FICCI
“This is the beginning of the end of television as we know it.” Zee Telefilms’ Chairperson, Subhash Chandra, chose these words to begin his keynote address on ‘Digital Entertainment Living’, on Thursday, March 23. The visionary brought a whole new meaning to the importance of the role of digitisation as he took on the television business - aspect by aspect – and established that nothing would be spared from the digital conquest.
Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing Director, Wipro on Wednesday said that ICE – IT, Communication and Entertainment – essentially pointed at convergence. "Even as I have seen much more of IT than Communication and even lesser of Entertainment, I definitely see a link between the three," he said.
FICCI Frames 2006 lived up to its expectations with the first day opening to a full house on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. In fact, so overwhelming was the response that registrations had to be stopped midway as the venue couldn't accommodate the vast number or people who had turned up. Nearly 1,500 national and international delegates, representing various bodies like trade units, government bodies, broadcasters, publications, and just about anyone who had anything to do with the entertainment and media space were there.
In the past year, television has grown in an unprecedented manner. The medium saw changes by way of new genres establishing themselves, more channels being launched, changes in distribution platforms and hike in ad rates across channels. One indication of where the sector is headed comes from STAR India’s decision to spin off two entities -- STAR Group and STAR Entertainment, in order to structure its growth.
In its seventh year, FICCI Frames has once again ensured that anything that promises to be an emerging trend in the Indian media business comes under the scanner and to do so, the Federation has put together one of the best mix of media minds. The FICCI ‘Frame’ of mind this year is ‘Where Business meets Entertainment’.
The multiplex's steady proliferation in the metropolis and simultaneous penetration into some smaller cities and towns testifies to its increasing popularity, coinciding with the rise of disposable incomes in the hands of the urban Indian family.
FICCI Frames 2005 has successfully culminated. Key industry leaders shared view points on various trends that they see emerging in the industry, whether it is the mobile phone changing the look of the media, or discerning consumers getting more involved in the content that they want to see.
Is content king, or is the medium the message? That was the bone of contention at the session on ‘Mobile Entertainment – Whenever, wherever’ on Day 3 of FRAMES 2005. Arun Gupta, COO, Mauj, said, “Mobile data contributes between 2-15 per cent in terms of ARPU contributions for different operators of the world. The mobile screen is emerging as the third most popular screen, after television and PC for entertainment options.”
The multiplex’s steady proliferation in the metropolis and simultaneous penetration into some smaller cities and towns testifies to its increasing popularity, coinciding with the rise of disposable incomes in the hands of the urban Indian family.
Speakers on Day 3 of FRAMES 2005 agreed that it may take at least five years for all Indian homes to start receiving content in the digital format, given the huge investment required to convert from the existing analog systems.
The FICCI Best Animated Frames Awards were given away on Tuesday. From just one international entry last year, the popularity of the awards seems to have risen immensely with more than 200 entries from 14 countries pouring in for this year's awards.
Increasingly, filmmakers have discovered that there is big money to be made outside India, as Bollywood is on its way towards becoming a global brand with the success of films like Monsoon Wedding and Bend it like Beckham in the international arena. The panel for the session on 'Bollywood goes global' included names such as Karan Johar, Rachel Dwyer (Reader in Indian Studies and Cinema Department of South Asia), Ramesh Sippy, Anupam Sharma (Producer/Director) and Govind Nihalani.
The second day of FICCI FRAMES 2005 emphasised the present status where laws are taking time to catch up with reality. Industry leaders deliberated on the fact that when a situation has arrived but a corresponding legislation hasn't, the need to look at the situation closely, is accentuated.
The dotcom boom gave entrepreneurs a taste of big money through venture capitalists. With this in the backdrop, different industries took advantage of venture capitalist funding. The private equities have been an obvious gainer through big investments.
With countries like India looking at non-US markets to expand their share of the digital content pie, Singapore could provide the ideal gateway with its positioning as the regional business hub for computer animation, according to speakers at the session on ‘Digital Content Management’.
The business model of co-production in animation is more relevant now than ever before. The new model comes in the wake of the increasing difficulty in finding funding for animation series as well as garnering advertising revenues to completely fund content. The speakers at the sessions on animation, titled 'Co-production: A win-win game', at FICCI FRAMES '05 agreed that co-production is the way forward.
'Branded entertainment' has been an age-old phenomenon in the entertainment industry though it may seem like an emerging concept, said Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, GroupM. "While we have seen this in the 60's in the soap operas, in the film industry it has always existed as an organised business of supplying props although today we have only complicated the concept," said Srivastava in the 'Branded Entertainment' session at FICCI FRAMES.
If one had to use a phrase to define FICCI FRAMES –Day 1, it would be ‘A Day of answers’ and they were largely coming from the Information and Broadcast Minster, Jaipal Reddy. The questions came from the likes of Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee Telfilms and Kunal Dasgupta, CEO, Sony Entertainment.
<p align=justify>New forms of technology such as video games, broadband Internet access, high definition television and personal recorders are re-defining the viewing habits of people. These were the broad theme of the presentation on ‘New Media & Entertainment’.
<p align=justify>‘Branded entertainment’ has been an age-old phenomenon in the entertainment industry though it may seem like an emerging concept, said Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, GroupM. “While we have seen this in the 60’s in the soap operas, in the film industry it has always existed as an organised business of supplying props although today we have only complicated the concept,” said Srivastava in the ‘Branded Entertainment’ session at FICCI FRAMES.
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