satellite related matters, department of telecom and WPC for spectrum and uplinking permissions and TRAI as a regulator with additional charge of broadcasting matters. All that must change. Digitization must be fully implemented. Once the revenue model changes and follows world norms with advertising and subscription revenues equally divided and no carriage fees pay-outs, as indeed it must and will, the game would change completely. The next couple of years are critical.

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MAKE IN INDIA OBJECTIVES & POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR ANIMATION, VISUAL EFFECTS, GAMING & COMICS (AVGC) SECTOR India is the third largest TV market in the world with a total strength of 161 million TV households only next to China and the USA. But a lot needs to be done for the growth of Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comic (AVGC) Sector, feels Ashish Kulkarni in this policy roadmap paper Future Policy Roadmap: 2015-2016 A. Restore STPI advantage scheme for AVGC and ITES for another 10 to 20 years but cover/encourage IP creation to bring about a level playing field for Indian content creators in global arena The Indian economy underwent economic reforms in 1991, leading to a new era of globalization and international economic integration. Economic growth of over 6% annually was seen during 19932002. The new administration under Atal Bihari Vajpayee 1999 government placed the development of Information Technology among its top five priorities,it formed the Indian National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development. This lead an explosive growth in the IT sector. As a result India today is considered a Global Super Power in IT. The Indian IT industry has contributed immensely to the growth of the country. The industry has seen massive growth, from very humble beginning in the 1990 the industry is

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estimated to aggregate revenues of US$ 108 billion in 2012-13, with the IT software and services sector (excluding hardware) accounting for over US$ 95 billion of revenues. It has generated millions of job and has contributed immensely to the foreign exchange earnings of the country. The sector has increased its contribution to Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP from 1.2% in 1998 to 7.5% in 2012. This phenomenal rise of the IT industry can be attributed to a single decisive policy initiative taken by the Government of India in 1991 by implementing the STPI Scheme. The AVGC sector similarly also holds a huge promise. The industry started with a major push on outsourcing services in early 2000. Foreign studios have long recognised the Indian talent Pool in this sector. In the period from 2000 to 2008 a number of Indian Companies were working on international project by providing outsourced services in animation, gaming and VFX. Indian animation studios have worked on blockbuster films such as Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, X-Men, Men in Black and many more. In the animation space Indian Studios have worked on shows for top channels such as Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and offered services

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ROAD AHEAD FOR AVGC SECTOR

Ashish Kulkarni, Veteran industry leader in AVGC and Founder and CEO, ScreenYug Ventures

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The talent pool in India has been recognised as not just best in Asia but amongst the best in the world.

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on shows such as Playhouse Disney, Tinker Bell, Rat-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, Swan Princess and many more prestigious global IPs. Games such as Star Wars, Grand Theft Auto, Forza, Need for Speed, Real Steel, Total Recall and many more have been produced using the talent from Indian Gaming studios. The talent pool in India has been recognised as not just best in Asia but amongst the best in the world. Despite these facts the work in the outsourced sector has steadily declined and moved to countries like Singapore, Malaysia and China. The talent pool in this countries is under developed, less experienced and not as talented. Yet the business has moved to other Asian countries. The hard impact of this was felt by the animation industry when Crest Animation Studios after 15+ years of successfully delivering on numerous international project in July 15th laid off over 250 artist and has almost shutdown.

gether with online/mobile media, have demonstrated robust growth, posting a CAGR of 26% from 20062010. In 2010 it contributed $1.2 billion in Value added Servcies and $1.5 billion revenue to the economy, and employed an estimated 11,000 workers.

The questions that needs to be asked are

The government needs to learn from our Asian neighbours and nurture and recognise this this sector the way it nurtured the IT sector. Favourable Tax regime is needed to encourage existing companies and also attract new entrepreneurs to enter this sector. We have seen what the STPI scheme has done for the IT industry and the staggering growth the industry has achieved during the years the scheme was active.

1. Why have the international studios steadily moved work out of India to these countries.

2. Why are these companies investing in developing talent pools in China, Singapore and Malaysia ?

• Source EDB, Singapore Website In 2012, MSC Malaysia revenue came in at RM 33.53 billion which was an increase of 5.7% from 2011, while exports grew to RM 11.6 billion which reflected a 14% rise from the previous year. This resulted in MSC Malaysia’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) standing at 11.3 billion, recording a significant double digit growth of 18% from 2011.

• Source Multimedia Development Corporation Website

(MdeC),

Malaysia

3. Why are they abandoning proven 10 year old production relationships in India and forging new ones in China, Singapore and Malaysia ? The answer is simple. All these countries are offering a favourable tax structures and production and development funds. They all have created an policy to promote companies in AVGC sector and attract Foreign Investors in this sector. These incentives are so lucrative that international studios are investing in developing talent pools in Singapore, China and Malaysia. Industrial, Light and Magic, Hollywood’s top VFX studio has opened a studio in Singapore and has launched The Jedi Masters Program (JuMP). It is the most extensive training program ever offered by LucasFilm, exclusively in Singapore. Its goal is to identify talented young artists in Singapore and train them under the mentorship of instructors from Industrial Light & Magic. Media Development Authority(MDA), Singapore has facilitated many such investments in Singapore According to Deloitte, Singapore’s games and animation industries, to-

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We demand that under AM Scheme the following benefits to be given to this sector by continuing the last STPI scheme for ITES sector with a modification of including original IP creation under the scheme :

1. Tax incentives – Exemption from Income-Tax and Service Tax for 10 years

2. Duty-free import 3. Duty-free indigenous procurement 4. CST reimbursement 5. DTA entitlement 6. Deemed export

B. Creation of Doordarshan Kids a Public broadcasting digital terrestrial free to air network: As we all agree that kid’s are the true building blocks of any nation, while we emerge on the journey of creating “Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat” the develop-

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ment of kids in India needs to be looked at with a more serious approach. And we strongly believe Prasar Bharati can play a pivotal role in the process. What we demand is an exclusive kid’s channel for Doordarshan with a focus on animated content for kids. To give you a glimpse of the present scenario, the total Number of Kids’ channels in India is approx 18 including regional languages. It represents around 3 per cent of total available number of channels in India. Viewership share of kids’ genres is 6.3 per cent, much after Hindi GEC, News Channels and Hindi movies. The key players among kid’s channels in India with a focus on animated content for kids are almost completely endorsing foreign programs. After a decade long push since 1994 when the programming used to be 100 percent foreign content we have reached nearly 30 to 40 percent mark for Indian programming. One would agree that in the joint family system which existed in India it used to the well known grandparent storytelling and nurturing value system which has been replaced by the foreign kids channels and India has lost its grip over its own value based sanskar system which was unique and India’s own legacy. Almost all these foreign shows for kids are based on high action and humor. While they are high on entertainment, the shows are pathetically low on educational and moral values leaving virtually no takeaways and positive long term impact on children. Also it is scientifically proved that high action oriented shows tend to develop violent attitude in the young minds. The present foreign animated shows are all about instant gratification and do not encourage any form of intellectual development among the kids. How can we dream of building a strong nation when the Value Systems of today’s Indian kids are being moulded and based on foreign culture as reflected in these shows. We are looking at complete cultural erosion for future India. Our kids will be unable to understand and appreciate the cultural diversity of India due to erosion of sense of belonging and unable to associate with our cultural roots. This will also result into death of rich art forms and culture, heritage, mythology which prevailed through centuries, our own history that constitutes the belief of India as a country.

Industry proposition: • To promote responsible programming in kid’s channels, specially animated content. Today’s kids are keen to watch animated content over live ac-

tion in the broadcasting space.

• To provide free access to kids with kids’ programming in cable dark areas

• To emphasize on entertainment with education and vice-versa

• To promote cross fertilization of diversified Indian cultures

• To increase awareness and tolerance to our cultural diversity

• To expose kids to our rich heritage of art, music, mythology and customs

• To instil the right value system This will enable Indian content to travel global as animation content is universal in nature and travels seamlessly beyond boundaries, cultures, languages etc as compared to live action. And the best way to do this is to start a DD Kids channel. Most of the successful countries globally who have promoted kids content in the best manner have followed this process and results for them has been astounding. With its widest reach The Doordarshan’s Kids Channel with the right kind of programming for kids will be able to lead the way and create a path for nation building just as other countries like US, Canada, China have public broadcasting services for nurturing kids and preparing them for future. The effect will not only get contained with development of kids, but will create a huge splash in the overall development of the animation sector in India as well.

• To promote Indian animation industry to produce more IPs using our rich cultural heritage.

• To generate Indian IPs to create job opportunities and revenue stream for Indian Animation Industry.

• To promote production of locally relevant content.

• To promote employment of rural and tribal youth and artisan who are skilled with local art forms.

• To give the dying Indian art forms a fresh lease of life.

• To provide a healthy alternative to

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Kids’ channel.

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• To set a good standard of kids’ programming in India to be followed by private channels. With its unmatched penetration in comparison to the cable & satellite channels a DD Kids channel will surely position itself as a differentiator and forerunner. Quality kids’ programming will also generate more viewership and thus attract even more brands for advertisement. This is probably the only way to strengthen the AVGC industry and bring about sustainability stability and growth to the artist community and other stake holders in the industry. What used to be the cost arbitrage and sometimes the skills arbitrage that attracted services work to India in the past has moved to countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong etc. because of the lack of adequate policies for the AVGC sector in India. CFSI can operate on the similar lines and manage the fund and act as a de-facto producer of DD Kids contents partnering with the local producers. The programs produced should be translated into regional languages so that it could be aired on the regional channels of Doordarshan as well. The aim of this initiative should be to educate children with our rich and vibrant culture and expose them to cultural diversity of India along with quality entertainment

C. Original content creation fund for CFSI to encourage positioning Indian content from India, globally Intellectual Properties originating out of India can be coproduced/co-funded by Children’s Film Society India (CFSI). CFSI may retain a percentage of revenue shares from the future revenues in perpetuity in proportion to the investment in the IP. This model would eventually fund itself after 5 years from the revenues generated out of the global sales of these animated properties. An expert committee for selection of projects can be set up jointly between the government and domain experts. The provision of funds needs to be provided for the minimum period of 5 years to 10 years to build a robust foundation of creating original content and registration, protection and exploitation of these IP’s from India. The coproduction fund may be extended to animation, gaming, VFX (films with a minimum of 40% animation and effects) as well as comics industry. We recommend for a minimum of 5 years a fund of 110 Crores each year. This fund to be divided into 3 separate heads:

1. 100 Crores “Co-production” budget which to be awarded to a total of not less or more than 10 projects, with minimum investment being 5 Crores and Maximum 15 Crores coproduction fund. (The modalities can be further fine tuned)

• Original content creation

fund for CFSI to encourage production in India

• To bring 40 to 50 % of Indigenous cre-

2. 5 Crores “Grant” to be awarded to a total of 20 projects @25 Lakhs per project for the development of stories and ideas into a complete developed bible. This will ensure a continuous nurturing and supply of independent creative projects that will eventually fuel the Indian studios with more options to produce.

ated content reservation on all kids networks in India

• Audio Visual co – production treaties with relevant countries

• Use AVGC mode for quality education & training prog

• Skill development by setting up NCoE

3. 5 Crores “Marketing” budget to manage, administer and run events and processes around the Co-Production Funds & Grants.

& empowering Media & Entertainment Skills Council

• Creation of Specialized creative and art cities as well as universities to provide this sector a level playing field

• Creation of a strong Creative- DigitalContent department under the I & B ministry to give a single window clearances, solve and monitor creative, digital & content industry issues.

• Original content creation

fund for CFSI to encourage production in India

This will help the industry immensely and in the next 5 years India can boast of over 100 successfully implemented coproduction’s and shows, which will be extremely strong original intellectual property out of India, one of the strongest libraries establishing and restoring forms of art, culture and creative styles and designs which will be known throughout the globe. India would emerge a true, leader in the digital content economy and it will ensure jobs for over 4-5 Lakh creative,

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techno creative and artistic youth of the country in the next 5-7 years. CFSI can recover this investment from the following sources:

as well as entertainment. Since the grandparent storytelling of heritage and culture has been replaced by television today, its important that the correct content is given to the kids.

1. By keeping Doordarshan (Public

• It will promote India culture and rich

broadcasting rights in India) & worldwide terrestrial rights for all these properties.

heritage thru present days story telling digital mediums.

• It can also meet Government’s objective of employment generation in the creative and artistic sector which has been neglected for a long time.

2. By keeping Doordarshan (Public broadcasting rights in India) & a percentage share of all the worldwide satellite broadcasting, Licensing & Merchandising, etc. This will not only strengthen the cause of CFSI but will give a big boost to creative artists and creative & animation studios in India. Moreover this will help restore the art and culture of India in a significant way.

• To give a great boost to the studio’s and skills in India to retain work and creative jobs in India.

• To effectively reach out to all the rural audience with even educational content in an entertaining way in multiple languages.

• To effectively implement creative content reservation the co-production treaties and CFSI funding would bring about a conducive environment and build a win-win proposition for all stakeholders.

D. To bring 60 to 70 % of Indigenous created content reservation on all kids networks in India India is the third largest TV market in the world with a total strength of 161 million TV households only next to China and the USA. The TV industry is the most important industry in Media & Entertainment Sector and contributes the largest share to the entire M& E Industry of India. With a 6.3 percent share in the kid’s entertainment space, it caters to a huge audience base in the country. This audience is also the future of the country, our kids who deserves the right environment for nurturing and growth. In a scenario where American programs constitute 25%, Japanese programs 35%, Korean programs 35% and Indian programs a miniscule 5% in the Indian broadcasting space for kids, how can we dream of building a strong nation when the Value Systems of today’s Indian kids are being moulded and based on foreign culture as reflected in these shows. Also from an industry perspective, with few possible exceptions, Animation, Gaming & VFX are the only industries where demand for manpower is more than supply. It is estimated that India has about 300 animation, 40 VFX and 35 game development Studios employing thousands of technocreative professionals. If the I&B Ministry can take measures and formulate policies in the right direction for kid’s content on television:

• The kids in our country will get a healthy environment of

education

Our request: 30 % mandatory local animation content on the networks to begin with and to reach 60 % over next three years as more indigenous animation content gets prepared and available for domestic/ exports markets. According to CASBA Korea has mandatory local content programming quota for movie channels are 30 % and for animation channels it is 35 %. In Australia Free-to-air channels must make sure 55% of content broadcast between 6am and midnight. This quota includes mandatory levels of first-run drama and children’s content. Most Of the Asia’s animation since 1960 has been tied to foreign interest attracted by stable and inexpensive labour supplies. For nearly 40 years, western studios have established and maintained production facilities, first in Japan, then South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and INDIA. The economies of the industry made it feasible for Asia to feed the cartoon world, to the extent, that today 90 % of all “American” television content in produced in Asia. Asian animation companies bid fiercely for the part of the global business, insisting that it provides employment to the skills to young people, brings in needed foreign capital and to the creation of domestic animation. Countries like Korea, China,

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and Singapore have enjoyed Government support for promoting this sector. Asian competitors like Korea, China, Japan, Philippines receive tremendous support from their Government in terms of finance and infrastructure. Most of these countries have a programming quota of local animated content for their kid’s channels which helps them to grow as content creation nations and restore their country’s culture and heritage for their kids while they also excel as animation outsourcing nations. The level of local content requirement imposed on a sector (such as free-to-air television and pay television) is supposed to be pegged to that sector’s influence on community views, as well as its ability to withstand compliance costs. It is utterly essential that such quota of locally created content to be broadcasted on kid’s channels in our country be imposed if we want to stop complete cultural erosion for future India. Our kids will be unable to understand and appreciate the cultural diversity of India due to erosion of sense of belonging and unable to associate with our cultural roots. Such quota in kid’s channels will help in:

• To promote responsible programming in kid’s channels, specially animated content. Today’s kids are keener to watch animated content over live action in the broadcasting space.

• To provide free access to kids with kids’ programming in cable dark areas.

• To emphasize on entertainment with education and vice-versa.

• To promote cross fertilization of diversified Indian cultures.

• To increase awareness and tolerance to our cultural diversity. Asia Pacific

• U.K. (Animation,

• Singapore

TV & Gaming should be included in the present treaty)

• Thailand • Japan • Australia • Vietnam

art, music, mythology and customs.

• To instil the right value system. Also, it will give boost to our animation industry and create massive job opportunity. We will also have a substantial library of Indian animated content that can travel globally and spread awareness of Indian culture and heritage.

E. Audio Visual co– production treaties with relevant countries As India does not have a co-production treaty with major animation producing countries, we are not even considered for large production deals. This is a major blow to the outsourcing industry. This is despite the fact that we have an excellent talent pool. Countries like China which has very low skill animation talent Pool as compared to India has drawn in major production deals from US Broadcaster Nickelodeon as the Chinese Government has made significant investments and are heavily subsidising these American productions. As India has signed co-production treaty with Canada this year, we need to sign coproduction deals with Belgium, Finland and other European Nations. Co-production treaties also need to be signed with Asian Countries such as Singapore, Japan and Vietnam. All treaties should cover animation, visual effects, gaming, film, TV and comics. Most of our existing treaties with countries such as UK are limited to film, these need to be extended to cover the full gamut of Film, TV, Gaming and Comics. It is recommended that the co-production treaties should be signed between the Government of India and the following countries: Also, many feel Gaming should be included in the already signed co-production treaties like Canada, Italy, Germany, Bra-

Europe & Middle East

• Malaysia • Taiwan

• To expose kids to our rich heritage of

North America

• USA

Latin America

• Argentina • Mexico • Trinidad & Tobago

• Belgium

• Brazil

• Finland • Israel • Spain • Iran • Turkey

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zil, France, New Zealand, and Poland as gaming is an integral part of the entertainment industry and important component of AVGC Industry. As co-production treaties have become an important instrument for the countries to access global markets and knowhow, these co-production treaties would be helpful to the AVGC Industry.

F. Creation of Specialized creative and art cities as well as universities to provide this sector a level playing field: These specialized creative and art cities will provide a complete ecosystem from education to production and as the majority of the industry is on self employment, this will enable most of the creative artists and performing artists to earn their livelihood and maintain a work-life balance in these cities which are created at various places of India.

G. Creation of a strong Creative- Digital-Content department under the I & B ministry to give single window clearances, solve and monitor creative, digital & content industry issues as well as serve as a single point entity for all co-production treaties: The Culture Department while playing its part has the potential to operate on a much larger scale. We recommend that the Culture Ministry be included within the I&B Ministry and be renamed as CreativeContent-Culture-Heritage Department at the central and also at the state governments levels. The Films, TV, Animation, Radio, Online & Mobile and all forms of content creation must be brought under this department. This will bring focus in these areas in terms of long term vision and effective policies that will enable the entertainment industry of India to flour-

TO HAVE AN EFFECTIVE AND FRUITFUL CO-PRODUCTION IMPLEMENTATION, INDIA NEEDS A NEW INSITUTIONAL DESIGN STRUCTURE IN THE FORM OF CREATIVE AND DIGITAL CONTENT DEPARTMENT UNDER I&B 48

ish in the right path. This will not only create creative and artistic vision but also restore our golden heritage. The department while looking at the culture of the country also needs to understand that entertainment is also a part of culture itself, and more so in today’s time since both nationally and globally it’s the entertainment and educational content in various platform that represents and mirrors the culture of a country. Hence the responsibility of creating the platform and a total ecosystem for creating healthy content needs to be promoted by the Creative-Content-Culture-Heritage Department under the I & B Ministry. In the era of technology social media and the consumption patterns of today the digital content creation economy is booming. Majority of the countries in Asia Pacific have aligned their policies and initiatives to support the digital content creation industry while enforcing the ethos and safeguarding the cultural fabric of their countries where by enabling a conducive environment of modality culture and technology. We must grab the opportunity to remodel and relook into the content creation including films & entertainment space and give a facelift to the Culture Ministry, empowering it with the new proposed identity by including it the I&B Ministry. This will not only ensure the focus that is duly required to be given to the content creation for films, television , gaming, animation, comics , even digital consumption but will also enable us to re-position and give a true industry status to the creative content creation as an industry. India will be then better poised to get into the co-production treaties and many new age partnerships with all the international stake holders from around the world. A special attention can be then given to restore all the dying art, folk and performing art forms from India. To bring special focus on museums, theme parts, history and heritage parks etc to promote our tourism. It will make region specific cultural and art find rebirth. The formation of Creative-Content-Digital ministry and establishing its close working or working under the I & B ministry will be a landmark step in the India history and enable restoration and re-positioning effort of India ethos and values.

H. CSR funding for kids programming A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people just as the strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. And in every home should reside the core values of patrio-

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To drive leadership in the evolving digital content creation and digital content economy, India’s policy and taxation needs a special attention to restructure and recognize AVGC sector the way several of our Asian neighbours as well as European and North American countries mastered the ecosystem tism since it is an indispensable weapon in the defense of our country. A nation is secure when its youth are honest, truthful and virtuous. And television being today’s grandparents of the society, telling stories to the kids as they grow up must bear a social responsibility as well while creating entertainment. It makes children programming for television that much more a responsible job. It is their window of imagination, their medium of character building, their source of inspiration. And in this noble cause a lot more than just the network’s support is needed to make the children programming space more viable and vibrant. But even great causes needs legitimate support. And that support of providing the children programming space its exposure, reach and exploration in terms of recourses will only be possible if Corporate India takes a step forward and recognizes children programming as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. But just the way constitution is needed to make us abide by fundamental guidelines of law even though we are aware of it, similarly for such an initiative though the corporate are aware of its importance, needs a legal initiative from Government to provide a legitimate platform

that it deserves. An approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs towards classifying “Children Programming” officially eligible for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding will provide the much needed stimulus in this endeavor. Creating sensible and responsible children programming in India is a social revolution of bringing back the pride for our country to every youngster across the nation. It is an effort to instill our roots in them so that we create socially responsible citizens, and the process starts when they are young. What can be a more “appropriate” reason to seek the enormous resource that Corporate India can provide through CSR towards supporting Children Programming. There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion. At the same time we need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community - and this nation. You can email the author at ashishk66@gmail.com.

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