India will have around 969 million internet users by 2021 and Indian media industry looks upon the digital world not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity, said Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani on May 10 while inaugurating the 15th Asia Media Summit (AMS) 2018.
The three-day media summit ‘Telling Our Stories – Asia and More’ is being hosted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in partnership with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and public-sector firm Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL).
At the conclave, Irani gave a small perspective of the Indian media industry and said, “India is the fastest growing advertising market expected to touch 10.59 billion US dollars by the end of 2018 and the mobile spend is estimated to grow to 1.55 billion US dollars in the year 2018. We have a vibrant media industry which has a direct established impact of Rs 1.35 lakh crore and indirect and induced benefits of Rs 4.5 lakh crore, with close to 4 million people associated with it.”
Restating the need of regulation in the digital media industry, Irani said that the time has come to put laws, ethics and rules into place which will help in balancing the media industry so that one dominant player cannot rule the roost.
“How do we attract, retain and develop talent which frees good content from the trappings of revenue needs and brings about a balance in media institutions,” Irani further stated.
The event was also attended by industry bigwigs such as Times Group and other top-notch media companies.
Speaking at the conclave, the Times Group Managing Director Vineet Jain said, “For Indian media to realised its full potential, regulatory reforms were needed across the board – to make it easier to do business, remove anomalies in the system and ensure a fair marketplace that benefited the consumer.”
Jain further reinstated that the government must discourage further mergers and acquisitions in the telecom sector because that would drastically limit consumer choice.
Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad feels the media needs to understand that in a democracy everyone should be accountable. “The government always prefers self-regulation in media,” the IT minister further added.
The event was attended by over 220 foreign delegates representing 39 countries.
