MUMBAI: Star India?s English movie channel Star Movies will launch the ?Animation Domination? block from Monday to Friday at 7 pm next month.

The special block will screen animated titles like ?Rio?, ?Ratatouille?, ?Ice Age 3?, ?Cars 2?, ?Wall-E? and ?Finding Nemo?.

Star Movies will also premier ?Brave? - this year?s Oscar winner for the best animation movie on 25 May at 9 pm. ?Brave? is the story of Princess Merida, a spectacular archer, who goes on a solitary journey into the forest to change her fate.

MUMBAI: The Karnataka Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC) Summit and ABAI Fest 2012 will kick off on 8 December in Bangalore.

The two-day summit is organised jointly by ABAI, the creative industry association, and Karnataka state government?s department of IT, BT and S&T.

The organisers of the event have roped in HP as the platinum sponsor. With ABAI, HP is planning to have some technical sessions during the event.

Government of Karnataka principal secretary- Dept. of IT, BT and S&T I S N Prasad said, "We are committed to making the AVGC (Animation, Visual effects, Gaming and Comics) industry a major success with Karnataka as a hub. To this end we have announced the first ever policy and are collaborating with the education, technology and creative sectors to launch this initiative. This annual summit will help clarify and announce our plans."

The event aims at providing the creative community with opportunities to have discussions related to business, creative and technical advancements, talent development, show-casing projects, confidence building among investors, creating awareness among public and media about the industry, its future, policy initiatives, and benefits.

The event is expected to have national and international experts, creative people, technical people, Bollywood, "regional films" including Kannada films, businessmen, investors, supportive government officials, members of the academia and students.

NEW DELHI: Four schemes finalised during the Eleventh Plan by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry have now been shifted to the 12th Plan because of tardy progress in getting approvals of the Planning Commission.

Noting that the Ministry has failed to learn lessons from the past, the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology has exhorted the Ministry to look into this and ensure that the implementation of the schemes start during the first year itself or in the earlier part of the year so that the allocations earmarked for the year 2012-13 are utilised.

The schemes are setting up of a Global Film School; setting up of a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and Special Effects; National Film Heritage Mission under Film Sector; and an International Channel under Doordarshan, which could not be formally approved during the long period of five years.

The plan for upgrading the Film and Television Institute of India into a Global Film School had been finalised with comprehensive rationalisation and restructuring but it will now be included in the umbrella scheme of Infrastructure Development programme relating to Film Sector in the 12th Plan.

The National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and Special Effects and the Doordarshan International channel are now new schemes under the 12th Plan, while the National Film Heritage Mission is part of the Twelfth Plan new scheme as a Special Mission.

When asked about timeline chalked out for early approval and implementation of these Schemes, the Ministry has replied that the approval of new schemes involves a four stage appraisal-cum-approval process: in-principle approval; preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and preparation of EFC /SFC memos; appraisal of SFC / EFC memos; and approval by the competent authority.

MUMBAI: Riding on strong consumption from smaller towns, India?s media and entertainment (M&E) industry has posted a double-digit growth in 2011 but is lower than earlier forecasts due to the global economic slowdown.

The sector grew 12 per cent to Rs 728 billon in 2011, according to a Ficci-KPMG report that is to be released on 14 March at the media trade event Ficci Frames 2012.

"2011 has been a challenging year not just for the Indian M&E industry, or even the Indian economy, but for the larger world economy. While India is still expected to grow at a healthy pace, growth is projected to be lower than earlier expectations," the report said, while forecasting a CAGR of 15 per cent.

What is triggering this double-digit growth is strong consumption in Tier 2 and 3 cities, continued growth of regional media and fast increasing new media business.

While television continues to be the dominant medium, sectors such as animation and VFX, digital advertising and gaming are fast increasing their share in the overall pie. Radio is expected to display a healthy growth rate after the advent of Phase 3.

Print, while witnessing a decline in growth rate, will still continue to be the second largest medium in the Indian M&E industry. Also, the film industry had reason to cheer with multiple movies crossing the 1 billion mark in domestic theatrical collections and 300 million mark in C&S rights.

Ad spends across all media accounted for Rs 300 billion in 2011, representing 41 per cent of the overall M&E industry revenues. Advertising revenues witnessed a growth of 13 per cent in 2011 compared to 17 per cent in 2010.

Said Ficci Entertainment Committee chairman Yash Chopra, "2011 was clearly the year where digital technologies began to deliver on their promise. Digital film distribution has helped wider film releases and helped control costs. In television, the digitisation of cable will transform business models of all stakeholders and offer consumers more choice and convenience. Even as digital generates new opportunities, it also brings with it challenges that the industry must solve more urgently than anticipated."

2011 proved to be a year with mixed results in terms of growth across different sub sectors. The traditional media businesses experienced a slowdown compared to the trailing year, especially in the second half of the year. However, the new media segments like Animation and VFX, Online and Gaming businesses witnessed phenomenal growth rates.

Print: The print industry grew by 8.4 per cent from Rs 193 billion in 2010 to Rs 209 billion in 2011, lower than the expectation of 9.5 per cent last year due to the challenging macroeconomic environment and reduced advertising spends.

Television: The overall television industry is estimated to be Rs 329 billion in 2011, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent over 2011-16, to reach Rs 735 billion in 2016.

The share of subscription to the total industry revenue is expected to increase from 65 per cent in 2011 to 69 per cent by 2016. The TV industry continues to have headroom for further growth as television penetration in India is still at approximately 60 per cent of total households.

Films: With several high budget Hindi releases lined up across the year, 2012 is expected to sustain the growth momentum witnessed in 2011. The Indian film industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1 per cent to touch Rs 150 billion in 2016. The industry is estimated to be Rs 93 billion in 2011, indicating a growth of 11.5 per cent vis-?-vis 2010.

Music: While 2010 was the year of structural shift from physical formats to digital ones, 2011 provided users viable options of music consumption through different digital platforms. The Indian music industry achieved revenues of Rs 9 billion in 2011, registering a growth of five per cent over 2010.

Radio: Overall, the industry grew 15 per cent in 2011 to reach Rs 11.5 billion, compared to Rs 10 billion in 2010. Volume increases in certain markets and rate increases for the leaders in metros drove growth.

New Media: Digital advertising is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30 per cent from 2011-16; digital adspend reached approximately 5 per cent of total M&E industry advertising revenue in 2011. Growth is largely driven by increase in internet penetration and proliferation of new devices.

Animation & VFX: Animation, VFX and Post Production industry achieved estimated revenues of Rs 31 billion in 2011, a robust growth of 31 per cent over 2010. Growth was achieved on the back of increased contract work, higher VFX content in movies, 2D/3D conversion projects.

Out of Home: The OOH sector was hit relatively harder by the global economic slowdown than other sectors of the Advertising industry. The sector registered a Y-o-Y growth of 7.6 per cent.

KPMG head of media and entertainment Jehil Thakkar said, ?The Media & Entertainment industry landscape is undergoing a significant shift. Cable digitisation, the promise of wireless broadband, increasing DTH penetration, digitisation of film distribution, growing Internet use are all prompting strategic shifts in the way companies work. Traditional business models are evolving for the better as a host of new opportunities emerge.?

Added KPMG head of markets Rajesh Jain, ?Media and Added Entertainment landscape is beginning to change with national cross media conglomerates emerging and consolidation and deal making finally picking up the pace?.

Key trends and industry drivers

Growth in digital content consumption across media: Digital technology continues to revolutionise media distribution ? be it the rapid growth of DTH and the promise of digital cable, or increased digitisation of film exhibition - and has enabled wider and cost effective reach across diverse and regional markets, and the development of targeted media content.

There has been increased proliferation and consumption of digital media content ? be it newspapers and magazines, digital film prints, and online video and music or entirely new categories such as social media. Accordingly, online advertising spends have seen a spurt in growth vis a vis spends on traditional media.

Rise of new age user devices: Smart phones, tablets, PCs, gaming devices, etc. all form the foundation of a new wave in media usage.This is gradually impacting the way content is being created and distributed as well. Multiple media including TV, films, news, radio, music etc are being impacted with this change.

New age consumers adapting themselves to the newer technologies: As Indian consumers evolve, there is a heightened need to engage them across platforms and experiences. There is a greater need for integration and innovation across traditional and new media, with changing media consumption habits and preferences for niche content. Media companies today have no choice but to provide more touch points to engage with audiences.

Regionalisation: Regional television and print continued its strong growth trajectory owing to growth in incomes and consumption in the regional markets. National advertisers are looking at these markets as the next consumption hubs and the local advertisers are learning the benefits of marketing their products aggressively.

An ad revenue dependant industry: The average revenue per user (ARPU) for television, average newspaper cost for print and average ticket price for films continue to be low on account of hyper competition in these industries. Segments like radio and a significant portion of online content are available free of cost to consumers. Owing to this, the Indian consumer is still not used to paying for content and, hence, the industry players are sensitive to the impact of the slowdown which affects the budgets of advertisers.

Awaited regulatory shifts: Apart from the shifts in consumer preferences, company strategies and business models, one big change awaited for the next growth wave is the implementation of recently enacted regulations on digitisation for cable, implementation of Phase 3 and copyright for radio and the roll out of 4G. These shifts are expected to be game changers in terms of how business is being done currently and what could be the path going forward.

NEW DELHI: Concerned over the ‘unsatisfactory performance‘ of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in spending just over 30 per cent of its allocation in the first four months of the Eleventh Plan, a Parliamentary Committee has asked the Ministry to analyse the reasons for under utilisation of outlay scheme/sector-wise.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology dealing with the budgetary demands of the I&B Ministry in a recent report asked the Ministry to "gear up its monitoring mechanism" to ensure that the allocated funds are fully utilised and all the on-going schemes may be strictly monitored to keep pace with the expenditure. The Committee has also sought a report on the specific steps taken by the Ministry in this regard.

It noted that the overall outlay for 2011-12 had been increased by Rs 255.8 million over the Budgetary Allocation for 2010-11, which works out to insignificant increase of 0.97 per cent.

For the Eleventh Plan (2007-12), the Planning Commission had approved total outlay of Rs 54.39 billion. During a Mid Term appraisal, the outlay was enhanced to Rs 63.11 billion due to additional outlay for "High and Lower Power Transmitters for Jammu and Kashmir Border Areas" and "Commonwealth Games 2010 and Related Programmes".

But the Committee noted that the actual expenditure during the first four years of the Eleventh Plan was Rs 19.17 billion (Information Sector Rs 2.55 billion, Film Sector Rs 1.98 billion and Broadcasting Sector Rs 14.64 billion), which is just 30.38 per cent of the total Budgetary allocation.

The Committee noted it had expressed serious concern over inability of the Ministry to fully utilise the outlay in its Sixth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-11), and had pointed out that under-utilisation of funds is a perennial problem with the Ministry, which is an indicator of its poor budgeting mechanism and failure of monitoring mechanism to review the implementation of various schemes/projects.

In spite of that, the Committee noted that under-utilisation still persists under different schemes/projects in all three sectors of the Ministry. Besides inability of the Ministry to fully utilise the outlay, delay in approval of important schemes of the Ministry, as discussed in the subsequent part of the report, are areas of concern. The Committee, therefore, impress upon the Ministry to take steps to make the implementation mechanism more effective.

Referring to tardy implementation of schemes, the Committee said that this "clearly indicates that there are serious problems in the whole planning process which is not conducive for the overall functioning of the Ministry."

The Committee desired that the Ministry should work out a more streamlined approval system so that the situation of non-clearance of the schemes does not persist. The Committee recommended that the Ministry should take corrective measures so that the situation of non-clearance of schemes does not get repeated during the Twelfth Plan.

According to the Ministry, it had formulated 86 schemes at the beginning of the Eleventh Plan. However, the total number of schemes was reduced to 65 at the time of Zero Based Budgeting exercise undertaken by the Planning Commission in May 2007.

During examination of the previous year‘s Demands for Grants (2010-11), the Committee had noted that out of total 38 new schemes, 13 schemes were awaiting approval and out of 28 on-going schemes, approval for two schemes was pending. Thus in total 15 schemes were pending clearance/approval.

Having observed that delay in approval of the schemes was one of the factors responsible for under-utilisation of outlay, the Committee in the Sixth Report on Demands for Grants (2010-11) had asked the Ministry to work out a more streamlined approval system.

In spite of that, four important schemes of the Ministry, which include Global Film School, Setting up of a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and Special Effects, the National Film Heritage Mission under the Film Sector and the International Channel under the Broadcasting Sector were still awaiting approval/clearance even when Annual Plan 2011-12 was in the last year of the Eleventh Plan.

The Committee disapproved the way projects are being planned by the Ministry. All the schemes were formulated at the beginning of the Eleventh Plan and in the process four precious years were lost.