Showcasing the dawn of digitization in Indian television and films, Rameez Maniar, Alumni of Northpoint’s PGPMR 2013-14 batch has some very interesting insights to share through this blog article.
The Indian Broadcasting and Entertainment industry’s three most significant segments viz. Television, Films and Animation & Gaming are set to symbolise the next generation digitalization technology in its full glory.
Television
Television clearly rules the roost dominating other segments in the industry. It is the most preferred form of entertainment and which has the maximum influence on audiences. Indian television sector boasts of having the third largest TV households globally, second only to China and the US.
Despite such inspiring statistics India still lags behind in the digital TV penetration with a lowly 36% as compared to more than 90% in countries such as Finland, Spain, UK, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. Steps have already been taken to tackle this issue by the Ministry of Broadcasting in association with the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) on the sunset of analogue transmission in India by this year.
Digitalization is expected to not only help the players in the television value chain to reap maximum benefits from this technological revolution, but also to cater to consumers’ diverse and unique needs in terms of entertainment.
Digitalization is the inevitable path forward, to achieve better quality viewing and transparency in revenue. A perfect digital experience will involve digital content, riding on digital platform, viewed on a digital screen. Digitalization will be a win-win situation for customers, operators as well as the government.
The potential of the volume of DTH services is huge in terms of service and hardware sales. The advertising will also go through a transformation opening up new and profitable revenue streams. Digitalized entertainment would also enable both the state and central government to earn major taxes.
Film
This year marked another milestone with the Indian Film industry completing 100 golden years. From a modest start with a silent film made in 1913 to Indian film-makers producing English language films, the Indian film industry has had quite a journey. India has the world’s largest industry in terms of number of films produced and the ticket size.
In India, there is a huge viewer-ship for films. Over 1,000 films are produced every year in more than 20 languages. Regional cinema – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada constitutes a large chunk of these. Impact of digitalization is clearly visible in films right from the conceptualization and production stages to distribution and exhibition of films across platforms in India as well as abroad.
The future of the Indian film industry looks bright with digital prints, digital cinemas and more sophisticated digital production techniques. Digital film is another interesting aspect of the digitalization era. If tape-less is the path forward for broadcasters then celluloid-less is the way ahead for the film makers.
Digital cinema with satellite distribution is the only effective way to fight piracy. It brings down the cost of multiple prints and logistics of physical delivery. The technology of film-making in India is among the best in developing countries. The Indian film industry provides employment to nearly 6 million people.
The industry is witnessing considerable advancements in areas like technology, marketing, exhibition with rampant digitalization across the value chain, resulting in enhanced reach and access to high quality content. As the number of digital theatres are surging, the future of Indian Cinema looks very promising!