UTV Chief Ronnie Screwvala lists 10 game-changing challenges for media and entertainment industry

MUMBAI, March 17, 2010. Mr. Ronnie Screwvala, CEO & Founder Chairman, UTV Group, today spelt out a 10-fold game-changing challenge that the entertainment and media industry would have to contend with in the coming years.

Giving the keynote address at FICCI FRAMES 2010 here, Mr. Screwvala said the games changers in the industry would be the scale of operations, competition, consolidation, mobile technology, youth, gaming, broadcasting, cable, assertiveness, the boldness to consume content.

The fast changing mobile technology, he said, would be the key revenue earner as content on the mobile phone is going to be highly monetisable. Telcos, he said, was making more money than any other medium, and the mobile phone was emerging as the number one camera in the world.

Mr. Screwvala said that broadcasting, especially DTH, had changed the media landscape in India and by next year DTH would reach 30 million homes in India.

He said the need of the hour was a 360 degree connect with the consumers as industry players look beyond just the traditional mediums by reaching the consumers across multiple platforms in order to establish a stronger connect. They are taking the help of multiple touch points at the same time to communicate to the consumer across platforms like TV, print, radio, OOH, films, internet, mobile and retail.

Games, Mr. Screwvala said, was the most underconsumed market in India today. But all this was going to change as the worldwide gaming market is poised to become a US$ 45 billion dollar market.