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News |  19 Feb 2013 16:44 |  By RnMTeam

Ficci Frames 2013 to focus on consumer engagement

MUMBAI: Ficci Frames, the annual media and entertainment forum, has unveiled the theme - 'A Tryst with Destiny – Engaging a Billion Consumers' - for this year's edition. The industry forum will be held from 12-14 March 2013 in Mumbai.

Aiming to engage more consumers to act as a catalyst of economic and social change in India, the theme was unveiled by the chairman of the Media & Entertainment Committee Uday Shankar, and co-chairman Karan Johar.

Shankar said, “While the industry has made spectacular progress in the last 20 years in increasing the intensity of engagement with the Indian consumer through superior content, there is still a gap in our ability to monetize the engagement and use the resources generated to advance both access and content. 2013 is a year of many milestones in the media and entertainment industry and Frames will offer an opportunity for us to put these developments into perspective, look at the larger picture and engage on such a bold and important theme”.

The conference this year has lined up key international thought leaders, studio heads and academics to speak on a range of topics covering the main objectives of the sector including digitization, making big budget films and being successful in Bollywood, censorship, marketing, exhibition, distribution, viability of the sports broadcasting business, the future of content consumption in an era progressively getting defined by the digital media, innovation and planning required in various policy issues within TV, cinema, animation and gaming.

Ficci Frames 2013 will feature a stellar range of speakers ranging from Walt Disney International chairman Andy Bird, Walt Disney International co- chair and Disney ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney, Viacom Media International CEO Bob Bakish, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) dean Teri Schwartz, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University MD Colin Maclay, Sony Pictures Television International Networks president Andy Kaplan, film-maker Mira Nair, Group M Worldwide president Dominic Proctor, Warner Bros Music VP Seymour Stein, Life of Pi producer David Womart, film maker Gurinder Chaddha, Annenberg School of Innovation, The University of California school of communications and journalism director Jonathan Taplin, Pinewood studios international head Andy Weltman and Best Exotic Marigold hotel British producer Graham Broadbent amongst others.

At Frames 2013, the aim is to deliberate on the growth of the industry and find ways to maximize both its creative and economic potential by engaging with the billion strong consumer base in our country. The conference aims to generate new jobs, create new skill sets and drive global exposure for the industry.

Johar said, “The M&E industry has the potential to become the catalyst for social change and a force of good for every niche of society. FICCI Frames has been the most eminent platform for the M&E sector and its initiatives over the past decade have improved the quality of content generation, skill development and stature of the industry. We believe that our new agenda will be the change agent for social and commercial development, connecting a billion people, while shaping and informing their opinions and getting influenced by their collective needs in turn.”

Apart from that, the conclave will also feature attendees including Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari, Information & Broadcasting secretary Uday Kumar Varma, TRAI chairman Dr Rahul Khullar, Member of Parliament Jay Panda, FICCI president Naina Lal Kidwai, film-makers Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Sujoy Ghosh.

The event also highlighted the importance of the M&E industry, with it being amongst the top 15 markets in India. Its growth is stated to increase through industry collaboration and policy revamp to drive more consumer engagement.

According to the FICCI Media & Entertainment Committee, what would drive this progress is collective innovation on part of the industry verticals and support from the government in establishing empowering policy initiatives to rapidly transform this sector.

Strong FDI inflows will further drive this growth, making India a global powerhouse in this industry. Digitization and the commitment from policy makers to keep it going will be critical, as will the industry’s adopting transparency & governance best practices to access capital.

Indian content will find its way into international markets on new technology drivers, while available content will need to be repurposed based on content relevance, customer demography, customer preferences and push methods. Rapid digitization will also enable collaborative broadcast production on a variety of platforms, which can be directly accessed from a billion consumers.

While fiscal measures will ease various duties on cable, broadcasting and DTH verticals in television, the FDI boost to 49 per cent in radio is expected to enhance profitability and introduce sports broadcasting, if licensing and spectrum issues are resolved.

In other industries like film, the amendment of Cinematograph Act and resolving tax issues is the need of the hour. A 10 year tax holiday, co-production treaties, reduction in import duties and infrastructure development is expected to take animation and gaming to the next level; even as OOH, music and internet require attention due to inadequate wire-line infrastructure affecting broadband penetration.

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