The Hindu Business Line : Entertainment industry set for big growth, says report

Entertainment biz: (From right) Ms Asha Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; Ms Viviane Reding, European Commissioner, Information Society & Media, European Commission; Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and President, FICCI; and Mr Yash Chopra, Chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee, at the FICCI Frames Global Convention on the business of entertainment in Mumbai on Tuesday. —

Our Bureau

Mumbai, March 25 The Indian entertainment and media industry, whose size was pegged at Rs 51,300 crore in 2007, is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18 per cent for the next five years, to Rs 1.157 trillion in 2012, according to the FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers report released at the ninth FICCI Frames Forum here on Tuesday.

Foreign investment in the sector for 2007 was at a record high of Rs 85 crore, according to the report. This was a result of the various deals that were signed in the previous years. But it constituted only 1.5 per cent of the total foreign investment received by the country during the year, said

Mr Kunal Dasgupta, Chief Executive Officer, Sony Entertainment Television and Co-Chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee, said, “Currently, the FDI in the sector is minimal and there is huge scope for more, especially in the areas of technology.”

The Foreign Direct Investment cap, which is currently at 26 per cent for news and current affairs, and 100 per cent for entertainment, might be raised to 74 per cent in digital formats such as Direct-to-Home and Headend-in-the-Sky, but not for cable operators, said Ms Asha Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

“There are too many cable operators in India already and I do not want a very big player to come in,” she said.

The entertainment industry is poised to grow faster than the economy, said Ms Swarup. But she stressed on improving the content and making it relevant to larger audiences. “Make the content relevant to international audiences. Also, children should have more options than just Pogo, as they watch a lot of television,” she said.

She discounted the importance of the Optical Disc Law, being discussed across ministries to counter piracy, and expressed dissatisfaction with the way it was drafted.

“The Copyright Act itself needs to be reviewed, I think. Also, we are looking at the effective policies of some State governments, for example, the Goonda Act in Tamil Nadu, through which bootleggers and pirates are dealt with,” she said.

Another means of checking piracy would be to release the films across all C and D towns and platforms such as the Internet, and home networks simultaneously to remove the incentive for piracy altogether, she said.

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