NEW DELHI: The media and entertainment industry has to keep pace with newer technologies and adapt to changing social mores and the Government has to recognise the importance of this sector if it has to touch the $100 billion mark by the end of this decade.

This was the general consensus of speakers in various sessions at the "India-Big Picture" CII-Media and Entertainment Summit.

The CII-PwC‘s latest report titled ‘India Entertainment & Media Outlook 2012‘ released at the meet said India is expected to exceed Rs 1.75 trillion as growing at a CAGR of 17 per cent over the next five years.

Various experts agreed that M&E should emerge as a $100 billion industry in the conceivable future and for this stakeholders have a major role to play.

While the government has to lay a proactive policy framework, the industry should work towards enriching the content, innovation and strict observance to IPR rules.

The industry felt that for the long term growth of the industry, business models should undergo a drastic change. The present business model is dependent on B2B, thereby meaning that the revenues have to be realised from advertisements. More stress has to be laid on B2C concept, which would mean that subscription income should form an important component in the overall revenue flows.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said digitisation of cable television in the country will mean more scope for programming and content in more languages. But he said that infrastructure in terms of studio space in Mumbai was inadequate and programmers will have to move out.

Similarly, he said access to good talent is difficult since there is no institutionalised way of finding new talent. Clearly, there was need for governmental support in this field.

He said broadcasters were still not clear about the actual picture after 31 October with regard to digitisation, though broadcasters were backing this move.

He said it was unfortunate that the government only saw glitz and glamour in the entertainment industry and did not realise the potential available for social transformation. Social and institutional support was necessary to reach the goals that the industry was setting for itself.

He said the government also failed to realise that if the industry did bring in $ 00 billion as forecast, then it could meet the costs of all the key programmes of the government for rural and urban development and creating employment.

Sony Pictures Television Worldwide Network President Andy Kaplan said game changing is the best insurance against irrelevancy. He said there was a need to adapt and adopt.

India had the third largest television market after China and the United States, and there was diverse consumption of content in every household.

But the ratio of advertising was very minimal in India and there was a huge potential in that sector.

For this purpose, he said the key was innovation and this could be achieved through content, digitisation, distribution, and platforms. Content could also be exported to other countries, and digitization was traversing geographic boundaries. India at present had only 35 per cent digitisation at present. Distribution has already evolved in various ways and newer platforms had come up for this. It is therefore necessary to build newer business models.

Walt Disney India managing director Ronnie Screwvala said Indian M&E was 30 per cent below the target at present. There was no sense of unanimity in this field, and 20 years of broadcasting had led to a growth of television channels but the revenue was still dependent on advertisements ? a shackle that had to be broken. Digitisation would not help too much unless people begin paying. He also said there was no respect for intellectual property and this resulted in rampant piracy. The film industry is at present a Rs 100 billion industry whereas it should have been around Rs 400 billion but for piracy.

But he felt that the country had adequate laws and there was need for better implementation. He also said broadband would become a major game changer and would augment broadcasting. He said rural India offered a lot of untapped opportunities.

CII National Committee on M & E Chairman Amit Khanna regretted that the stars took away a sizeable chunk of the budget of every film.

IMI President Vijay Lazarus regretted that though the consumption of music had increased manifold, only seven per cent was being monetised because of rampant piracy.