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The Indian broadcast industry is at the cusp of a major revolution in the way the offering will be consumed and monetised going forward. The Indian broadcast industry is still significantly dependent on the advertising model, and for the industry to grow and compete with its contemporaries in the developed world, all the stakeholders need to drive certain key action points.
A 100 per cent implementation of the Digital Addressability System (DAS) is a must for broadcasters to be able to successfully monetise a subscription model.
Support of the government, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which has the mandate to oversee the functioning of the television industry support is extremely critical for this to be a successful model. While information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar is already talking about limiting advertising on pay channels, this can be feasible only once the real implementation of digitisation takes place where the broadcaster along with others start getting their fair share of revenue. This has to be addressed first for the broadcast revenue model to change to a subscription led one, as in most other developed countries.
Indigenisation of set-top boxes should be addressed aggressively, as it will significantly dial up the DAS process for both the multi system operator (MSOs) and the local cable operators (LCOs) as well as benefitting the end consumer.
A structured consolidation amongst the MSOs and LCOs will benefit the broadcasters, as long as it does not give birth to a monopolistic regime.
Consumer awareness programmes would be very important. After all, the content is being created for the consumer, and the more the subscription model is in favour of the broadcaster, the better the content that can be created to cater to the consumer. Higher distribution revenue would result in higher investment in content creation, which will be from a perspective of creating higher consumer delight.
* The broadcaster also has to invest significantly in customised premium content and in its specific brand imagery to create its demand in the consumer’s mind.We have already witnessed channels such as Star World Premiere and most HD feeds of the other broadcasters specifically catering to this need gap, and going forward this will emerge into a much larger segment of business for broadcasters.
* The broadcaster in the DAS world also has to be careful about the pricing and packaging of its offerings.
* All broadcasters, along with the support of all the other stakeholders, should push for increasing the average revenue per user (ARPUs). India has one of the lowest ARPUs in the world — so this becomes a big challenge for all the stakeholders which they have to jointly address to ensure that the industry grows significantly.
Inter-portability of set top boxes is another important step, as at the heart of it is consumer benefit.
Additionally, in this super-fast developing world of digital, broadcasters have to look beyond the traditional subscription model. As the digital world grows and people start consuming content in a very different way from how it is done in a traditional model, it will be imperative for broadcasters to customise the monetisation model. Going forward, no broadcaster can even think of ignoring this part of the business model.
The author is CEO of Colors
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