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Bi-Monthly Digital Edition of Broadcast&Film Magazine

BROADCAST AND FILM MARCH - APRIL 20214

Contents

12

5

4

Animation and VFX Surge

News

16 Top VFX & Post Production Studios In India

20

25

Top OTT Players And Their Financial Resurgence

In The Pandemic

Media & Entertainment Sector 2020: Key trends

28 Top English NEWS Channel & Their Financial Resurgence

NEWS...

Editorial


Contents

Editor:

MANOJ MADHAVAN

manoj,[email protected]

43IABM’s Report “Charting the Uncharted”

45

Production:

PRASHANT KARANGUTKAR

312/313, A Wing, 3rd Floor, Dynasty Business Park, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai – 400059.

312/313, A Wing, 3rd Floor, Dynasty Business Park, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai – 400059.

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Editorial & Advertising

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Email: manoj,[email protected]

MARCH - APRIL 2021 ISSUE

HPA’s The Found Lederhosen Uses Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio and URSA Mini Pro 12K

38

Repositioning For 2021 – The IABM Technology And Trends Roadmap Helps Determine Your Future Direction

33

Ashok Mansukhani: Distinguished Media Veteran Recounts On OTT, CATV& Broadcast Market


EDITOR’S DESK

From the Editor’s Desk

The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector isexpected to grow by 25% in 2021 and is expected to reach INR 1.73trillion (US$23.7 billion) states FICCI-EY report ‘Playing by newrules’. With its current trajectory, the M&E sector in India isexpected to reach INR 2.23 trillion (US$30.6 billion) by 2023 at aCAGR of 17%.

In 2020 television continued to remain the largest segment.Television segment revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of7% to reach INR847 billion by 2023 driven by increased base ofsubscribers as households continue to get televised. Growth will bedriven by connected TVs which could cross 40 million homes by2025 and free television could cross 50 million homes by then. PaidOTT subscriptions crossed 50 million for the first time in 2020.

The VFX and Animation studios witnessed a surge in contentdemand for domestic shows which is expected to rise in the nextfew years.

These figures will prove to be very reassuring to an industrysegment which has been very badly impacted by the pandemic.

IABM Special Report - ‘Charting the Uncharted’ highlightshow traditional broadcasters have moved rapidly to supplementtheir output with DTC offerings, and to search for the necessaryscale to compete with the digital giants through acquisition orconsolidation as well as increased investment in content. IABM'sCTO, Stan Moote shows the changes made in 2020 by thestakeholders in the media ecosystem helped in giving a freshperspective to all businesses in the media content chain.

The major financial resurgence by the OTT players and newschannel during the course of the pandemic is featured in this issue.The ‘Entertainment’ industry believes in the maxim ‘The Show MustGo On’. And the hope is that 2021 despite being a difficult yearwill usher a sense of positivity and a ray of hope.

Manoj Madhavan - Editor

MANOJ MADHAVANEditor

The entertainmentecosystem in India boasts ofan impressive infrastructureof post houses, VFX studioswhich deliver quality work.

The OTT players haveregistered phenomenal

growth in the pandemic interms of revenues and

addition in subscribers.IP development has opened

new doors for Indianstudios who were

traditionally serviceoriented, as OTT platformsare allowing international

audiences to consumesuch content.

[email protected]

6


PADMA SHRI, SANTOSH SIVAN JOINS CANON’SDISTINGUISHED CINEMA EOS AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

In-line with strengthening itsEOS Ambassador program in India,Canon, has onboarded eminentDirector, Cinematographer andFilmmaker, Santosh Sivan as partof its celebrated Cinema EOSAmbassador program. Sivan is oneof the most acclaimedcinematographers in the Indianfilm fraternity and brings to thetable an experience of over 30years. He has worked on various

films across Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages and is most renownedfor his work in the South Indian film industry especially Malayalam cinema. Hehas won 14 National Awards and for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema,he has been awarded the reputed Padma Shri by the President of India in 2014.

Sivan’s passion for the art of filmmaking made him a founding member ofthe Indian Society of Cinematographers (ISC) and he is also the only Indianrepresentative at the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). He shot toprominence on the national stage with Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi and is celebratedfor his work in movies such as Roja, Dil Se, Iruvar, and Kaala Pani. He is not onlyrespected in the Indian film industry but is also applauded internationally for hisstellar work. He has 21 international awards and credits include Bride & Prejudice,Mistress Of Spices, and The Terrorist (premiered at BFI London Film Festival).Some of his most recent films include , Lies We Tell, Chekka Chivantha Vaanamand the famous Darbar with Rajnikanth. While his film Mumbaikar is currently inthe post production stage and shooting for his film Barroz just started.

Sivan is looking forward working with with the latest cinema cameralaunched by Canon, the EOS C70 Cinema camera which is Canon's first RF MountCinema EOS Camera and exploring the same to create unique OTT content.

Commenting on the Cinema EOS Ambassador Program, Mr. C Sukumaran,Director- Consumer Systems Products and Imaging Communication Productssaid, “We are excited to onboard Mr. Santosh Sivan, a legend and an industryveteran with an impeccable sense of visual storytelling, as our Canon CinemaEOS Ambassador. Bold and inspirational, the Canon EOS Ambassador programrepresents and supports current and future generations of photographers andfilmmakers. With his experience and passion, Mr. Sivan is the ideal ambassador tonot only spearhead change in the motion pictures industry but also share Canon'svision for visual storytelling.”

“With the remarkable rise of OTT content, the broadcast industry hasbeen witnessing several transformations in recent times and that is where theexperience of creators like Mr. Sivan counts the most. Through our Canon CinemaEOS Ambassadors, we aim to spread of filmmaking not only in terms of being intune with the latest trends but also the best-suited technology.”

Speaking about partnering with Canon as a Cinema EOS Ambassador, Mr.Santosh Sivan said, “I am delighted to be a part of the Canon EOS CinemaAmbassador family. Through the years, Canon has been introducinggroundbreaking technology in the field of Cinema which has enabled filmmakerslike me to truly depict our vision into reality on film. And through this program, I

NEWS

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PFT SECURES A PATENTFOR ITS JUST-IN-TIMEWATERMARKINGSOLUTION WITHIN CLEAR

Prime Focus Technologies(PFT) announced that the United StatesPatent and Trademark Office has issueda patent (U.S. Patent No. 10,904,595)for its Just-in-Time embeddedwatermarking solution of streamingproxies within CLEARTM.

The studios and contentowners typically rely on invisiblewatermarks (commonly referred to asforensic watermarks) as there exists notechnology that transcodes content inreal-time to apply the visual userwatermark without impairing the userexperience. While these served thepurpose of traceability in the event ofa leak, they couldn’t deter such leaksfrom happening. Hence the reliance onUI over-lay-based, visual watermarks.

This patented solution comeswith two major innovations: (1) theability to apply user-specific burnt-inwatermarks, real-time and (2) make theexperience of a “Just-In-Time-Watermarked” stream as seamless asthat of a CLEAN stream. At its core,this invention treats every streaming-segment request from a user’s videoplayer, as an atomic segment that willneed to be transcoded by a GPU-farmand handed back in real-time to theplayer. All this, in conformance with theneeds of the standard streamingprotocols including HLS/DASH amongothers. Consequently, Any segment requested, across

any bit rate, is served with awatermark and

Any high-speed trick-play request(up to 3X) is served elegantly, sinceit relies on high-speed transcodesthrough the GPU farm.


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also get the chance to not only work closely with Canon but also promote thepassion for art in the photography-loving nation that we are.”

“I am excited to introduce to the audience my new work on OTT platformssoon and I believe that choosing a Cinema EOS camera paired with Mirrorless RFtechnology is an ideal combination in terms of technology. My current picksinclude the versatile Canon Cinema EOS C70 camera and shall further add therevolutionary mirrorless Canon EOS R5 camera with 8k video recording abilities.”

Known for associating with stalwarts of the photography community,Canon has a diverse set of filmmakers as part of its Canon EOS CinemaAmbassador. Other acclaimed cinematographers as part of the program includeSumer Verma – Underwater Cinema domain, Alphonse Roy, Bedi Brothers (VijayBedi & Ajay Bedi), Priya Thuvassery, and Rajesh Gupta.

PRONOLOGY INTRODUCES UPGRADED NAS SOLUTIONAND NEW THUNDERBOLT 3 STORAGE APPLIANCE

Pronology, a developer of cutting-edge tapeless workflow solutions, expandsits ruggedized, portable, high-performancestorage offerings with the newly updatedrNAS.m4, a Network Attached Storage (NAS)solution, along with its new rTB appliance,which utilizes a Thunderbolt 3 interface.

rNAS.m4 was developed in directresponse to customer requests for resilient,high-performance storage that can stand upto the rigors of remote production andtransportation. It is optimized for reading andwriting concurrent media streams in a

compact form factor. It allows for the acquisition and transport of broadcastmedia assets and all other types of data in a road-ready enclosure. rNAS.m4easily handles the increased amounts of data required by 4K productions. Thiscompact and extremely durable NAS solution is also rack-mountable and featuresa proprietary external status display module.

rTB by Pronology is a rugged, portable, high performance storage applianceutilizing a Thunderbolt 3 interface. Like rNAS, rTB is compact, rack-mountable,vibration and impact resistant. rTB is ideal for users who want the industries’ besthardware RAID technology with the speed and performance of Thunderboltconnectivity.

Both rNAS.m4 and rTB feature hot swappable drives all while beinglightweight, desktop quiet and nearly indestructible. Both appliances are availablewith custom hard or soft carrying cases to allow for safe and easy transportationof invaluable data and media assets. rNAS.m4 and rTB are available throughstorage product resellers and Versatile Distribution Services in the U.S.

THESMALLBIGIDEA WINS SOCIAL MEDIA DUTIES FORALTBALAJI

Full services digital and social media marketing agency, TheSmallBigIdea,has been awarded with the social media duties for ALTBalaji, Balaji Telefilms'subscription based video-on-demand platform. Within just seven years of

MARSHALL FURTHEREXPANDS IP WORKFLOWCAPABILITIES WITHADDITIONAL CAMERACHOICES

Marshall Electronics continuesto develop new cameras designed toimprove IP workflows. Marshallreleased two levels of 4K PTZ cameraswithin the last year with 30x opticalzoom and professional grade sensors:one with up to 4K30 (CV630) resolutionand one with up to 4K60 (CV730)resolution. Marshall also recentlyoffered two levels of fixed positioncameras with 30x optical zoom andprofessional grade sensors: one withup to HD60 (CV355-30X) resolution andone with up to UHD60 (CV420-30X).

In looking forward to 2021,Marshall is scheduled to launch a High-Bandwidth NDI® PTZ camera (CV730-BHN) late Q3 with up to 4K60 resolutionand 30x optical zoom packed with High-Bandwidth NDI®, NDI®|HX andsimultaneous 12GSDI/HDMI2.0outputs. Also planned for later thisyear, Marshall has its CV620-BI with20x optical zoom 3GSDI, HDMI and IP/HEVC/SRT, and the CV620-BN with 20xoptical zoom 3GSDI, HDMI andNDI®|HX on its product roadmap.

“Marshall was one of the firstadopters of the NDI® platform, buildingthe technology into our PTZ camerasseveral years ago and watching thetechnology progress with greatlyimproved NDI® Tools, lower latency,ease of discovery and the ability to mixdifferent media types into the NDI®workflow,” says Tod Musgrave,Director of Cameras for MarshallElectronics. “Marshall is completelybehind the big push in IP cameras withPTZ and fixed position camera options,whether it’s standard IP (HEVC),Haivision SRT or Newtek NDI®. We,as a company, have double-downed,triple-downed, even gone ALL-IN onthe future of IP in broadcast andproAV.”


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operation, the agency has grown fromstrength to strength on the back ofdata driven insights and contentbacked by their in-house analytics tool‘ACE’. The addition of ALTBalaji,further leverages the agency’sentertainment portfolio and helps itestablish itself as a partner of choice

amongst the media and entertainment brands for their social and digital marketingneeds.

As a part of the mandate, TheSmallBigIdea will focus on leveragingALTBalaji’s existing presence on social media platforms to captivate and reachout to newer audiences. In addition to this, the agency will strengthen the brand’ssocial position through neo-social platforms like Moj, Taka Tak, Chingari, Roposoand through online database platform, IMDb. The mandate includes the agencyto focus on conceptualizing and publishing content, and engaging with influencerson social media platforms to create a buzz about their path-breaking showslaunching every month.

In alignment with ALTBalaji’s objective, TheSmallBigIdea through itscollaboration with Mayur Jumani, garnered 247K organic views for three of theirrecently launched shows titled ‘Hello Jee’, ‘Dev DD’ and ‘Bang Baang’. Withtheir data driven strategy and creative communication approach, the campaignled to a significant increase in the brand’s social media positioning.

TheSmallBigIdea is a full services digital marketing agency that providesservices such as Social Media Management, Video Content Production, DigitalMedia Planning & Buying, Social Listening & ORM services, Augmented &Virtual Reality amongst other ancillary marketing services. Recognized for theirpropriety creative-tech tool ACE, ‘The Small Big Idea’ has enabled brands toarrive at campaign messaging by integrating insights from social sentiments &enterprise data.

VIACOM18 RESTRUCTURES ITS LEADERSHIP TEAMViacom18, India’s fastest growing

M&E network, announced changes inits leadership team to focus on scalingand bolstering its digital and broadcastbusinesses. Driving the agenda ofgrowing its digital subscription

businesses, in his new role, Ferzad Palia will head all SVOD services (Voot Select& Voot Kids) and International expansion for Voot and will report to GouravRakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures.

The network’s Youth, Music and English Entertainment business,comprising of channels that are leaders in their respective categories, will now beled by Anshul Ailawadi, erstwhile strategy and project management lead at theGroup CEO’s office. Anshul will be reporting to Rahul Joshi, Managing Director,Network18, in his new role.

In its endeavour to become a future-proof organisation, identifyingopportunities to drive synergies is crucial. Ferzad has led the growth of thenetwork’s Youth, Music and English Entertainment business for the past 16 years.More recently he launched Voot Select that has already raced to add 1mn+

MO-SYS DIGUISEENDORSESSTARTRACKER FOR XR

Mo-Sys Engineering (www.mo-sys.com), world leader in precisioncamera tracking solutions for virtualproduction and image robotics,announced that its partner disguise(www.disguise.one) has a number ofcustomers and partners adoptingStarTracker technology for XR andvirtual production. disguise customershave been adopting StarTrackersystems with disguise xR technology,and disguise has seen strong demandin the fast-growing APAC market forthe combined solution.

StarTracker is Mo-Sys’s

precision 6-axis camera and lenstracking system, designed for use withXR stages, LED volumes, and green/blue screens, for broadcast or for filmVFX production. Along with real-timephoto-realistic graphics, and real-timecompositing, these three technologieshave enabled the current explosion invirtual production for both VFX-heavyfeature films, television series, andsports production.

“We are delighted that not onlyhas disguise selected StarTracker fordemo usage in its local offices,” saidMike Grieve, Commercial Director ofMo-Sys, “but also that their customersare adopting StarTracker technologyfor XR shows, events, and virtualproduction.”


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subscribers within a year. He will now look to cohesively grow Viacom18’s SVoDand International digital businesses. Anshul has played a key role in the growthof Viacom18 over the last 6 years and is a strong proponent of the tremendousfandom, and the potential business opportunity that the YME brands of Viacom18command. In a young country like India, these brands have a long runway forgrowth, especially given the proliferation of digital platforms.

Viacom18 forayed into digital subscription businesses in late 2019 withVoot Kids that was closely followed by Voot Select launched in March 2020. VootSelect recently reported acquiring over 1mn subscribers in its first year and thoughbeing a late entrant in the category it’s the fastest growing broadcaster-backedOTT service. Youth, Music and English Entertainment portfolio of Viacom18consists of category leading channels like MTV, MTV Beats, Vh1, Comedy Centraland Colors Infinity.

“VOOT SELECT” COMPLETES A YEAR - FASTEST TO 1MILLION ACTIVE PAYING SUBSCRIBER MARK IN LESSTHAN A YEAR

Launched with the brand promise of‘made for stories’ that are differentiatedand compelling, Viacom18’s premiumSVoD offering VOOT Select hasemerged as the fastest growing IndianOTT platform to hit a landmarkmilestone of one million active direct

paying subscribers in less than a year of launch. The newest kid on the block hasin a short period of time emerged as a formidable game changer by creatingdisruptive and innovative viewing experiences through fresh stories and categorydefining initiatives. Digital first strategies like 24 hours before television windowingof network content, high decibel immersive experiences, International contentand multi award winning originals have all been growth drivers for the platform.Adding to the content diversity, Voot Select will also be the new home to Showtimecontent in India and the exclusive destination for upcoming Paramount+ showsin the country. The diverse repertoire of international content will include muchawaited titles such as Dexter (Limited Series), Ray Donavan Feature-Length Film, The First Lady from showtime and Frasier (Reboot) & Why Women Kill S2 fromParamount+ amongst others, expected to premiere on the platform in India.

Despite being launched at the cusp of the global health crisis, Voot Selecthas delivered a phenomenal first year. In an industry first innovation, the brandtook their digital-first strategy a step ahead on the back of originals, Before TVcontent and multi genre international offerings. With content available 24 Hoursbefore TV, access to 24 Hours Live channel of Bigg Boss and producing pandemic-based fiction thriller series ‘The Gone Game’ – the first series in the category to beshot during the lockdown, Voot Select drove high engagement throughout theyear. The award-winning line up of originals like the breakthrough series Asurthat emerged amongst the top 3 shows of 2020, Illegal, Raikar Case, Marzi, andCrackdown amongst others added to the diverse content experience of viewerson the platform.

With strengthened tech partnerships and more than 40 per cent of watchtime on Smart TVs, the platform has attracted a cohort of premium customers,providing them with an enhanced viewing experience.

NOKIA AND SAMSUNGSIGN PATENT LICENSINGAGREEMENT FOR VIDEOSTANDARDS

Nokia announced that it hassigned a patent license agreement withSamsung, which covers the use ofNokia’s innovations in videostandards. Under the agreement,Samsung will make royalty paymentsto Nokia. The terms of the agreementremain confidential between the parties.

Jenni Lukander, President ofNokia Technologies, said: “We aredelighted to have reached an agreementwith Samsung which further validatesNokia’s decades-long investments toR&D and contributions to multimediaand video technology standards.”

Over the course of more than30 years, Nokia has contributedsignificantly to multimedia and videoresearch and the development ofindustry standards. The work ofNokia’s engineers in the field of videoresearch and standardization has beenrecognized with numerous internationalawards, including four Technology &Engineering Emmy® Awards.

Nokia’s industry-leading patentportfolio is built on more than €129billion invested in R&D over the pasttwo decades and is composed ofaround 20,000 patent families, includingover 3,500 patent families declaredessential to 5G. Nokia contributes itsinventions to open standards in returnfor the right to license them on fair,reasonable and non-discriminatory(FRAND) terms. Companies can licenseand use these technologies without theneed to make their own substantialinvestments in R&D.


3SS’ TECHNOLOGY REACH TO DOUBLE IN 2021Pierre Donath, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at 3SS,explains: “More

and more operators are striving to deliver completely unified experiences, beyondthat of the STB; today they are fully embracing smart TV, web and mobile with thegoal to provide harmonious, all-encompassing entertainment across devices andviewing contexts.” The 3READY Control Center, which enables real-time UXoptimization of all apps, all manageable from one unified location, is helping

operators achieve this objective in astreamlined, efficient way.3SS’ track record in major internationalAndroid TV deployments isunmatched. 3SS delivered the world’sfirst major Android-baseddeployment, Swisscom TV 2.0, in 2014,since updated to Swisscom TV OS4.Canal Digital OnePlace and Com HemTV Hub followed in 2018, based onmultiple award-winning 3READY.More operators decided to build theirproducts on 3SS technology in 2019,

including Uruguay’s TCC and Belgium’s largest service provider, Proximus. InFebruary 2020, it was announced that Norway’s Altibox is deploying 3READY toenhance its upcoming Android TV service.

The company’s growing worldwide reputation, which includes 14prestigious industry awards principally recognizing the superior UX quality of itsdeployments, is not the only catalyst influencing 3SS’ anticipated footprint growth.

The 3READY Entertainment Ecosystem was created to empower operatorsto rapidly design and launch superior experiences on all devices and enablecustomer-centric innovation. It is an all-in portfolio of complementary capabilities,technical deployment options, key vendor partnership network and pre-integrations. 3SS’ core goal with the Ecosystem is to enable operators andbroadcasters to focus on achieving business objectives earlier and create superiorexperiences when developing their next-generation entertainment products.

Operators have the flexibility to co-define, co-design and co-develop tomeet their roadmap needs. Meanwhile they have the means to deliver churn-resistant TV products that exceed the expectations of subscribers. Next-levelvideo services are made possible through deep complementary technologyintegrations with close partners on top of open and modular 3READY ProductFramework architecture. Time-to-market is accelerated, free from vendor-lock-in,with maximum flexibility and transparency.

Importantly, when working with 3SS, operators benefit from agiledevelopment techniques which infuse all of the company’s operations. Embracingprinciples such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) results in faster, high-qualitysystem deployments, superior levels of efficiency in product development, aswell as engaged, highly motivated individuals and teams.

With agile methodologies, in the 3READY Entertainment Ecosystem –with over 12 operator customers and over 60 technology and content partners todate – development is continuous. Testing and quality assurance operations takeplace simultaneously, and projects benefit from a high level of extended teamcommunication, so deployments are faster and service launches accelerated.

NEWS

3SS (3 Screen Solutions),leading provider of software solutionsfor set-top boxes (STB) and multiscreenentertainment, announces that it is ontrack to see its worldwide technologyreach double in 2021 compared with itsend-2020 market penetration.

With eight next-generationAndroid TV projects currentlybeing delivered for major operatorsin EMEA, North America, LatinAmerica and Asia Pacific, many ofwhich are yet to be announced,3SS’ committed deploymentpipeline will total at least 25 millionhomes by end-2021. This is morethan a twofold increase on 2020’s10 million deployed homes total.

“The Android TV OS is nowtruly mainstream, and operators aroundthe world are building their next-generation TV offerings on it,” saidKai-Christian Borchers, ManagingDirector of 3SS. “We are extremelyproud that so many have chosen our3READY Product Framework, inparticular the 3READY CustomLauncher enabled by Android TVOperator Tier, to help them createhybrid and OTT entertainment servicespeople really love.”

The 2021 doubling of thepotential universe of homes poweredby Android TV OS and enriched withworld-class user experiences via 3SSinnovations is made up of severalelements. It includes ongoing progressin active EMEA deployments – suchas for Proximus, Com Hem (Tele2) andAllente (formerly Canal Digital) – alongwith others which will go live in thecoming weeks. Also, there areadditional recently acquired as-yet-unannounced customer projects.

An important factorcontributing to 3SS’ 2021 expansionforecast is seven new smart TV projectsunderway, supporting Samsung Tizenand LG webOS, based on 3READY.

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ANIMATIONAND VFXSURGE

Demand for content from OTTplatforms increased

C O V I D - 1 9caused a surge in OTTcontent consumption,driving up the demandfor OTT contentacross platforms,which turned to 2Dand 3D animatedcontent to fill gaps inlive content. It was ayear when globalplayers such asAmazon Prime Videoand Netflix signedexclusive contentlicensing deals withvarious studios inIndia.Demand fordomesticanimated contentgrew

Anima t ion /VFX studioswitnessed a surge in content demand

for domestic shows, which is expectedto rise further over the next few years.

content for global consumption are alsoincreasing, allowing for higher quality

content and subsequentlygreater global reach. IPdevelopment has openednew doors for Indianstudios who weretraditionally serviceoriented, as OTTplatforms are allowinginternational audiences toconsume such content.

Technologycontinued to evolve

Animation, VFX andpost-production aregradually adopting AI/MLtechnologies to streamlineworkflows and fuelcontent development. Thetransition to the work fromhome model during thepandemic has acceleratedadoption, as many studiosturn to virtual productionto fulfil their needs. Even

as restrictions open up, some of these

REPORT:ANIMATION & VFX

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Animation/VFX studios witnessed a surge in content demand for domestic shows,which is expected to rise further over the next few years.

Investments into creating indigenous


virtual technologies are here to stay. Itis expected that over the next five years,20%–25% of Indian studios would haveadopted such technologies

Captive centers increased inIndia

International studios arebecoming more interested ineither opening their own studiosin India or investing in existingIndian companies. This isbringing not only investmentsin, but also adding to thecreative and technological talentpool in India

Theatrical slowdownimpacted VFX

While animationcontinued to grow despite theclosure of cinemas andpostponement of theatricalshoots, live-feed reliantindustries like VFX and post-production experienced major setbacksin the first half of 2020. However, shootsresumed relatively quickly in Indiacompared to other countries, allowingthe segments to gradually recover overthe second half of the year

Growth prospects are linkedto content production revivaland more

Overall, the animation, VFX andpost-production segment has deeplyfelt the impact of the pandemic in 2020.Animation displayed its resilience,bouncing back within a few weeks tomeet content demands, albeit whileexperiencing losses in productivity.VFX and post-production were farmore severely affected, halving in valueover 2019. Yet, the way forward isoptimistic, as piled-up work, growingdemand and technology adoption willallow these segments to experiencetremendous growth, apart from the needto create digital experiences acrossdifferent sectors. The segment willgrow at a CAGR of 34.6% over the next

three years, collectively reachingINR129 billion by 2023. VFX andpostproduction are set to recover to2019 revenues by 2022.

ANIMATIONAnimation remained relatively

resilient to COVID-19.

were largely dependent on contentsales to international markets but now,growth is being driven by domesticoriginal content.

Studios have transitioned frombeing content developers to IP owners.

The Kids OTT GenreCOVID-19 has contributed to asignificant rise in children’sconsumption of animatedcontent: According to BARC,there was a 39% growth inconsumption of children’scontent during the lockdown Share of children’s genreincreased from 6% of totaltelevision viewership in 2019 to7.4% in 2020OTT platforms, too have seensuccess with their kidsprogramming: Toonz Media Group

launched MyToonz, is a kids OTTplatform. It tied up with multipleapp stores, telcos, OTTs andconnected TV companies aroundthe world to make MyToonzavailable for consumers acrossplatforms; the MyToonz librarywill launch with over 1,500 half-hours of content that are targetedat preschoolers, upperpreschoolers and early teens.

Discovery+, the subscription-based video streaming serviceowned by factual entertainmentnetwork Discovery, introduced agenre devoted to kids content, withthe launch of a show from the LittleSingham franchise, modeled on thepopular Bollywood film

ZEE5 launched ZEE5 kids withover 4,000 hours of free contentacross genres in nine differentlanguages.

YouTube kids and Voot kids werethe other dedicated kids OTTplatforms in India.

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ANIMATION REVENUES

The animation segmentsuccessfully catered to the risingOTT demand despite pandemicrestrictions by quickly adapting tothe work from home model andmanaging a 10% growth in 2020 toreach INR24.5 billion.

With the sudden imposition oflockdown, several studios facedproductivity gaps in March and April,bouncing back to 60%-70% ofdeliveries by June and eventuallyrecovering fully by late August.

Productivity gaps in the first fewweeks were caused by low internetspeed, insufficient bandwidth andcomplex software requirements, butthese were quickly overcome.

While larger studiosexperienced growth on the back of theirability to adapt and adjust to pandemicrestrictions, smaller studios struggledand some even shut down.

Animation studios are nowreplete with overseas and domesticwork till 2022-23.

Earlier, Indian animation studios



VFX and POST-PRODUCTIONVFX and post-production were

heavily affected by disruption to the

live action industry, especially duringthe first two quarters of 2020 and fellfrom INR72.6 billion in 2019 to INR28.5

billion in 2020.Policies

and proceduresimplementeddue to COVID-19 led studios toresort toChroma shootsand pre-visualization ofsequences tominimize theactual timespent on sets.

T h e r ewas a reductionin pipeline ofprojects in theshort term withmany films

indefinitely delayed which led to layoffsand salary cuts; many permanentemployees were made temporary.

VFX and post-productionbeing largely creative and collaborativeprocesses, hence, a complete shift tothe work from home model hamperedthe learning and development of neweremployees.

Small studios (employee base of10-30) were slower than larger ones intransitioning to remote working, insome cases taking one and a halfmonths to return to full service; manyof these studios went out of business,leading to more freelancers entering themarket.The Road to Recovery

Over Q3 and Q4 of 2020, the VFXsegment displayed resilience andrecovered as live shoots and feedsresumed and an effective work fromhome pipeline emerged.

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VFX AND POST-PRODUCTIONREVENUES

Domestic Broadcasters Commissioned More Original Animation Content



Companies turned to virtualproduction and the Unreal Enginegained traction, with studiosexperimenting with in-camera visualeffects using LEDs as a backdrop.

The pile up of VFX work overthe past fiscal year will lead to lots ofhigh pressure and high volume work in2021, which in turn will lead todiversification of the industry withsmall and medium studios emergingagain to absorb some of the load onlarger players.

This will increase employment,in addition to increasing the ability ofIndian people to pitch for globalprojects in future.

Bollywood increased itsdemand forbig-budget VFXproductions

Today, up to 20-25% of theproduction cost on a movie is spent onvisual effects as compared to the past,where VFX accounted for less than10% of the total film production budget.

“Gunjan Saxena” used VFX todeliver the real-life story, struggles andgender-based discrimination faced byformer Indian Air Force pilot GunjanSaxena.

The success of “Tanhaji TheUnsung Warrior” has promptedanother VFX-heavy project titled“Adipurush”, which is speculated tobe an adaptation of the Indian epicRamayana.

Outsourcing of work fromdeveloped countries increased

Overseas clients are starting toshift outsourcing away from China,which could benefit Indian VFXstudios.

Developed countriesoutsourcing VFX projects to low-costones have been significantly on therise.

India is the world leader in VFXoutsourcing of Roto and Prep, as wellas a preferred destination foroutsourcing VFX work due to high

currency conversion ratios, whichenables companies to save about 30-50% of their VFX budget in addition toIndia’s inexpensive massive bandwidthof creative and technical skilled artists.OTT platforms demandedmore VFX

VFX studios have benefitedfrom the growth in higher-than-television quality content beingproduced for OTT platforms as well asthe growth in hours of suchprogramming, which peaked in 2019 ataround 1,800 hours as per ourestimates.

They expect this trend willcontinue and the segment shouldbenefit from increasing demand forhigher quality content with largerbudgets from OTT platforms, inaddition to a growing TV and filmservices business.

Various state governments havealso undertaken initiatives to boost thissegment: Growth in Karnataka is being

driven by the government ofKarnataka’s strategic offerings tocollaborate and build world classinfrastructure.

The Maharashtra government hassanctioned 20 acres of land for anAVGC training institute inGoregaon Film City premises andit is also coming up with its firstMaharashtra Film, Media andEntertainment Policy.

The IMAGE Tower was built bySalarpuria Sattva in collaborationwith the Telangana government tocater to the AVGC sector.

However, further governmentincentives and policies are needed forincreased competitiveness and toenable recovery of the segment12:

The government couldconsider signing more co-productiontreaties, develop a mechanism ofimplementation of these treaties in Indiain addition to creating a co-productionfund to support studios in India.

Develop programs or channelslike “Doordarshan Kids” as a publicbroadcaster for animation in the marketas this genre has a very strong potentialand lacks a medium for the masses.

The government can considerrecognizing Animation, VFX and post-production IPR as legitimate propertythat can be valued and used as collateralfor funding investment and growth ofstudios.

Consider providing various taxcredits and quotas on domestic contentto help make the segment morecompetitive, at least to the extent beingprovided by other countries, toencourage increased outsourcing ofwork to India as well as incentivizeanimation companies to createindigenous content out of India whichIPR can travel globally for years andgenerate revenues.

The segment can play a largerrole in India’s US$5 trillion

GDP ambition

Government initiatives in theanimation and VFX segment

The central government hasalways supported the segment andsome of the key initiatives announcedinclude:

The National Center ofExcellence has entered anunderstanding with the Indian Instituteof Technology, Bombay to providecourses in AVGC.

India will set up a specialpavilion at Cannes in 2022 as theCannes Film Festival celebrates 75years as well as host a Global Mediaand Film Summit

The government raised the FDIlimit in animation, VFX and post-production to 100% through automaticroute which is expected to open newavenues for investment, growth and jobopportunities


Source: EY FICCI M&E Report 2021


Redchillies.vfxRedchillies.vfx, a division of

Red Chillies Entertainment, is an awardwinning Visual Effect companyfounded by Bollywood actor ShahRukh Khan, along with Keitan Yadav(COO) & Haresh Hingorani (CCO).

SRK’s vision for creating aworld class studio came intoestablishment in 2006.redchillies.vfx envisioned a desireto make photo-realistic animationand premium visual effectstechnology available for featurefilms.

Within 13 years of itsexistence, redchillies.vfx hasestablished itself as one of India'stop Visual Effects Studio.

Embarking on their14th year as a vfx Division Unit,rcvfx has had the opportunity ofnot only working on benchmark /vfx Indian movies, but alsoInternational movies in this timeframe. The company has carved a nichein the film industry and it's repertoireof work includes avant-garde graphics

TOP VFX & POSTPRODUCTIONSTUDIOS IN INDIA

in renowned blockbuster films likeChak De! India (2007), Ra.One (2011),Krrish 3 (2013), FAN (2016), Phillauri(2017), and the upcoming Zero (2018).

Relocated recently to a newlyopened state of art facility in GoregaonWest, Mumbai of 25,000 sq. ft, the set

up includes the latest technology,infrastructure as well as a ColorGrading & International vfx division.

Redchillies.vfx is equipped withtechnically advanced storage facilitythat has the capacity to work onmultiple visual effects film projects atthe same time.

The data center comprises of3200 cores of rendering powerwith an estimated 8.3 THz ofcomputing power. The studio hasa heterogeneous OS environmentwith Linux, Mac and Windowspowered by high-endworkstations with superior NvidiaQuadro GPUs. Basically, we areeven equipped to go to war!

The software and tools that wehave developed are the new ageweapons to beat all the cinematiclimitations and develop stylizedmotion graphics.

Redchillies.vfx has a strongR&D team that constantly strives

to develop cutting-edge tools,advanced techniques and newgeneration technologies. And combine

VFX & POST

The entertainment ecosystem in India boasts of an impressive infrastructure ofpost houses, vfx studios which deliver quality work. Broadcast & Film has

profiled some of the leading VFX & Post Production Studios in India.

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them with award winning third partyapplications that are used in ourworkflow.

These tools assist us incompleting multiple projectssimultaneously without compromisingon the schedule and quality standards.

Prime Focus

Prime Focus Limited is a worldrenowned independent full-servicemedia player. The Company enjoys astrong leadershipposition in all thethree verticals itoperates in,creative services(visual effects,stereo 3Dconversion andanimation), tech/t e c h - e n a b l e d(CLEAR, MediaERP Suite andC l o u d - e n a b l e dmedia services),and Indian Film andMedia services (FMS) (visual effects /DI, color grading, equipment rental,digital intermediate, picture post). Itsoperations are spread across 19 citiesin 5 continents covering 7-time zoneswith a team of over 10,446professionals. The Company isrecognised on the Fortune India 500list.

Prime Focus, the world’s largestintegrated media services powerhouse,employs over 5,500 professionals in 16cities across 4 continents and 7 timezones. We provide end-to-end creative

services (visual effects, stereo 3Dconversion, animation), technologyproducts & services (Media ERP Suiteand Cloud-enabled media services),production services (shooting floors/sound stages, equipment rental) andpostproduction services (DigitalIntermediate, sound, picture post) toStudios, Broadcast and Advertisingindustries.

Prime Focus is behind pathbreaking technologies like CLEAR™(Hybrid Cloud technology enabledMedia ERP Suite), Primetime Emmy®award-winning DAX Digital Dailies®and View-D™ (stereoscopic 2D to 3Dconversion process).

Leveraging our Global DigitalPipeline and pioneering deliverymodel WorldSourcing® we partnercontent creators at every stage of the

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Listed on the BSE and NSE ofIndia, Prime Focus has operations inBangalore, Beijing, Cape Town,Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad,Johannesburg, Kolkata, London, LosAngeles, Mumbai, New York,Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver.

Future Works Media Ltd

Leading global contentcreators, studios and OTT’s rely onFutureWorks expert artists andtechnologists to deliver world classservices. FutureWorks is a leader inend to end film production, from visualeffects and picture-sound postproduction, to the supply of highprecision cameras and lenses. With adedicated team of over 300 talentedartists, spread across multipleintegrated facilities in India,FutureWorks is recognised as a trustedpartner by platforms worldwide.

Prasad

Prasad Corp is one of thelargest, totally integrated digital postproduction services providerincorporating the latest technologieswith the finest infrastructure.

A pioneer in film and video postproduction, we offer the entire rangeof digital services includingDigitization of Film and Tape, DigitalFilm Restoration, Digital Archiving,Media Asset Management, VFX,Rotoscoping, Digital Intermediate,

process ensuring creativeenablement, work flow efficienciesand cost optimization. In mid-2014Prime Focus Technologies acquiredDAX, a leading provider of cloud-based production workflow andmedia asset managementapplications; Prime Focus Worldmerged with Double Negative, oneof the world’s foremost providers ofvisual effects; and RelianceMediaWorks merged their global filmand media services business withPrime Focus Limited.

VFX & POST


Remastering, Up-Conversion and 3DMovie Production Solutions. Theprojects served by us includeAcademy Award Winners, GoldenGlobe Award Winners and severalother National and International AwardWinners. dft has been at the forefrontof film scanning technology for over75 years providing solutions for filmpost-production, archive andrestoration markets with a range of highquality, leading-edge products andservices.

Film scanning has been at itsDNA. Over the years dft’s telecines,datacines and film scanners havebeen at the heart of post-production,enabling facilities around the worldto get high-quality images for theirmotion film projects. Through itssustained research anddevelopment investments,dft hasevolved and launched some of themost technically advanced scannerstoday – standing the test of time.

MakutaMakuta is a fully-fledged

visual effects facility covering a fullgamut of requirements from activeon-set visual effects supervisionthrough to immersive digital setextension, digital matte painting,high-end feature animation and

effects work, clean-up,motion tracking and finalcompositing.

They have thebackbone support of stateof the art systems, a largededicated render farm whichis expanding all of the time,high capacity storage, off-site backup, with high-speedFTP with dedicatedconnection for transferringdigital assets.

They are continuouslyexpanding, even having torelocate offices within thefirst 18 months of running

and have now branched overseas withour parent ompany MakutaIncorporated being founded in theUSA and with staff located worldwide.

Although they have only beenaround for a few years, we have grownfrom a small fledgling to an

internationally-recognised studiowhich has a lot of bang for its buck. Inthe past few years we have heavilyinvested in our core artistic talentdevelopment along with software andhardware infrastructure and haveworked on some of the mostprestigious features within the Indianfilm industry with acclaimed directorssuch as SS Rajamouli, AR Murugadoss,Bapu and Shank

yFX

yFX is the newly formed visualeffects facility at YRF Studios.Started in 2016 by a core group ofexperienced, skilled and award-winning VFX supervisors,technical directors, and artists, thisstate-of-the-art studio offers filmmakers a one-stop shop; a creative‘think tank’, where every aspectof film making is addressed underone roof... from script to screen!

Capabilities include 3D assetbuild, animation, matte painting,compositing, and visual effects.Technology is state-of-the-art:Maya, Houdini, Nuke, and Flamepipelines, with high-speed servers,and a large render farm.

yFX’s first major project wasvisual effects for the Salman Khanstarrer SULTAN - CGI virtual sets,

VFX & POST

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crowd multiplication, both 3D and live,and digital prosthetics, formed a largeportion of the over 2000 vfx shotsdelivered for SULTAN.

Apart from delivering 3Danimation and visual effects for thefeature film, television and advertisingindustries, yFX has strong capabilitiesin the newly developing augmented(AR) and virtual reality (VR) areas aswell.

YRF was founded by the LateYash Chopra, a veteran of the Indianfilm industry, in 1970. It’s the onlyprivately held and fully integratedstudio in India producing and havingproduced over 80 films. YRF is now a50-year-strong production house anda vertically integrated studio in everysense, controlling almost every part ofthe value chain from production topost production, domestic &international distribution, music &home entertainment, marketing, design,digital, licensing, merchandising, talentmanagement, brand partnerships,music studios and film studios - all in-house facilities, which make it one ofthe most coveted entertainmentconglomerates in the country.

YRF has its own state-of-the-art fully integrated studio thathouses shooting stages, soundstudios and is headquartered at oneof Mumbai's prime properties wherethe heart of the entertainmentbusiness beats.

Over the last five decades,YRF’s catalogue of films could be easily

India's most enviable film catalogue inthe entertainment business. YRF’s topgrossers have already placed thecompany in the big league of producersworldwide, making it one of the largestfilm-making entities in the nation.

Moving Picture Company

Moving Picture Company is aglobal creative studio with a singlegoal: to create experiences that movepeople. With decades of storytelling

experience, they understand the truepower of embracing innovation topush the boundaries of creation.MPCstarted out in 1970 as a productioncompany in London producingtelevision commercials. Today, we havecreative studios all over the world –London, Los Angeles, New York,Amsterdam, Paris, Shanghai andBangalore. Since inception, they haveconstantly been a pioneer of creativityand technology, doing things thathave never been done before andcreating experiences that are trulyunforgettable. This couldn’t be truerthan with thei character and creaturework throughout the years. Everyoneremembers Cadbury’s drum-playinggorilla who captured the nation’shearts with his raw emotion, or Three’splucky Shetland pony thatmoonwalked its way intosuperstardom.

VFX & POST

19


Over–the–top media services(OTT) platforms have become quitepopular in India since last few years.An over-the-top (OTT) media serviceis a streaming media service offereddirectly to viewers via the internet.OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, andsatellite television platforms, thecompanies that traditionally act as acontroller or distributor of suchcontent. Due to COVID-19 outbreak inthe country, many filmmakers are nowreleasing their movies on major OTTplatforms, instead of waiting for thetheatres to re-open. India has lots ofoptions when we talk about OTTservices. Here are the Top 10 OTTplatforms in India.

Amazon Prime VideoAmazon Prime Video is a very

popular video streaming service orOTT service in India. Amazon PrimeVideo was launched in 2016 in India.Besides English, Prime Video isavailable in six Indian languages as ofDecember 2018. Amazon India

Netflix faces tough competitionwith other OTT platforms in India suchas Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Voot andEros Now, each of which charge lowersubscription rates than Netflix.

(Netflix has reportedsignificant growth in India revenuefrom IN` 58.04 Cr in FY2018, to IN`470 Cr in FY2019 and then IN` 900Cr in FY2020. India falls in the AsiaPacific region for the US-basedcompany, which was the second-largest contributor to the yearly tallywith 93 Lakh new subscribers in 2020.The company had added a record 3.7Cr paid memberships in last year. Thecompany had also offered a two-dayfree streaming offer in India, which led

REPORT: OTT MARKET

The year gone by i.e., 2020 has hit the entertainment sector badly due to the pandemicand the repercussions will be felt this year also. The OTT players have registered

phenomenal growth in the pandemic in terms of revenues and addition in subscribers.We have tried to profile some of the top OTT players and catalogue their financial

performance during the Covid pandemic.

launched Amazon Prime Music inFebruary 2018. You can join Prime towatch the latest movies as well asaward-winning Amazon Originals at ̀129/month or ` 999/year. Primesubscription presently also includesfree Amazon music alongside unlimitedfree, quick delivery.

NetflixNetflix is one of the popular

streaming services in India. The OTTplatform offers three subscription plansincluding Basic, Standard HD andPremium Ultra HD. The Basic plancomes with a price tag of ` 500, whilethe Standard HD pack is priced at ̀ 650and the Premium Ultra HD plan isavailable for ̀ 800 per month.

20

TOP OTT PLAYERSAND THE THEIRFINANCIALRESURGENCE INTHE PANDEMIC


to 8 Lakh downloads of the Netflixapp..)

Disney+ HotstarDisney+ Hotstar is an Indian

over-the-top streaming serviceowned by Novi DigitalEntertainment, a subsidiary ofDisney's Star India. It features twopaid subscription plans— "VIP",which focuses on domesticprogrammes and sports content(including Indian Premier Leaguecricket), and "Premium" featuringpremium international films andtelevision series (including HBO,Showtime and other Americanoriginal series).

As of July 2020, VIP Plan costs` 399 for a year and Premium Plan costs` 1,499 per year or ̀ 299 for a monthlyplan. As of March 2020, Disney+Hotstar has at least 300 million activeusers.

Disney+ Hotstar has reported arevenue of IN ̀1628 Cr for FY2020, withlosses narrowing in comparison to theprevious year.

The company saw relativelyslower growth in subscription revenuefor FY20, in comparison to over 50%growth in ad revenue.

According to a recent study,Disney+ Hotstar could become thesecond-highest revenue-earning videoplatform in India by 2025.

However, it is difficult to predictwhether Hotstar will be able to keep upwith the revenue growth in FY2021,ending in March 2021. The company,

in its financial statement, has claimedthat its operations were hit during thepandemic due to health in sportingevents worldwide. The pause on theshooting of shows between March 19to July 13, 2020, also impacted thecompany’s revenues.

While Hotstar claims thatsince the easing of restrictions, theproduction of shows has resumedand many have released on theplatform, it added the impact from thepandemic will be assessed on anongoing basis.

VootVoot is an Indian subscription

video on demand (SVOD) service.Launched in March 2016, it forms theonline arm of Viacom 18. It is Viacom18's advertising-led video-on-demandplatform that is available as an app foriOS, KaiOS (JioPhone) and Androidusers, and a website for desktopconsumption. Voot Select will cost `99 a month after a three-day free trial,or ̀ 499 for the full year after a 14-dayfree trial.

Voot is available only in India,and hosts over 40,000 hours of videocontent that includes shows fromchannels like MTV, Nickelodeon andColors. Content is also available inmultiple languages like Kannada,Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Teluguand Tamil. Voot has content fromColors TV, MTV India, NickelodeonIndia and other Viacom 18 ownedtelevision channels. It also hostsmany Bollywood films for streaming.It has produced several 'VootOriginal' shows for streaming as well.

In February 2020, Voot

introduced paid subscription servicecalled Voot Select. Voot Original seriesare made available only to paidsubscribers. Some TV shows are beingstreamed a day before TV for its paidsubscribers.

Its freemium service VootSelect was launched this quarter. `13 crore was invested into Voot Selectand Kids (and in Kannada andGujarati movie channels).Operational revenue from “digital,print, others and & intercompanyelim.” fell 16.6% QoQ and 20% YoYto ` 40 crore. Now Viacom18's Vootexpects 50% revenue from newsubscription-led service Voot Select.Earlier, it used to be all free. It wasjust an ad-supported platform.

Voot has 100 million monthlyactive users and aims to be one ofthe leading Indian OTT players.Currently driven by an Advertisingsupported video-on-demand model,Voot will continue to build scale bydiversifying from 1 business modelof AVOD to 4 - VOOT AVOD, VOOTKids, VOOT International and VOOTFreemium. With the freemium model,Voot plans to invite more first-timeusers, and give them a preview oftheir original, exclusive content. Themonetization and revenue plan willlargely be advertisement driven, butpremium services for pay-per-viewsubscribers will also bring in money.“The current digital advertisementmarket is around ` 1,200 crore andwill push up to ̀ 6,000 in the next 2-3 years. We hope to exploit that,”Gandhi said.

ZEE5ZEE5 is an Indian video on

demand service run by Essel Groupvia its subsidiary Zee EntertainmentEnterprises. It was launched in Indiaon 14 February 2018 with content in12 languages. ZEE5 recentlyannounced the launch of ‘ZEE5Club’ at ` 365 per year. ZEE5 Club

21

REPORT: OTT MARKET


will enable its consumers to haveexclusive access to most popularshows before telecast on TV, apartfrom select ZEE5 and Alt Balajishows, - 1000+ blockbuster movies,ZEE Zindagi shows and over 90+ LiveTV channels.

With ZEE5 Club, subscriberswill be able to enjoy entertainmentcontent without any intrusive adsand across devices. Some of Zee’spopular TV shows like KumumBhagya and Kundali Bhagya in Hindi,Sembaruthi in Tamil, Jothe Jotheyaliin Kannada and Mazya NavryachiBayko in Marathi and many morewould be now available on ZEE5 Clubbefore telecast on Television.

Zee5 had 54.7 global millionmonthly active users (MAU), and 5.2million global daily active users(DAU) in the September 2020 quarter,the MAUs and DAUs stood at 65.9million and 5.4 million respectively inDecember 2020. Genka shared thatthe lack of TV content during Q1impacted the conversion of activeusers as a large part of the “funnel”to add users was TV catchupcontent.

The company will not investany capital in MAU-DAU conversionand it is going to be largely based onthe catch-up TV portfolio. Zee5 willtarget 15-18 per cent conversion ofMAU to DAU in the next fiscal.

The video streaming servicereleased 18 original shows and two

movies during the quarter. However,the average watch time per user permonth was 152 minutes in Q2 has slidto 133 minutes in the third quarter.While an investor pointed out thatthe engagement is lagging comparedto other platforms with similarcontent, Goenka said that the lowperformance of some linear TVshows of the network has impactedthe catch-up TV consumption,leading to lower engagement.

Zee5 revenues were at 117.8crore, up 19 per cent quarter-on-quarter, while EBITDA loss was at` 175.7 crore versus ` 189.4 crore inQ2. The EBITDA losses continue dueto higher investment in content.)

Sony LIV

Sony Liv (marketed as SONYLIV and formerly as SonyLIV) is anIndian general entertainment, videoon-demand service that is owned bySony Pictures Networks India Pvt.Ltd., based in Mumbai, Maharashtra,India. Sony Liv's Library consists of18 years of content from the SonyEntertainment Network channels inIndia: Sony TV, Sony SAB, Sony Ten,Sony Max, Sony MAX 2, Sony PIXand Sony Six.

Sony Liv is the first IndianOver-the-top media service platformto produce music content for aHollywood feature film - producingmusic for the Hindi version of theblockbuster t i t led Passengers,

starring Chris Pratt and JenniferLawrence.

Sony Liv Premium subscriptioncosts you ̀ 299 per month, ̀ 699 for sixmonths, and ̀ 999 per year.

MX Player

MX Player is an Indian videostreaming and video on demandplatform developed by MX Media &Entertainment. It has over 280 millionusers globally. The platform currentlyoperates on an ad-supported model andhas a streaming library of over 150,000hours across 12 languages. It isavailable on iOS, Android and the web.The online Feature of MXPlayer isavailable absolutely free of cost for ourusers to explore.

In 2018, Times Internet acquireda majority stake in MX Player for $140million. On 20 February 2019, MXPlayer was relaunched as an OTTplatform with original programming. Ithas licensed contents from variousIndian and International studiosincluding FilmRise, SonarEntertainment, Screen Media Films,Goldmine, Hungama, Shemaroo,Paramount Pictures and SonyEntertainment.

ALT BalajiALTBalaji is an Indian

subscription based video on demandplatform which is a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd.ALTBalaji is available across 32different interfaces for its viewers. Thecontent has been made available onmobile and Tablet Devices (Applephone, Apple iPad, Android phone,

REPORT: OTT MARKET

22


Android tablet), Web browser(Desktop Browser), Android TV, andWindows (Windows PC, WindowsMobile, Windows tablet).

Their website claims theplatform to be the largest content bankseen in India. The stories range fromdrama, comedy, and romance, to thriller,crime, and mystery. The content bankalso includes 100+ hours of kids'content as well as urban regional showsin Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi,Tamil & many more languages. Youhave a choice of three streamingmembership plans - 3 months for ̀ 100,6 months for ` 180 or 12 months for `300.

(ALT Balaji’s COVID-19related subscription spike hasflattened, as Balaji Telefilms’s revenuesfrom the streaming service declinedfrom ` 22.2 crore in the precedingquarter to ` 14.9 crore in Q1FY21.According to the company’smanagement, ALT Balaji has a churnrate of around 66%, which means thattwo thirds of subscribers generallydon’t purchase new subscriptionswhen theirs have run out.)

Eros NowEros Now is an Indian

subscription based over the top, videoon-demand entertainment and mediaplatform, launched in 2012. It is ownedand controlled by Eros Digital, thedigital media management arm of ErosInternational plc. The network offers

media streaming and video-on-demandservices. The digital platform isaccessible on most Internet-connectedscreen including mobile, tablets, weband TV.

The platform has blockbusterfilms like Cheeni Kum, Happy BhagJayegi, Manmarziyaan, BajiraoMastani, Tanu Weds Manu Returns,Goliyon ki raasleela Ram-Leela,Rockstar, Shubh Mangal Savdhan andmore. Eros Now also has web-seriesand films like A Monsoon Date, Maunn,Salute Siachen, Black & Whiteinterviews and more in their segmentcalled E- Buzz. The subscription costof the Eros Now Premium subscriptionservice is ` 99 per month for a singledevice and ` 399 per year for a singledevice.

Eros Now Subscribers Grow56% Y-o-Y to Reach 29.3 Million

Revenue of $155.5 Million andAdjusted EBITDA of $54.8 Million

Arre

Arré is an Indian OTT platform

based in Mumbai. It produces andpublishes videos, audio series, webseries, documentaries, text and doodlesthrough its online channel. Foundedby former Network 18 and TV 18executives B. Sai Kumar, Ajay Chacko,and Sanjay Ray Chaudhari, it is acontent-based startup and waslaunched in April 2016.

OTT market to grow at 26%CAGR and touch $4.5 billion by 2025in India.

MPA report projected theSVoD market will grow by 30% CAGRfrom 2020 and reach $1.9 billion by2025, while AVoD segment is expectedto surge over the next five years at aCAGR of 24% to reach $2.6 billion.

At a time when people arestuck at home due to the COVID-19pandemic and looking forentertainment options, the overallonline video market for India isprojected to grow at a compoundannual growth rate (CAGR) of 26percent between 2020 and 2025 toreach $4.5 billion in revenue over thenext five years, says Media PartnersAsia (MPA) in its new report titledIndia Online Video & BroadbandDistribution 2021.

According to the MPA's report,India's online video industry generatedan estimated $1.4 billion in revenue in2020, while advertising andsubscription contributed 64 percentand 36 percent, respectively.

Among the top five serviceswhich accounted for a combined 85percent share of total revenues in 2020include YouTube (43%), Disney+Hotstar (16%), Netflix (14%), AmazonPrime Video (7%) and Facebook (5%),quoted MPA executive director VivekCouto as saying.

Couto added that the averagenumber of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services subscribedby customers reach 2.8 in India andSoutheast Asia.

REPORT: OTT MARKET

23


In its report, MPA projectedthe SVoD market to grow by 30percent CAGR from 2020 and reach$1.9 billion by 2025. However, onlinevideo advertising saw a marginaldecline of 2 percent year-on-year andreached an estimated $909 million in2020 due to decreased demand.Despite this, the advertising video-o n - d e m a n d( A V o D )segment isexpected tosurge over thenext five yearsat a CAGR of 24percent to reach$2.6 billion by2025."Subscription-based onlinevideo servicesb e n e f i t e dsignificantly in2020 as thecountry wentinto thelockdown. Keyplayers areinvesting inpremium localcontent while leveraging sports, movierights, and aggressive consumerpricing to drive subscriber adoption.The SVoD market will remaincompetitive as Disney+ Hotstar scalesits direct subscription business whileNetflix and Amazon Prime Video deepenpartnerships with mobile and fixedbroadband operators," the businessdaily quoted MPA India vice-presidentMihir Shah's statement.

MPA predicts Disney+Hotstar may secure over 80 millionsubscribers in India if they continueto invest in local originals and retainkey sports rights. In 2020, the onlinechannel invested in acquiring big-ticket Bollywood films, followingwhich its subscribers rose to 26.8million as of December 2020, and

India making up 30 percent of itsglobal subscription base.

Adding more, Shah said thatYouTube remains the market leader inAVoD and accounted for 67 percent oftotal online video advertising in 2020.However, MPA India VP lookedsceptical and said that YouTube'smarket share may decline to 55 percent

in 2025 with domestic broadcaster-backed platforms and short-form usergenerated content video playersexpanding their base.

"Local premium content andsports rights will help broadcaster-backed platforms gain share. Increasedreach and engagement with ruralmillennials will improve monetisationfor short-form video platforms," Shahsaid.

Among other things, MPAreport said that OTT contentinvestment in India touched $700million in 2020 as domestic and globalplatforms continue to invest in India'sburgeoning SVoD opportunity. Estimateclaims OTT content cost may grow at aCAGR of 18 percent to reach $1.6 billionbetween 2020-2025.

"While the direct-to-digitalpremiere of films is unlikely tosustain, reopening of cinemas willnot necessarily impact consumptionon OTTs. Streaming services arenot just pushing for more originals,the whole experience is also gettingmodelled for urban-ready homeswith technologies like Airtel XStream

and Jio GigaFiber," Shahsaid.

Thelatest MPAreport claimsIndia's mobileb r o a d b a n dpenetration isforecast to growsteadily to 66percent by 2025as commercialroll-out of 5Gexpected tobegin in 2021.The newinvestment byprivate telcoshas boostedIndia's fixedb r o a d b a n d

market which till now has remainedunder-penetrated at merely 6 percentof households.

The report further claims ofIndia's fixed broadband market to growat a CAGR of 18 percent to reach 45million subscribers with over 82 percentof subscribers through fiber by 2025.

Infrastructure growth hashelped Indian customers look forexpanded broadband capacity whichincludes video conferencing, work fromhome, digital classes, and videostreaming.

The MPA providesindependent research, advisory andconsulting services across media,telecoms, sports, and entertainmentindustries in Asia Pacific and the MiddleEast.

REPORT: OTT MARKET

24


The Indian M&E sector fell by24% to INR1.38 trillion (US$18.9billion), in effect taking revenues backto 2017 levels

The last quarter of 2020 showeda marked improvement in revenues formost segments and we expect the M&Esector to recover 25% in 2021 to reachINR1.73 trillion (US$23.7 billion) andthen to grow at a CAGR of 13.7% toreach INR2.23 trillion (US$30.6 billion)by 2023

While television remained thelargest segment, digital media overtookprint, and online gaming overtook adisrupted filmed entertainmentsegment in 2020.

Digital and online gaming werethe only segments whichgrew in 2020 adding anaggregate of INR26billion and consequently,their contribution to theM&E sector increasedfrom 16% in 2019 to 23%in 2020

Other segmentsfell by an aggregate ofINR465 billion

MEDIA &ENTERTAINMENTSECTOR 2020:KEY TRENDS

The M&E Sector expected to touch INR 1.73 trillion (US$23.7 billion) in 2021 andthen to grow at a CAGR of 13.7% to reach INR2.23 trillion (US$30.6 billion) by 2023

Largest absolutecontributors to the fallwere the filmedentertainment segment(INR119 billion), print(INR106 billion) andtelevision (INR102billion)

The share of traditional media(television, print, filmed entertainment,OOH, radio, music) stood at 72% ofM&E sector revenues in 2020

TelevisionThe largest segment saw a 22%

fall in advertising revenues on accountof highly discounted ad rates during

MARKET REPORT:M&E SECTOR

25

All figures are gross of taxes (INR in billion) for calendar years | EY estimates

INDIAN M&E SECTOR

Indian M&Esector fell

24% in 2020to INR 1.38

trillion


the lockdown months – though advolumes reduced only 3%. In addition,it also witnessed a 7% fall insubscription income, led by thecontinued growth of free television,reverse migration and a reduction inARPUs due to part implementation ofNTO 2.0.

Digital advertisingDigital advertising stayed

stable, led by increased allocation fromtraditional advertisers who acceleratedtheir investments indigital sales channels.This could become apermanent phenomenon.SME advertiserscontinued to increasetheir spends on digitaladvertising andexperimented more withonline sales platformslike Amazon and Flipkart.News brands, whose reach crossed 450million in 2020, also increased revenuesfrom their digital platforms.

Digital subscription28 million Indians (up from 10.5

million in 2019) paid for 53 million OTTsubscriptions in 2020 leading to a 49%growth in digital subscription revenues.Growth was led largely by Disney+Hotstar which put the IPL behind apaywall during the year, increasedcontent investments by Netflix andAmazon Prime Video and launch ofseveral regional language products. Inaddition, 284 million Indians consumedcontent which came bundled with theirdata plans.

PrintPrint’s revenue declines were

led by a 41% fall in advertising and a24% fall in circulation revenues.English language newspapers were hitharder and struggled to get back theircirculation post the pandemic,particularly in metros, while regionallanguage newspapers recovered a

26

larger portion of theirlost circulation. Thesegment saw theestablishment of a newlower-cost operatingbenchmark, with mostprint companiesreducing costs by over25%.

Online gamingContinuing as the

fastest growing segmentof theM & Esector forthe fourthyear in arow, thes e g m e n tgrew 18%helped bywork fromh o m e ,

school from home andincreased trial of onlinemulti-player gamesduring the lockdown.Online gamers grew 20%to reach 360 million in2020. Transaction-based

game revenues grew21%, despite adverseregulation in certainstates, while casualgaming revenues grew7%.

FilmWhile theatrical

KEY TRENDS IN 2020Segment growth 2020 vs. 2019

EY estimates

M&E SECTOR VS. NOMINALGDP GROWTH

M&E FaredMuch WorseThan India’s

GDP

Digital AndOnline GamingWere The Only

SegmentsWhich Grew



revenues plummeted to less than aquarter of their 2019 levels, a portion ofthis loss was made up through higherdigital rights revenues which almostdoubled during 2020 to INR35 billion.However, the stoppage in productionfor over six months had its impact,which will now only recover once ahealthy slate of films is made ready forrelease and the fear of stepping intocrowded places subsides. While thetrend for direct to digital releases willcontinue, producers realized theimportance of theatrical releases forlarge scale film productions.

Animation and VFXStoppage of television and film

content production for several monthsin 2020 resulted in a fall in revenues -while VFX and post-productioncontracted 62% due to this, inability toconduct live shoots led to increaseddemand for animated content, andconsequently animation registered agrowth of 10%.

Live eventsPerhaps the hardest hit of all,

the segment witnessed numerousattempts to digitalize its offerings, butcould only recover a small fraction ofrevenues through that medium. Thesegment will continue to remainimpacted for the first two quarters of2021 before marketers and audiencesfeel comfortable about participating inlive events.

OOHThe segment lost out due to

reduced travel and less time spent outof the home on account of thelockdown. Largest hits were witnessedby premium transit properties, wherepassenger volumes plummeted. DigitalOOH reached 5% of total segmentrevenues. The need for a credible anduniversally accepted measurementsystem for OOH continues to be criticalfor recovery.

RadioRadio revenues, which had

fallen 7.5% in 2019, fell by over 50%again on account of both ad rate andvolume drops as key advertisersegments (regional and retail) wereunable to run their businesses at theirusual scale. Revenues had recoveredto over 50% of pre�pandemic levelsby the October to December quarter.

MusicThe digitization of music

continued in 2020 with audiostreaming revenues growing 15% butoverall, music segment revenueswere flat as performance rights fellby over 65%.

AD REVENUES BY SEGMENT

EY estimates | Excludes event segment revenues

INR billion (gross of taxes) | EY estimatesNote: The above numbers exclude live events, online gaming andanimation and VFX segment revenues

ADVERTISING ANDSUBSCRIPTION REVENUES

DEAL VALUE BYSEGMENT

EY estimates


Source: EY FICCI M&E Report 2021


NDTVNew Delhi Television

Ltd (commonly abbreviated as NDTV)is an Indian news media companyfocusing on broadcast and digital newspublication. The company isconsidered to be a legacy brand thatpioneered independent newsbroadcasting in India, and iscredited for launching thefirst 24x7 news channel and thefirst lifestyle channel in thecountry. It owns and operatesthe broadcast news channelsof NDTV India and NDTV 24x7.The two channels of thecompany have received 32 RamnathGoenka Excellence in JournalismAwards.

NDTV was founded in 1984, bythe journalist Radhika Roy and theeconomist Prannoy Roy, a husband andwife duo from the city of Kolkata in thestate of West Bengal. It began as aproduction house for news segmentsfor the public broadcaster Doordarshanand international satellite channelswhen television broadcasting was a

TOP ENGLISH NEWSCHANNEL & THEIRFINANCIALRESURGENCE

NEWS is where the major action has been in the pandemic era. Despite the controversies galore,the news channels have held on steady in terms of the advertising revenues in the Covid era.

We take a look at the leading news channel and how their numbers stacked up.

state monopoly and transitioned intothe first independent news network inIndia. The company launched the first24x7 news channel in partnershipwith Star India in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2003, NDTVwas in an exclusive agreement with StarIndia to produce all its news segment.

In 2003, the company became anindependent broadcasting networkwith the simultaneous launch of theHindi and English language newschannels known as NDTV India andNDTV 24x7. It also launched a businessnews channel NDTV Profit which waslater converted into an information andentertainment channel NDTV Prime.The company has had businessinterests in general entertainment ande-commerce, and is part of the

management of a number of broadcastchannels including the lifestylechannel NDTV Good Times, theinfotainment channel Astro Awani andthe news channel IndependentTelevision through various jointventures.NDTV Revenue

News broadcaster NDTV'sconsolidated revenue from operationsfor the quarter ended 31st December is` 105.83 crore compared to ̀ 93.67 crorein the same period last year.

Total expenses stood at ` 82.4crore compared to ̀ 85.03 crore a yearago.

The company said that it hasdelivered the best third quarter resultsin the last 11 years with a net profit of` 22.69 crore compared to ̀ 12.13 crore.

The company posted anoperating profit of ` 32.64 crore fromthe television media and relatedoperations segment compared to ̀ 19.09crore.

Revenue from the segment was` 105.83 crore compared to ` 92.23crore.

REPORT:NEWS CHANNELS

28


The company reported nilrevenue from the e-commerce/retailsegment.

On a standalone basis, NDTV'srevenue from operations stood at `56.37 crore compared to ̀ 55.35 crore.

The company’s expenseswere ̀ 51.56 crore compared to ̀ 51.85crore.

Net profit increased to ` 10.53crore compared to ̀ 6.66 crore.

According to NDTV, this is thecompany's best quarterly result in thelast eight years.

NDTV Convergence, thecompany's digital arm, has marked itsbest quarter ever with a profit of morethan ` 10 crore; its revenue hasincreased by 32% over the same quarterlast year.

Despite the businesschallenges thrown up by the pandemic,the company has so far in this financialyear reduced its bank borrowings by ̀27 crore.

“NDTV thanks every member ofits team for ensuring quality news wasdelivered to its vast audience despitethe many impediments presented by theCoronavirus outbreak. Its reporters andcrews have travelled all over thecountry to share the most credible andlatest information on how India ishandling the pandemic,” the companysaid in a statement.

It further stated that themanagement is aware that the financialchallenges of an economic slowdowncontinue to linger, with advertising yetto recover to pre-Covid levels; it isfocused on mitigating any riskpresented by this for the next fewquarters.

CNN NEWS18CNN-News18 (originally CNN-

IBN) is an Indian English-languagenews television channel foundedby Rajdeep Sardesai located in Noida,Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently

owned by Network 18 andWarnerMedia. CNN providesinternational coverage for the channel,while Indian Broadcasting Networkconcentrates on Indian and localreports.

In May 2014, RelianceIndustries announced it would betaking over Network18. The move wastouted as "the biggest-ever deal in theIndian media space". RelianceIndustries already had indirect controlof the TV18 network by virtue ofinvestments it made in Network18starting from January 2012.

CNN NEWS18 RevenueTV18 Broadcast, a subsidiary of

Network18, has registered a 373.33%year-on-year growth in Q4FY20consolidated profit due to strongrevenue and operating EBITDA.

The profit for the quarter stoodat ̀ 142 crore, up from ̀ 30 crore in thesame period last year.

Controls on operatingexpenses and subscription revenuegrowth more than filled in for thedecline in advertising helped thenews business remain profitable, thecompany said.

Revenue from operationsgrew by 21% year-on-year to ̀ 1,425crore in the quarter ended March2020, the company said in its BSEfiling. Linear TV subscription revenuegrowth was at 41% in Q4 and B2Cannuity nature provided solidity, itadded.

Its operating earnings beforeinterest, tax, depreciation andamortisation (EBITDA) for the quartershot up 365% to ` 240 crore against

29

` 52 crore in the corresponding periodthe previous year.

"Rise in the ranking of ourflagship entertainment channel andupsurge in news consumption helpedthe group post growth in ad-revenuesin the quarter, even as advertising wasseverely impacted during late-Q4 dueto the COVID-19 related lockdown," thecompany said.

TV18 Broadcast said its profitfor the financial year 2019-20 surged98.57% to ̀ 417 crore and revenue grewby 5% to ̀ 5,175 crore compared to theprevious year.

The full-yearoperating EBITDAstood at ` 703 crore,growing 124% over` 314 crore reported inthe previous fiscal.

TV18 said thebenefits of a

transparent and non-discriminatoryB2C regime created by theimplementation of the NTO (New TariffOrder) in Q4FY19 continued to accruefor the entire FY20.

Distribution improvementsthrough tie-ups with cable and telecomplatforms boosted the reach andenlarged the value-proposition ofchannel brands across a varied cross-section of viewers, it added.

TV18's Q4 average viewershipshare in news was 10.5%, up from 10.2%in Q3; while TV18 group's Q4entertainment viewership share was9.9% in Q4 versus 10.1% in the lastquarter.

The contribution ofsubscription to the revenue mix hasincreased to 35% in FY20 from 26% inFY19, the company said.

INDIA TODAY TVIndia Today (formerly

Headlines Today) is a 24-hourEnglish language television networkbased in Noida, Uttar Pradesh that



carries news, current affairs andbusiness programming in India. Thechannel is owned by TV TodayNetwork Ltd, which is a part of LivingMedia.

The channel was launched in2003 as a sister channel of the Hindi AajTak news channel. It is one of the fournews channels from the TV TodayNetwork stable, the others being AajTak, Tez and Delhi Aaj Tak. Alok Vermawas brought in as the ExecutiveProducer to successfully launch TVToday group's foray into the Englishnews channel category.

India Today RevenueTV Today Network Limited,

which runs news channels Aaj Tak,India Today TV and Tez, and FMradio station Ishq FM, posted a netprofit of ` 12.77 crore in Q1FY21,down 75% from ` 51 crore in thecorresponding quarter of theprevious year.

The company’s total revenuefor the quarter ending June 30, 2020,stood at ̀ 175 crore, down 32% from ̀260 crore in Q1FY20.

The television broadcastingbusiness continued to contributewith more than 82% to the totalrevenue from operations of thecompany. The revenue fromtelevision operations stood at `137.79 crore, down 18% from ̀ 167.7crore in the same quarter last year.

The radio broadcastingbusiness earned a total revenue of ̀ 23lakh in Q1FY21 compared with ̀ 3.78crore in the first quarter of the previousyear.

The company earned ` 2.13crore during the quarter from thenewspaper publishing business. Thecontribution of the newspaperbusiness was 1.27% to the totalrevenue from operations. Followingthis, the company announced that itwill stop publishing its compact dailyMail Today from August 10.

Income from others stood at` 27.55 crore in the current quarterunder review versus ̀ 27.97 crore inthe same quarter of last year.

REPUBLIC TV Republic TV is a free-to-air

news channel launched in May 2017.It was co-founded by Arnab

Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar,before the latter relinquished his stakein May 2019, leaving Goswami as themajority stakeholder. Chandrasekharwas an independent legislator fromthe National Democratic Alliance wholater joined the Bharatiya JanataParty and Goswami was the formereditor-in-chief of Times Now. Theventure was funded primarily byChandrashekhar through hiscompany Asianet News.

channel in India in its first week ofairing in May 2017 with 21.1 lakh (2.11million) impressions and accounted for51.9 per cent viewership as per datareleased for the week by the BARC.The Financial Express noted RepublicTV to be the most-watched Englishnews channel in India for 100 weeks ina row since its founding. The top newschannel spot was taken over by DDIndia, a public service broadcaster, inFebruary 2019, according to the Indiannewspaper Mint.

Republic TV RevenueThe free-to-air (FTA) channel

has been launched with 19 strategicpartners, with a commitment of spentof Rs 100 crore. “We are a cash positivecompany, with very less debt on ourbooks. Also one of the reasons we havebeen able to launch the second channel

within 19 months ofrolling out the first one,is that our delivery toadvertisers is highest.We ensure a good return-on-investment,” Vikas

Khanchandani, group CEO, RepublicMedia Network, said.

ARG Outliner Media AsianetNews Pvt Ltd, the holding form ofRepublic Media Network, narrowedits net loss to ` 77 lakh, for the yearended March 2018, according tofinancial data accessed by businessintelligence platform, Tofler. Thenews network posted a net loss of `6.9 crore in FY17. Total revenue roseto ` 157.5 crore in FY18 from just `1.6 crore in FY17.

TIMES NOWThe Times Now is a 24-hour

English news channel in India ownedand operated by The Times Group. Thechannel launched on 23 January 2006in partnership with Reuters. It is a paytelevision throughout India. Until 2016,it was India's most popular and most

Republic TV was funded inpart by Asianet (ARG Outlier AsianetNews Private Limited), which wasprimarily owned by RajeevChandrasekhar, a then-independentmember of Rajya Sabha who hadpolitical links with Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) and was vice-chairman ofthe National Democratic Alliance inKerala. Among other major investorswere Goswami himself, his wifeSamyabrata Goswami, educationistsRamdas Pai and Ramakanta Panda —all of whom invested through SARGMedia Holding Private Ltd.

Chandrasekhar resigned fromthe board, after he officially joinedthe BJP in April 2018; Goswamipurchased back Asianet's shares inMay 2019.

Republic TV allegedly becamethe most-watched English news


30


viewed English news channel. After2016, the channel has typically rankedas the second most watched Englishnews channel in India.

Times Now is a 24 hour Englishnews television channel that providesthe urbane viewers the complete pictureof the news that is relevant, presentedin a vivid and insightful manner, whichenables them to widen their horizons& stay ahead.

TimesNnow is brought to youby Times Global Broadcasting, aBennett, Coleman & Co and Reutersservice.

The Times Group is the largestmedia conglomerate in south Asia, withLeadership in newspaper publishing;magazines; music retailing; FM Radio;Internet; interactive media; mobileservices and lifestyle television.

Times Now RevenueBennett Coleman and Company

Ltd (BCCL) has recorded an increaseof 7.87% in total revenue for the yearended March 31, 2019. The companyhas posted ` 6,985.91 crore as totalincome, compared to ` 6,476.08 crorefor the year ended March 31, 2018.The network’s Profit After Taxation(PAT) has dipped 74.83% to ` 1,52.79as compared to ` 607.08 crore in theprevious year. Meanwhile, BCCL’sadvertising revenue has gone up by1.7% to ` 4,845.15 crore as comparedto ̀ 4,763.47 crore in FY 2018.

As per the financial statementfrom the Ministry of CorporateAffairs, in FY19 the network sales ofpublication and distribution revenue

decreased by 3.47% to ̀ 680.96 croreas compared to ` 705.49 crore in theprevious year. The revenue from thesale of traded products and serviceshas increased by 78.31% to ` 458.53crore. The event income of thecompany has also increased by28.2% to ̀ 261.80 crore as comparedto ` 204.06 crore in the previousfinancial year.

The company has mentioned inits financial statement that the year2018-19 continued to be a challengingone for print media owing to pressurefrom escalated newsprint price and

marginal dip in advertising andcirculation revenue vis-a-vis theprevious year.In the television newsbusiness, the network ownsthree channels - Times Now,ET Now and Mirror Now.Times Now continues itsdominance in the EnglishNews category and maintains

its leadership position, as mentionedin the ROC filing. It further statedthat ET Now has dedicated itself tothe nation's development with theadoption of brand purpose- Rise withIndia. During the Union Budgetcoverage, ET Now was theundisputed leader with 82%viewership, the statement said.

In the entertainment business,the network owns Zoom, MoviesNow, Romedy Now, MNX and MN+.The network claims that Movies Nowretains the largest share of voiceamong the target audience, with adominating leadership across socialmedia.

TimesNowNews.com (Digital)started from the bottom of thecomScore list in 2017 to enter the topthree league in the English DigitalNews Publishing space in November2018. Timesnownews.com hasestablished itself as the fastestgrowing digital publisher, thestatement reads.

INDIA AHEADIndia Ahead is a nationwide

English News Channel. It is promotedby Andhra Prabha Media Group andlaunched in June, 2018. The Channelcarries news, current affairs,entertainment sports and businessprogramming from Indian as well asInternational Perspective. It's the firstEnglish news channel to be beamed outof South India.

The tagline of India Ahead is“It’s Good News” which highlights thevision to look ahead and aim to informand influence in making a better Indiafor the generation to come.

India Ahead was led by ChetanSharma as Founding CEO and EditorialDirector. He is a celebrated TV anchor,a veteran journalist having headedteams across leading media houses likeNDTV, Zee Network and India Today,ESPN Star Sports and TWI. Renownednames in the field of journalism likeSudha Sadanand, Sourav Sanyal, SanaKhan and Jujhar Singh are leading theteam of India Ahead. In June, 2020Andhra Prabha Group’s MD MoothaGoutam announced seniormanagement changes to the Englishnew channel India Ahead. While thefounding CEO Chetan Sharma hasmoved on, the channel has made aseries of senior appointments. FormerCNN-News18 Sudeep Mukhia hasjoined India Ahead as Group President,News Room Operations & EditorialStrategies.

The channel became the No. 1channel in terms of Average time spentby Viewers during the Budget Week


31


among all the English News Channelsof India. Also, the channel is performingwell in the Southern Indian States suchas Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, TamilNadu and Karnataka.

India Ahead News PrivateLimited is a Private incorporated on 17September 2013. It is classified as Non-govt company and is registered atRegistrar of Companies, Hyderabad. Itsauthorized share capital is ̀ 100,000,000and its paid up capital is ̀ 99,200,000.It is inolved in Reproduction ofrecorded media [This class includesreproduction of records, audio, videoand computer tapes from mastercopies, reproduction of floppy, hardor compact disks, reproduction of non-customised software and filmduplicating]

India Ahead News PrivateLimited's Annual General Meeting(AGM) was last held on 29September 2018 and as per recordsfrom Ministry of Corporate Affairs(MCA), its balance sheet was lastfiled on 31 March 2018.

Directors of India Ahead NewsPrivate Limited are Gopala KrishnaMootha, Mahesh Bigala, GoutamMootha.

WION (WORLD IS ONENEWS)

WION (World isOne News) is amultinational . Englishlanguage news channelheadquartered in NewDelhi. It is owned bythe Essel Group and ispart of the ZeeMedia network ofchannels.

The foundingteam included RohitGandhi as editor-in-chief, Mandy Clark,former CBS correspondent,and Mithaq Kazimi, American media

executive, as managing producersrespectively. Known journalistsincluded Saad Hammadi, Bangladeshbureau chief and former correspondentfor The Guardian, Archith Seshadri,former CNN anchor, and TathagataBhattacharya, former editor ofthe CNN web edition.

The current team includesSudhir Chaudhary as editor-in-chiefand Network18 former senior editorPalki Sharma Upadhyay as executiveeditor. Sidhant Sibal of DD Newsjoined the organisation on 1 April2018. Sumit Chaturvedi,who was earlier with ETNow and CNBC TV18,looks after the businessnews content and doesmorning and eveningbusiness showsWALLET. Republic TV'sformer news anchor AkankshaSwarup joined WION in 2018,becoming one of the channel 'sleading faces. Sayed Mustafa Kazemibecame Afghanistan Correspondentfor the channel in February 2020.Associated journalists includeNaveen Kapoor, Digvijay Singh Deo,Rabin Sharma, Ieshan Wani,Kartikeya Sharma, and Alyson leGrange.

WION, India's first GlobalNews channel,continues to carveout a niche for itselfand attains TopEnglish Newschannel position withhighest viewerstickiness. (Source:BARC, NCCS 22+Male AB, All IndiaUrban, 0600-2400,Wk 40 - 52 '19Average ATSV) .During the quarter,the channel hostedprofitable engaging

events like the E-mobility Summit in

October, WION World Order- TalkingDiplomacy and Mission Smart Cities2020 in December with keystakeholders including ministers,industry leaders and distinguishedguests.

NewsXNewsX is India’s fastest

growing English News Channel andenjoys highest viewership and highesttime spent amongst educated urbanIndians.

Ever since its acquisition by theITV Network, the channel haswitnessed unprecedented growth.

NewsX is the News Leader andsets the news agenda for the nation,with its crisp formats, straight forwardreporting, pointed debates, trendinghashtags, and engaging mix of stories.

It offers maximum news andcontinues to lead.

NewsX is owned by ITVNetwork Group.ITV Network is India’sfastest growing news network, withtwo national news channels, fourregional news channels, twonewspapers and various digital assets.It employs more than 2025 peopleacross 25 bureaus/offices and has morethan 106 live video sources. TheNetwork has a cumulative reach of morethan 100 million viewers and readerson a regular basis.


32


It goes without saying howembracing newer technologies keptour industry “on-air” during 2020. Sowhat will be the new norm in 2021?The first step to establishing somesort of direction is to understand thedirect affects of COVID over the pastyear ontechnology andtrends. Forexample, prettymuch everyonejumped intocloud andlearned that itisn’t as scaryfor l ive andremote operations as many wereconcerned about. The use of off-the-shelf collaboration tools works –perhaps not ideal, but keep our mediafactories running. Businessteleconferencing tools, built-incameras within mobile devices andwebcams permitted work from home

scenarios, not only for productioncrew, but also for on-air talent. Allthis being said, audiences started toaccept glitches, streaming issues andfor that matter more often than notpoor video and audio quality; ourexpectations for more 4K UHD in

2020 turnedinto “COVIDQuality”.The IABMTechnologyand TrendsRoadmap isbeing usedby bothb u s i n e s s

leaders and technology types to bothhelp plot out their companies’ futuredirections and also assure that duringeach growth phase, no technology ortrend is overlooked. I was fortunate toassemble a roadmap team of vendorsand end-users covering all aspects ofour industry. Although our team didn’t

agree on every aspect, we didultimately come to an agreement toproduce this roadmap as an industryreference – a jumping-off point for yourbusiness.

For the 2020 IABMTechnology and Trends Roadmap wefelt it was best to understand theaspects of change in 2020, so westarted out with a COVID Impactsection plotting each area of thecontent chain over an impact rangeof negligible to major. As you can seein the graphic, some areas such asPublish had little impact, particularlyon general playout and OTT exceptduring a live event; remote deliverysuddenly took on a whole newmeaning.

VIEW/DOWNLOAD THEFULL ROADMAP Please note, you willneed to be a registered user of ourwebsite to access this page.

Starting with Live Events, large-scale mobilization of production

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

IABM's CTO, Stan Moote discusses how the changes everyone made in 2020 will helpfocus on having a fresh look at all businesses in the media content chain

33

REPOSITIONING FOR 2021– THE IABM TECHNOLOGYAND TRENDS ROADMAPHELPS DETERMINE YOURFUTURE DIRECTION

BROA

DCA

ST AN

D FILM

MA

RCH - A

PRIL 2021

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

34


systems for Sports and Venue Eventswon’t return to normal for the immediatefuture. Concert-like venues with largeaudiences tend not to be hosting liveevents, moving toward a live-remote-collaboration model of 'conference call'like technologies to produce andengage spectators. Higher qualityaudio, utilizing global motion pictureeditorial/scoring/tracking concepts hasseen practical success. The use of ZeroClient technologies has enabledsegments previously constrained tofacility based high-end graphics orspecial-effects to be done totallyremotely. Lower-bit-rate compressedproduction on broadcast-likeproduction components has permittedsmall-scale venues.

News and Talk Shows quicklymoved away from studio productionsand took advantage of off-the-shelfscalable, general purpose solutionsusing tools such as Zoom, Facetime,Teams, Slack, etc. to keep on-air.Typically news had a huge head-start

as they already were using bondedcellular and Internet tools for remoteson a daily basis. With scripted seriesand talk shows, the off-the-shelfgeneral applications used incombination with broadcast toolsand workflows have achieved asurprising level of integration deliverrich workflows including virtualaudiences. Currently with theacceptance of “COVID Quality” thereis an expectation for lower costsolutions. With the bubble conceptbeing used for scripted productions,one group told us they are soefficient having everyone lockedaway together, no waiting for people,no travel delays etc, on a go forwardbasis they want to continue using thebubble concept for shoots well intothe future.

A year ago our attention wasfocused on innovative at-homesports production. This year weliterally have news staff producinglive programs from their homes with

Cloud Production Switching. Oldtechnologies have taken on newvalue in current circumstances, andnew technologies are acceleratingdeployment and performance. Theseinclude VPN, Zero Trust, cloud-basedworkstations using PCoIP, and lowcost/latency/bandwidth videotransmission including consumer-focused tools. However, use of thesetools highlights the fundamentalneed for a robust, diverse, secure ITinfrastructure and home UPSsystems to handle Home Studios,Backhaul and remote Workstations.

Next the roadmap team tookforty-plus technologies and trends andput them into similar groupings,plotting on the range from bleedingedge use-cases to commodity productsand services.

No question, 2020 has beenthe year for collaboration, so weadded this in as a trend asvideoconferencing solutions havebecome indispensable. Proliferation

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

35


(bypassing CPU memory). By usingthe new techniques of movingNAND to the memory bus gone isthe traditional HDD/SSD SAS/PCIedriver & software latency, henceaccelerating databases, metadataanalytics and machine learningcomputations.

Using Artificial Intelligencefor facial/object recognition is solid.Speech-to-text now works in over 100

languages and has remarkablenatural feel. Bleeding-edge AI-powered sports systems recordentire games (panoramic view), whiledetecting/tagging all movement tocreate highlights. Intell igenttransport architectures use ML toevaluate historical transferinformation to choose the optimalnumber of parallel transport streamsand acceleration protocols. AI/MLnow augments content productionfrom smart trackers through tosensing emotional reactionsassisting content creation as well asremote working.

HDR and WCG are nowcommon delivery formats from OTTservices, and select theatrical

“We see creative collaboration ascentral to success for our industry andwe have launched a number ofinitiatives aimed at fostering this overthe last 18 months. The Technologyand Trends Roadmap is another largestep forward in nurturing thepartnerships that will drive all ourfutures. As with the BaM ContentChain®, it is also a ‘living’ conceptthat can provide a secure basis forbusiness decisions not just now, butway into the coming years too."

PETER WHITE, CEO, IABM

venues. Immersive audio, rendered inreal time from an object-oriented mixis standard in high-end theatricalreleases, and HFR continues to dazzleaudiences in gaming and location-based entertainment venues,although with mixed results intheatrical releases. Volumetric capture(RGB +Depth) systems continue toimprove quality and reduce costs,and when combined with LIDAR-

scanned point-cloud environments,drive fine-pitch LED walls.

Blockchain has shifted from‘pie in the sky’ or not yet media-relevant to some earlyimplementations. Of note are newmesh-based techniques that have analternative approach to CDN-baseddelivery. It’s also being seen in thearea of rights management being thelogical place to take advantage of theinherent advantages of distributingmetadata via blockchain. There ishope that blockchain will assist withparsing out deep fakes.

I can’t emphasize howimportant that security must beconsidered at all stages of productdevelopment, deployment and

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

of smartphones, improved mobilenetworks and VoIP technologiesenabled new conferencing apps andimproved collaboration tools whilebroadening user base. The pandemichas created a competitive race toproduce the user-friendliest, richest-featured and securest apps. Remotecontent production and broadcastdemands are pushing thesetechnologies further includingc o l l a b o r a t i v e l yproduced live showsfrom homes.

Cloud andHybrid Cloudsolutions have beenincreasingly used;this has beend r a m a t i c a l l yaccelerated by thepandemic. It can beargued that this haspushed more areasinto the “mature” and“ c o m m o d i t y ”columns faster thanmight otherwise havebeen expected.O r g a n i z a t i o n spreviously reticent toconsider cloud forstorage and processing are nowembracing it. Here is a key thought for2021 as a risk factor analysis: ratherthan moving to the cloud beingperceived as risky before 2020, it’s nowperceived as risky not to.

Computeacceleration via GPU and FPGA isnow common, from specialized AIworkstations and real-time videoconverters to NICs. Storage densitycontinually increases for magnetichard drives as well as solid statedrives, as 3D NAND and MLCpacking techniques improve. NVMeis now a common interface to flashstorage, and PCIe 4 is in earlyadoption, providing much more busbandwidth from NIC to GPU

36


operation. Since recent events haveaccelerated decentralized productionand rapidly pushed tools out of thestudio and into the homes of staff,security concerns are even moreimperative to be in strict practice.Technologies like VPN, Zero Trust,Endpoint Protection as well as cloud-based security and tools are enablingremote operation and fundamentalbusiness continuity acrossproduction and business units. Thebattle against piracy is strengthened

host OS and the orchestration layerallowing re-use of libraries and otherserver resources. Networkvirtualization allows software-defined network functions to be spunup and down. Newer efficientmethods like Mesh Networks and SD-WANs are becoming more common.

1, 10 and 100 GE networks arecommonplace with 25GE interfacesbecoming so. 400GE is emerging with800GE in development. The driversare uncompressed low latency live

“One of the constantly moving challenges in ourindustry is not only keeping up with all the newtechnology trends, but also having a deep enoughdive to understand what is truly relevant and notsimply just a ‘fad’. Our industry pumped 25% ofhard-earned revenue back into R&D in the last halfof 2018 - so every penny spent needs to be as closeto a sure bet as possible. End-users also have asimilar issue understanding which technology to beton, what they can’t live without – the ‘must haves’- and which will capture more market share forthem, as well as providing a path of profitable growth.The Technology and Trends Roadmap will helpaddress these fundamental business questions foreveryone involved with broadcast and mediatechnology"

STAN MOOTE, CTO, IABM

with advanced monitoring andwatermarking techniques.

Server virtualization isstandard for many workloads,although latency-sensitive &graphics-intensive tasks like colorcorrection have been slow to embraceit. Advances in virtual GPU and NICsoftware stacks improve utilization ofshared resources. A newer approachis where containers use the same

content, live remote production andcollaboration. Interoperablestandards and recommendations(SMPTE ST 2110, TR-1001-1) withdropping bandwidth costs haveenabled IP WAN-LAN convergence.SDN and new orchestration offeringsenable real time remote productionand transmission while driving downproduction costs and facilitatingmore creative offerings.

Aside from some live content,OTT is solid and common. AI/MLtechniques are improvingcompression, however licensing isn’tstandardized. Having videoanywhere, on any device, at any timeis commonplace, not just expectedbut demanded. The push for virtualzero latency continues. ATSC 3.0 and5G deployments are well underway.Monetization models are still verymuch in flux.

To capture other areas such asSocial Media,Esports, Gaming,SyntheticProduction andInternet-of-Things(IOT), we groupthem as SuperTrends. Ourindustry pioneeredIoT with smartmedia devices,althoughsorrowfully IABMresearch shows thisis not a priority ofmedia companiescurrently, despitethe growth inconnectedentertainment.Esportsproductions arebecoming less of atrend; they are now

higher end productions, thedifference being using morenetworking tools, over traditionalbroadcast. There is a solid blurbetween the crossover of gamingtechnology and entertainmentproductions- i .e. syntheticproductions, camera locked LEDwalls/ceilings. The production ofvideo for Social Media is a must andCOVID has made this abundantlyclear.

Source : IABM

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

37


Q.1: You had a distinguished trackrecord as an IRS officer in the CentralGovt and later joined the HindujaGroup in 1996. Tell us about yourjourney in the broadcast mediaindustry.AM: AIR/DOORDARSHAN

My media journey startedvery early. Neil Armstrong walked onthe Moon in July 1969. In the samemonth, All India Radio set up a youthchannel called Yuva Vani. I tadvertised for young reporters to jointhe Central Newsroom of All India

ASHOKMANSUKHANI:DISTINGUISHEDMEDIA VETERANRECOUNTS ON OTT,CATV & BROADCASTMARKET

Radio and file youth-oriented storiesfor the Yuva Vani News Channel andcontribute to the general pool. In thesame month, I was appointed as apart-time correspondent and workedthere for two years. During thatperiod, I also took part in many YuvaVani radio programmes coveringdiverse topics. This was the time thatTelevision was becoming popular. Igot a chance to be among India's firstset of television anchors presentingblack-and-white TV programstelecast on Delhi Doordarshan.

JUNIOR STATESMANThis was also when the

'Statesman' Kolkata had launched ayouth magazine that became iconicin the early 70s named 'JuniorStatesman'. It was run by a largehearted editor named Desmond Doigwho encouraged young writers tocontribute articles and poems tothe magazine. I joined the magazineas a fortnightly columnistcontributing articles on life andtime in Delhi from a youthfulperspective.

INTERVIEW

Ashok Mansukhani (AM), the name personifies an exemplary media personality with animpeccable track record and credentials across the media and entertainment space.

His illustrious career saw him executing various roles in different capacities andrendering yeoman service to the media industry.

In an exclusive interview with Braodcast & Film Magazine, Ashok talks about hisjourney and his professional career.

38


TIMES OF INDIA GROUPIn 1971, I joined the 'Times of

India' Group as a journalist trainee inMumbai and within three months foundmyself in Ahmedabad as a sub- nighteditor of the 'Times of India' newspaper.In February 1972 President RichardNixon visited China, and I was entrustedwith editing a two-page specialsupplement on his historic visit. Thiswas a great learning experience for me.In the summer of 1972, I was transferredto Delhi as the 'Times of India' Grouphad also decided to launch its youthmagazine- 'Youth Times'. For threeyears, I was to stay in this magazinemy main task being to produce andpublish the magazine every fortnight.INDIAN REVENUE SERVICE

In 1974, I took the IndianAdministrative Service and AlliedServices entrance exam that I passedin 1975 and ended by first media foray.

I was allotted the IndianRevenue Service (Income Tax) andstarted my career as an Income TaxOfficer.DOORDARSHAN

Many years later, in 1992, I wasstationed at Mumbai when out of theblue, I was given written directions toproceed to New Delhi as DeputyDirector General (Administration andVigilance).

This started my four-year span

dealing with thehuman resourcerequ i remen t sandadministrationrequirements of20,000employeesbelonging tovarious streams,includingprogramming,engineering,finance andadministration. This was an entirelynew media experience for me.

It was also a time for asignificant transformation ofDoordarshan from a single channelnetwork to gradually becoming Asia'slargest regional broadcaster. Under thedynamic direction of Mr BhaskarGhosh, Secretary Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting and MrRathikant Basu, Director GeneralDoordarshan, in the period 1992 to1995, more than 20 regional languagesatellite channels launched from thestate capitals in diverse languagesranging from Malayalam to Bangla toMarathi and Kashmiri. These channelsbrought in a unique feature of beingproduced from the state capitals butbeing available nationally throughsatellite to all viewers wherever they

lived. Twenty-fiveyears later, theseregional satellitechannels continueto operate andhave provided agood platformfor regionaladvertising.HINDUJA MEDIAGROUP

In 1996, I tookvoluntaryretirement from the

Indian Revenue Service and joined theHinduja Media Group based in Mumbaias Chief Operating Officer IndusIndMedia and Communications Limited(IMCL). In the past 24 years, I handleddiverse operating and corporate andBoard-level assignments and haverecently retired as Managing Directorof NXT DIGITAL Limited. This is theHinduja Media Group's flagshipproviding digital cable services in majormetros through the In Digital service.The company also operates India'sonly Headend-In-The Sky service NXTDigital which offers state of the artdigital cable service in all 29 states indifferent and varied terrain from Kutchto Agartala and Kashmir toKanyakumari.

Q.2: Hinduja has been a pioneer inthe broadcast, cable, satellite, andbroadband industry for over twodecades. Tell us about the majorinitiatives by Hinduja when you werethe MD of the Hinduja Media Group?AM: In the first 3-4 years starting in1996, I helped IndusInd Media andCommunications Limited (IMCL)consolidate its cable operations bylaunching significant metrosoperations, making it India's pioneerMulti-System Operator. This was doneby setting up direct operations andcreating a chain of hundreds of

INTERVIEW

39


operators in seven cities andover fifteen joint ventures in aunique partnership with thelocal cable operators in acorporatized set up. This modelhas been followed by otherMSOs who came up later.

In 2000, I was made CEOof IndusInd EntertainmentLimited a video content and TVnetwork company of theHinduja Group. I ran the verypopular 'In Mumbai' cablechannel and pioneered a newcity news channel concept infive languages called 'In Time'.

In 2001, I was transferredto the Hinduja Group holdingcompany- Hinduja TMT Limited (laterrenamed as Hinduja Ventures and nownamed NXT DIGITAL Limited) asExecutive Vice President CorporateServices serving as Promoterrepresentative on all the subsidiarycompany boards rendering corporateadvice, devising business strategiesfor emerging business scenarios andlegal/tax and litigation support.

In 2012, I was appointed to theBoard of Hinduja Ventures Limited(now NXT DIGITAL Limited) and madethe holding company's Whole TimeDirector.

I simultaneously becameManaging Director in 2017 of IMCL andwas promoted to Non- Executive ViceChairman of the Company in 2018 andhave recently completed my tenure inthe IMCL Board in November 2020 after21 years.

In 18 months as MD IMCL, Ioperationalized the Headend in the Sky(HITs) satellite cable platform creatinga new team of young entrepreneurs whorun their networks and take backendsupport from the company on a uniquerevenue-sharing model.

In 2018 I was elevated toManaging Director of Hinduja Ventures

Limited (now NXT DIGITALLimited) and completed my termin September 2020. A keyachievement was to shepherdthe transfer (by NCLT merger)of the Group's cable and HITSbusiness from IMCL to NXTDIGITAL in August 2020 withall regulatory and corporateapprovals in a record time of sixmonths in the lockdown period.During this period, I also servedon all the Hinduja Media groupboards and contributed bothcorporate and strategicexpertise to the contentcompany In-Network Limited;the broadband company One

OTT Limited and provided corporateadvisory services, especially corporategovernance, and taxation to the entireHinduja Group.

I was President of the Multi-System Operator Alliance for a decadeand worked actively with the Cable andBroadcast Regulator TRAI and theMinistry of Information andBroadcasting striving to create a levelplaying field to enable the lineardistribution industry to survive.

I have been involved in all thesignificant litigation right from the timeTRAI became the Regulator, andBroadcasters challenged itsappointment in 2005 to the present daywhen the Broadcasters challenged thesecond of New Tariff Order.

I vividly remember two casesbeing the Delhi High Court judgementof 2007 upholding the appointment ofTrai as the broadcast and cableregulator. The second that brought asignificant change in the entire cableindustry's fortunes was the New TariffOrder upheld by the Supreme Court in2018. This corrected a substantialdistortion in the business model of anindustry that had suffered at the handsof Broadcasters who had always had

INTERVIEW

“I was President of the Multi-System Operator Alliance for adecade and worked actively withthe Cable and BroadcastRegulator TRAI and the Ministryof Information and Broadcastingstriving to create a level playingfield to enable the lineardistribution industry to survive.”

40


the upper hand in forcible revenuecollection with no fair revenue-sharing.

Q.3: The Covid 19 lockdown hasimpacted the business worldwide.How do you see the impact of this onthe business and how soon will thecompanies get over this and bounceback?AM: The Covid 19 lockdown left thecable industry as underprepared asmost industries with one exception. Aspeople were forcibly confined to homesfor a couple of months, they turned tothe Television for information,entertainment and refuge. Broadcasterswho are dependent on serials, livesports, reality shows, suddenly hadonly repeats to show. News channelscertainly gained in viewership butbecause of the current stage ofpolarisation based on ideologicalconsiderations news channels do notcarry much credibility except fordiehard viewers.

This led to viewers looking atother means of entertainment. OTTNetworks like Netflix and Amazon Primeseized the opportunity and utilized theirvast library to provide a never-endingstream of fresh content. In the pastyear, Netflix has posted substantialgrowth of 26% in just one year. It is arecent marketing move to offer freeaccess over a weekend gained it lakhsof viewers. Another smart move wasintroducing in India pricing for theirpremium content, which helped itincrease. A recent statement by Netflixstated that India has the highestviewership of films globally on itsplatform, and consumption of contentin genres like kids, non-fiction andKorean dramas have shown stronggrowth. Regional movies findingclosure of cinema halls to continuedecided to go in for direct OTT releasesto recover the cost. Amazon Prime toohas seen explosive growth in Indian

cable and OTT platforms will coexistshortly. The traditional single screenlinear distribution model for the cableindustry is dead. The cable must shakeoff its complacence and rapidly andaggressively install fibre- to- home if itwere not to become redundant like thepager industry a decade ago. ThoseMultisystem Operators who operatebroadband networks can scale up andretain their customer base by providinghigh-quality digital cable; a variety ofOTT content and consistentbroadband to create customerstickiness.

Another failure of the cableindustry, which caused its economicdistress in the lockdown was the resortto outmoded cash collection methodswithout providing customer

INTERVIEW

viewership with about 25 million Indianviewers. Disney Hotstar is not too farbehind with approximately about 10million viewers. Zee 5 has combinedwith Alt Balaji to scale up rapidly.Hotstar like Sony Liv has live-actioncricket, football, and other popularsports like tennis to give them theimpetus to add more viewers. With over50 OTT platforms, there is an urgentneed for an OTT aggregator.

Q.4: How has the transition of theIndian broadcast, cable and satelliteindustry been over the years? And howdo you see the future of Indianbroadcast, cable and satellite in thenext five years?AM: Some doomsday pundits talk ofcord cutting. My educated guess is that

41


satisfaction of proper billing andreceipts. The hard lockdown led toreduced monthly collections, therebyupsetting the entire financial model ofcash being collected by the localoperator, being passed on to the MSOafter being passed on to thebroadcaster. My company NXTDIGITAL has been operating in aprepaid model for over five years nowand had no difficulty collectingsubscription deals due to theavailability of many digital paymenttypes. The rest of the industry mustfollow suit to help them survive thefuture.

India has reached a saturationpoint for deployment of traditionalcable in the metros and the urban areas.I estimate that through the censusfigures are a decade old India hasapproximately 25-30 million homes yetto receive digital cable or broadbandbenefits. These exist in semiurbanareas, rural areas, and deep rural areaswhich we can describe as dark cableareas.

I am intrigued that there areapproximately 1500 multisystemoperator as per July 2019 latest figures.Another interesting statistic is that 15of India's top MSOs have 78% of India'scable TV market. Of these 1500 MSO,at least 500 are not operating at fullcapacity.

There could be many reasonsfor this, of the but indeed 30 million

homes should be sufficient incentivefor the cable industry to penetrate therural areas low-cost but high-qualitydigital cable combined with reasonablebandwidth speed speeds to entice therural customer to subscribe to theregional MSOs.

Government's recent approvalof infrastructure sharing should behighly publicized to regional MSOs toset up cable cooperatives to operatefrom a single digital mega headend in adistrict town from which smaller MSOscan share the infrastructure to supplycable broadband to their rural base. Ofcourse, there is a more straightforward

solution for these operators to linkup with the NXT DIGITAL HITSplatform and take state of the artdigital backend services like 1500 oftheir colleagues have done in thepast four years.

If MSOs connect more andlisten to their vast customer base toconvert themselves into digitalservice providers, I expect them tosurvive the next five years andremain the primary option for Indian

viewers to consume electronic media.

Q.5: Which are the segments thatHinduja Group is targeting apartfrom the broadcast & cable industry?AM: The Hinduja Group is one of thelargest diversified groups globally in38 countries and activities spanning100 countries. It operates globally tenbusiness verticals that range frombanking and finance to informationtechnology-enabled services groupenjoys collection presents to leading

companies, some of which local andnational icons. Within the Hindujamedia, I see a bright future of ONE OTTLimited the broadband subsidiary ofnext digital limited. It has gainedenormously in the lockdown by addingmany new customers and can more thantriple its subscriber base in the next 2to 3 years. With infrastructure statusgranted to the HITS platform, thepossibility of adding many moremultisystem operators on the back endmodel is very strong.

Q.6: TRAI's recommendation onSTB Interoperability will allowconsumers to change their DTHoperator without buying a new set-topbox. This has thrown the industry intoa tizzy. How do you view thisdevelopment?AM: STB interoperability was talkedabout even in the first stage of CASinstallation in 2004. However, due tovested interests and politicalindecisiveness, India's digitalizationtook over a decade to take off by whichhundred million customers alreadybeen given Vanilla set-top boxes that

are not interoperable. DTHregulations have alwaysprovided for interoperability, butDTH boxes are also notinteroperable. To me, personally,the recommendation is dead andincapable of being implementedin the near future.

INTERVIEW

“OTT Networks like Netflix andAmazon Prime seized theopportunity and utilized theirvast library to provide a never-ending stream of fresh content.In the past year, Netflix hasposted substantial growth of26% in just one year.”

42


IABM released its latestbiannual Special Report. Titled‘Charting the Uncharted’ – reflectingthe enormous upheaval the industryis experiencing – the report is theresult of in-depth analysis byIABM’s Business Intelligence Unitof a wealth of qualitativeand quantitative researchon the present state andpotential future paths forour industry. It is clearthat the coronaviruspandemic hascompressed fundamentalchanges that were alreadyslowly underway in theindustry into just monthsor even weeks. Theeffects of this are far-reaching across everycorner of the Broadcast and Mediaindustry.

Inputs used to produce thereport include in-depth interviewswith media companies and

IABM’S REPORT“CHARTING THEUNCHARTED”

technology suppliers, IABM’scontinually updated CoronavirusImpact Tracker, and IABM’s MediaTech Business Tracker. The reportidentifies the multi-dimensionalchange that is impacting Broadcastand Media fuelled by the move to

direct-to-consumer (DTC) businessmodels across the industry. Thepropellants include the changing roleof technology, the move to as-a-service, insourcing and a new

generation of IT and environment-aware talent.

The coronavirus pandemicand ensuing lockdowns have drivendigital subscriptions massivelyupwards, while traditional Pay-TVand advertising-based business

models have been hithard – especially so inrelation to cancelled livesports programming.Stay-at-home mandateshave also caused afundamental shift inworking patterns – andmassively acceleratedthe industry’s previouslypedestrian progresstowards dematerializedoperations in the cloud,underpinned by as-a-

service technologies and businessmodels.

To survive the storm,traditional broadcasters have movedrapidly to supplement their output

IABM’s Comprehensive analysis plots the future course forBroadcast and Media industry

43

REPORT


with DTC offerings, and to search forthe necessary scale to compete withthe digital giants through acquisitionor consolidation as well as increasedinvestment in content. The move toDTC with its thinner margins alsorequires increased efficiency andagility, producing a greater focus onbusiness models. Technology hasbecome merely an enabler for thosebusiness models, and broadcastersare increasingly turning toinsourcing for better control andresponsiveness. The new skillsrequired are often being recruitedfrom outside the industry, withtraditional broadcast engineeringskills becoming less and less indemand.

The Charting the Unchartedreport also examines the effects ofthese changes across each segment

44

of the BaM Content Chain® as wellas in discrete operational sectors,providing additional insights for

companies with products/services ineach of these areas. The report canbe seen at https://theiabm.org/iabm-special-report-september-2020/

“At a time when we are allworking so hard just to keep up withthe transformational changes goingon all around us, Charting theUncharted gives us a uniqueopportunity to stand back and take alook at the bigger picture,” said PeterWhite, CEO, IABM. “We can measurewhat are we doing, how we do it, andwhy are doing it against the wholeindustry background. I am proud ofthe fantastic work our BusinessIntell igence Unit has done inresearching and producing thereport. Charting the Uncharted isbrim full of fact-based insights and Iwould say it is essential reading foreveryone in the industry.”

PETER WHITECEO, IABM

REPORT

Source : IABM


Blackmagic Design announcedthe multi-film project, “The FoundLederhosen,” created for the 2021 HPATech Retreat Supersession, usedDaVinci Resolve Studio and URSAMini Pro 12K for several of its fivesegments. This included the useof DaVinci Resolve Studio runningon Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud(Amazon EC2) and Amazon SimpleStorage Service (Amazon S3) forediting of the short film “LaInquilina.”

“The Found Lederhosen”plays a key role on day one of theSupersession, a two-dayinteractive exploration of theworkflows and technology of multipleproductions taking place around theglobe. The “Found Lederhosen”filmmakers, led by Joachim “JZ” Zell,will highlight real world examples of thetools, tech, workflows and more than

200 artists who worked remotely tocomplete the short films during theworldwide COVID 19 quarantines.

Filmmakers from London,Dubai, Mongolia, Mexico City,Brisbane and Hollywood all

volunteered to create the filmsspecifically for the event and inillustration of remote collaboration andthe rapid forward movement oftechnology. During the Supersession,JZ will highlight how these filmmakers

worked to keep themselves safe whileredefining creative, connected, remote,collaborative and cloud-basedworkflows.

“’The Found Lederhosen’brought together seven movies, six

cities, five audio mixes, four colorspaces, three uses of cloud storageservices and two transmitters. Itwas a huge effort, and it showsexactly what can be accomplishedin new remote workflows,” JZ said.“The virtual post workflows ofthese films were even more globalin scope than the productions,bringing together post artists fromall over the globe who collaborated

like they were in the room next door. Ahuge part of what made this possiblewas DaVinci Resolve.”

“La Inquilina” DP and ProducerSandra De Silva De La Torre and herteam used DaVinci Resolve Studio for

TECH FOCUS

45

HPA’S THE FOUNDLEDERHOSEN USESBLACKMAGIC DESIGNDAVINCI RESOLVE STUDIOAND URSA MINI PRO 12K

Blackmagic Design announced the multi-film project, “The FoundLederhosen,” created for the 2021 HPA Tech Retreat Supersession


numerous parts of the post productionworkflow, including dailies, editing,audio editing, color correction anddelivery. They used DaVinci ResolveStudio, running on Amazon’s EC2 G4instances in conjunction with AmazonFSx for shared file storage, to edit thefilm, allowing for seamlesscollaboration between Editor andColorist Diego Yhamá, who was basedin Colombia, and Sandra, who wasbased in Mexico City.

“Connecting virtually usingDaVinci Resolve Studio’s collaborationtools running on AWS was an extremelypowerful workflow for post productionon ‘La Inquilina,’” said De Silva De La

Torre. “Due to the currentcircumstances with the pandemic, theopportunity to be part of the HPA’sproject and collaborate remotely withfilmmakers around the globe was veryappealing to me. It is amazing to knowthat there were many crews in differentparts of the world creating a story forthe same purpose: to test andunderstand new workflows that notonly further support our actualsituation, but that also provide accessto a new level of connectivity forfilmmakers around the world.”

DaVinci Resolve Studio wasalso used on “KINTSUGI,” the Londonand Mongolian based film done for

“The Found Lederhosen.” Produced byaward winning filmmaker and actressBayartsetseg Altangerel (Bayra Bela)and edited by Lithuanian basedAleksandras Brokas, the film followsthree foreign art students during level4 lock down in London. DaVinciResolve Studio was used for editing,color correction and audio mixing byusing DaVinci Resolve’s collaborationfeatures to connect the director andproducer in London with Brokas inLithuania.

“Resolve’s collaborationfeatures let us easily work edits backand forth, and the headache I wasexpecting with this post production

process never happened. We hadinitially started editing with anotherNLE, but Aleks convinced us to doeverything in Resolve, which madegetting the film done efficiently andmeeting our creative visions,” saidBayartsetseg. “We used Resolve inLondon to edit dailies and sent the filesdirectly to Aleks, and were able to skipconforming. Grading and prep forDolby Vision was done in London andsound mixing was done in Taiwanusing Resolve. A true global team.”

For the Dubai film “Neo-Bedouin,” cinematographer MarcPaskui and Director Abeer Abdullahshot the pandemic inspired Sci Fi/

46

Fantasy thriller using the URSA MiniPro 12K. “The camera resolutiongave us much needed confidence onset in making creative choices,especially when the shot wouldinvolve visual effects,” saidAbdullah. “I also knew withBlackmagic’s color science I couldachieve the look I wanted, even whenforced to shoot in low light ordifficult conditions, as we facedshooting in the Dubai desert.”

“The mission of The FoundLederhosen is to show that any projectcan be done anywhere and to show theleading-edge workflows that make thispossible,” JZ said. “With the globalneed, it was natural that so many of thefilmmakers used Resolve because it isthe most widely used post tool outthere.”

The ability to use DaVinciResolve Studio as a common platformto create and use the best peopleanywhere was a key part of making“The Found Lederhosen.” DaVinciResolve Studio’s ability to work in awide array of formats and specs wasalso important, since the filmmakerswere shooting with different camerasystems but all had to finish in ACESand Dolby Vision.

“With the films, we had to havethe ability for the filmmakers and postartists to exchange information andcreate together anywhere at any time.Resolve is everywhere, used by thebiggest group of artists,” JZ continued.“So it was a great platform for us torely on.”

“The workflow used by ‘LaInquilina’ using Resolve running onAWS in particular was a great exampleof what a powerful new remoteworkflow could do. The filmmakers andpost artists, which were spread betweenLA, Mexico and Colombia, had theflexibility, adaptability and scalabilityto create in high quality. The freedomof interaction that combining AWS andResolve brought was amazing,” JZsaid.

TECH FOCUS

BIGGER,BETTER,

ONE GRANDEVENT!

Varun Gaba Director - ProjectsTel. : +91-22-6216 5303Mob. : +91-99458 26427Email : [email protected]

Geeta LalwaniProject Manager

Mob. : +91-70218 50198Email : [email protected]

Manoj Kumar MadhavanEditor (Satellite & Cable TV Magazine)Tel. : +91-22-6216 5313Mob. : +91-91082 32956Email : [email protected]

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