Maryam Farooqui Moneycontrol News
It was a pleasant change for the media and entertainment industry (M&E) to find a mention in the Budget, where Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced a slew of incentives for the sector.
From single window clearance for Indian filmmakers for shooting in India, to the introduction of anti-camcording provisions in the Cinematograph Act to control the menace of piracy, Budget 2019 had a lot in store for the entertainment sector.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, Kamal Ginachandani, CEO, PVR Pictures Ltd, said “The big change really seems to be a change of mindset with the reduction of GST and now, a single window clearance. Also, this talk of stricter anti-piracy rules means a change in mindset. This whole soft power of film business is being looked at in a much more positive and proactive manner.”
However, this wasn’t the case in previous Budgets. Despite being one of the biggest sources of revenue for the government, the M&E sector failed to catch the Finance Minister’s attention for the last couple of years.
Many industry players expressed their disappointment for not even finding a mention in the Budget 2018, though few at the time had also said that the M&E sector will gain with the strengthening of the economy.
They also said that other measures, like the provision for MNREGA and allocations for rural, agriculture and allied sector and a clear push for affordable housing will lead to better spending power in the hands of people.
Experts said that significant measures were taken to improve electrification would also in turn help the television industry. Some also appreciated government’s efforts towards digitization and had expected strong growth for digital video consumption across over the top (OTT) platforms.
Last year a lot of OTT platforms made large investments in producing original content looking at the growth of the market in India. Some also said that 2018 is a signal towards the power and scale at which OTTs will be operating in the future in the country.
Boosting the digital ecosystem was the primary expectation of the M&E industry from Budget 2017, with digitization being the government’s priority that year. And that helped the digital media to grow its business.
In 2017, digital media grew 29.4 percent on the back of a 28.8 percent growth in advertising and a 50 percent growth in subscription, according to a 2018 EY report. And digital subscription grew 50 percent in 2017.
Industry players had said that Digital India will transform India into a mobile-first economy and this will lead to more consumers subscribing to content related to media and entertainment.
In terms of video consumption, 250 million people viewed videos online in 2017, a growth of 64 percent over 2016.
A uniformity in taxes was a major demand of the industry players from Budget 2017. However, the demand was not addressed in that year’s Budget.
The government did take steps to deal with piracy in the Budget 2017. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the menace of piracy will be dealt with by setting up quick action teams to advance cyber security.
In the 2017 Budget, Jaitley announced the abolishment of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Experts said that the move will allow foreign studios to invest in the Indian market. This in turn will allow more job opportunities in the entertainment industry along with international cinema to the audiences.
The decision came at a time when more and more foreign studios are collaborating with Indian production houses. Fox, Disney and Viacom have been spending heavily in their effort to gain a foothold in Bollywood.
Lionsgate collaborated with Anil Kapoor’s production house AKFC for the Indian adaptation of Red.
Eros International-owned Trinity Productions had entered into an agreement with Chinese companies Huaxia Film Distribution and Peacock Mountain Culture & Media to co-produce three bilingual films. These include The Zoo Keeper by Kabir Khan and Love in Beijing. Tubelight was the first fruit of this strategic Indo-China collaboration.
But this year the entertainment space was recognized in the Budget so much so that acting Finance Minister spoke on how much he enjoyed watching the recent release Vicky Kaushal-starrer Uri: The Surgical Strike. He even ended his speech by asking people How’s the Josh, a catch phrase used by stars of the film during promotions.
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