The Hindu Business Line : `Entertainment industry yet to gear up for digital era'

INDIAN entertainment industry, estimated at about $4 billion (around Rs 17,200 crore), is set to double in about four years, given the current rate of growth of about 20 per cent per annum, and is likely to witness a wave of consolidation.

The Chairman of Reliance Entertainment, Mr Amit Khanna, said the sector is still fragmented and the domestic players need to brace up to the digital world and its value chain and learn from their counterparts in developed economies.

Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of the Nasscom summit on the animation sector, Mr Khanna said that the industry continued to work with the same mindset and old practices. "The entertainment industry encompassing films, television, music and other sectors show that they are not learning from other markets and are yet to brace up for the digital era. The classic case is that of the music industry. They need to study the approaches of something like iPod, what it has done to the industry worldwide".

"After the initial downward trend, there are signs of global music industry revival and India is no exception to this. However, piracy continues to be a single major concern along with taxes."

With regard to policy initiatives, there is still some concern. "If you look at the way the CAS (conditional access system) or the uplinking policy were handled, it is much to be desired. However, there is general improvement with the regulator in place."

Broadband wave in the offing

THIS is just the beginning of the potential broadband wave in the making. BSNL has announced its roll out and Reliance is currently offering broadband services in 32 cities for the corporate sector.

This is to be enhanced to 100 cities by the end of this year. "Soon, we expect to launch the retail broadband. We have partnered with several global players such as Sprint and MCI aimed at providing connectivity to them leveraging our FLAG project:, said the Chairman of Reliance Entertainment, Mr Amit Khanna,

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