|
: In March this year, when Ficci and PricewaterhouseCoopers brought out its annual report on the Indian entertainment & media (E&M) industry, there were many reasons to celebrate. It said the E&M industry grew 17% in 2007 over 2006 and the industry size swelled to Rs 51,300 crore in 2007 from Rs 43,800 crore in 2006. It projected that the E&M industry, the largest slices of which are TV and films, will grow at 18% cumulatively over the next five years.
But then the slowdown happened. While historically, a recession has always had a positive impact on the entertainment industry, the Indian film industry, scared by the liquidity crunch, is now thinking twice about greenlighting future projects.
Thankfully, the broadcast industry is still not facing the heat. But if adspends go down—advertising is the lifeblood of every broadcaster—then the TV industry too won’t have too many smiles around either.
A senior Star group official, who didn’t want to be named, said: “Till about this time there is no negative impact on adspends, but the market feeling was that if Diwali sales show a ‘degrowth’ it would have an impact on spends from November through January.” So far the FMCG sector, among the highest spender in TV advertising, has not faced any major downturn, he said.
Caution, a byword
In Bollywood, most production houses are treading cautiously. According to Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures: “The slowdown is already having an impact on the number of projects being made. In the last two years, because of a glut of players, a lot of movies were being made, now we will get into a more sustainable business model.”
But one aspect that pleases production houses is that talent prices, which had skyrocketed in the past two years, are gradually coming down. “In the last two months, talent prices have come down to more sustainable levels, and that’s a positive trend for the long-run,” added Kapur.
Kishore Lulla, CEO, Eros Entertainment, said it’s the time for industry consolidation. “In 1950, after the second world war, the film business went up—the world was in gloom but the studios consolidated and made money.” But still, it’s not that the film industry is insulated from a global meltdown. While most players agreed that the slowdown would not impact the box office, Navin Shah, CEO, Percept Picture Company, said less than 60% revenues now come from the box office. “The rest are from satellite...
| Single Page Format | 1 - 2 - 3 - Next |
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
 |
 |
 |
About Us | Contact Us | Advertisers | Site Map | Make us your homepage | Work for Us | RSS | Subscribe | Electronic Edition | Privacy Policy© 2010: The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved throughout the world
