The Indian media industry, which has been witnessing significant churning, has entered into a phase of consolidation that will see entities with a “strong, unique, distinctive proposition” surviving and some falling by the way side, according to Star India CEO Uday Shankar.
“In the early says, access to capital was easy and this lead several people to get into the media business. Now we are entering a phase of consolidation where those who have a strong, unique, distinctive proposition are the ones that will be able to survive. Some would consolidate, some would fall by the way side, that is the natural process of evolution,” Shankar told the news agencyhere.
Shankar was in the city to speak at the Paley Center for Media, becoming the first media chief from India to address the premier media council. The event was also attended by 21st Century Fox co-COO James Murdoch and Time International Editor Bobby Ghosh.
The Indian media industry has been witnessing significant churning over the last few years with rapid growth in technology changing the way content is delivered to the audience.
last week, in the biggest ever deal in the Indian media sector, Mukesh-Ambani led Reliance Industries said it would acquire control in Network 18 Media and Investments, including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast for Rs 4,000 crore.
When asked about the changing media market in India, Shankar said: “some of this is par for the course in a market that is still emerging because (as) lots of people come in, there would be consolidation, some would fall by the way side.”
He noted that a dynamic media industry will mean that content is going to get better, adding that there is digitisation of content and distribution.
Shankar also said a big challenge for the industry is to create adequate talent pools of writers and directors to sustain the rapid growth.
“So far because of analogue television, delivery itself was a biggest achievement. If you were able to get into the home, you would have a huge advantage. Now with digitisation, the bandwidth is available, consumer is getting more and more choice and people will pick up what they like. While everyone says content is king, brand and content are going to be the single most important factors in building a media company,” Shankar said.
He, however, stressed that growth of a talent pool of content creators has to keep par with the growth that the industry is witnessing.
“The larger issue in India is that (with) the kind of growth that we are seeing, if we do not create adequate creative capacity - talent pool of writers, directors, actors and the skill set - to create very high quality and innovative content every day, it is going to be difficult to sustain the growth. We need lot more talent than the kind of supply that we have at the moment. That for me is the biggest challenge,” he said.
Outlining Star India’s future priorities and focus areas, Shankar said the network is “very focused” on building a sports franchise in India, which has traditionally been a “one-sport country”, a reference to the game of cricket.
“We are very committed to cricket. But we also want to move India from being one-sport country to multiple sports and we are very heavily engaged with various sports bodies, federations, individuals and corporates in creating local domestic leagues,” he said.
Shankar pointed out that Star India has partnered with conglomerate Reliance and IMG to work on a soccer league, which would be a “first of its kind in India.”
The group has also started a national hockey league in partnership with the hockey federation. Similar plans are on the anvil with the Kabbadi federation and Mahindra Group’s head Anand Mahindra to create a national Kabbadi league.
“Given the power of mobile and digital in India, we are very foccused now on building a strong digital franchise which is as good and as comprehensive and wide reaching as the television network of Star. Those are some of our priorities,” he said.