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Industry needs lighter touch on regulations to achieve its potential: K Madhavan, CII
NEW DELHI: The ninth edition of CII Big Picture Summit kickstarted today. The three day-long event will see several eminent industry leaders sharing their thoughts. These include BARC CEO Sunil Lulla, Roy Kapur Films MD Siddharth Roy Kapur, senior journalist and former advisor to the prime minister Pankaj Pachauri, Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gaurav Rakshit, Amazon Prime Video India country GM Gaurav Gandhi, and many others.
There will be over 100 speakers, from both government and the industry. Some of the speakers are also joining the summit virtually from overseas. Sessions with state governments as well as with representatives of the regional entertainment industry will be hosted. The platform aims to give industry a chance to discuss what has worked, and what hasn’t – and how it can put India’s M&E sector on the global stage.
A special curtain-raiser for the upcoming India International Film Festival in Goa in January 2021 will be presented by the ministry of information and broadcasting.
The opening remarks for the event were delivered by CII national committee – media and entertainment chairman and MD Star & Disney India K Madhavan.
He started by sharing his thoughts on how 2020 has taken a massive toll on the industry and how it is trying to fight back. “In my many years in the industry, disruption on this scale had never before been imagined. Content production was halted, live sports and events were cancelled, cinema halls and theatres were shut down. With a worldwide reduction in demand for services and major cuts in advertising spends – the pandemic enforced a long pause across the entire industry. However, the entire M&E industry came together to engage and entertain millions of viewers while they were homebound.”
Madhavan stated how the entertainment consumption has surged across mediums such as television, gaming, and digital streaming platforms. TV and video streaming rose to a peak of 37 per cent higher than pre-lockdown levels.
He also touched upon live sports making a stupendous comeback with the IPL 2020, lifting sentiments and the economy. “Not only was the IPL the biggest live cricketing tournament to be held during the pandemic, but it was also a beacon of hope and normalcy for the nation. The tournament broke all the previous records – with a 23 per cent increase in viewership over last year. The response from the fans and advertisers was heartening and it set a positive tone for the festive season. It acted as a game-changer for the sector and helped revive the media spends for the whole industry,” he added.
He went on to talk about the film industry, and the innovations and breakthroughs it made to fight the crisis. “The film industry showed resilience and adapted to the ‘direct-to-digital’ model which helped launch new movies across digital streaming platforms. Cinema halls have taken longer to reopen, but I am confident that fans will soon be watching their favourite movies on the big screen, in safety.”
The industry has what it takes to grow from the present $24 billion to $100 billion by 2030, but its potential is currently untapped in many ways, said Madhavan. “Pay TV is still at 120 million of the 300 million households in India, we only have 500 million smartphones in a country which has over 950 million mobile subscribers. The pandemic has driven customers to adopt technology as never before – as seen in the growth in e-commerce, online video, and digital gaming – and this can drive the sector to new heights.”
To achieve this potential, a lighter touch on regulation and a much simpler governance structure is needed in place, he stressed.
“There are various kinds of restrictions that this sector is being subjected to although it has within it to make India truly atmanirbhar. We can increase our exports, increase the number of jobs being given to young talent, and most importantly, make India a global leader in content if policies are shaped as per the requirements of the industry,” Madhavan added.
A CII report on the Big Picture Summit will also be released to present a panoramic view of the Indian media and entertainment industry – how it fared in 2020, what were the viewership trends, what was the impact of the pandemic on advertising, which medium got an edge, and going forward, what will be the role of Indian content in the global arena.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
