India's production industry ushers in 2010

The New Year brings with it a lot of promises. It will be an exciting year with India gearing up to hold the Common Wealth Games 2010. In the wake of the Games, India will hopefully see its HD (TV) revolution.

According to a background paper prepared for Assocham by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC): “The overall impact of the current economic downturn on media and entertainment industry will speed up the move to digital, rather than slow it down by creating a case in favour of digital migration across the industry.”

Thus for one, we can expect that a few more steps will be taken by the government to bring in digitalisation. DTH operators are asking for tax sops to help them spearhead the process. The introduction of Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) will help expand the market and give the consumer greater choice. It will also help the march towards digitalisation.

While Indian films have gone global, 2010 is likely to see the Indian producer/director step up his marketing skills. The rules are different for a film’s success in the international arena and require positioning and documentation.

This year will also see arise in co-productions. A vast majority of domestic corps in entertainment and media will prefer to invest in Hollywood, rather than the domestic industry since the former provides for huge returns on such investments on account of it success ratio in film production.

According to Marcel Fenez, global leader, Entertainment & Media practice, PwC consumers will take more control in the way they consume media. ‘Time-shifting’, using digital video recorders and video-on-demand will free them up from the TV schedule, enabling them to watch what they want when they want. Increased broadband penetration with mobile access will allow consumers to access the internet from any location and giving rise to the popularity of high-end devices such as smartphones, iPods, and the Kindle that combine mobility and access.

So here is to a year of infinite possibilities and dynamic changes.

Chesta Shah Sengupta is the editor of Digital Studio India.

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