Digital Media Exchange: India ↔ Manchester

Welcome to Digital Media Exchange

Digital Media Exchange India-Manchester is building on the work by MIDAS to connect India with Manchester and hope this exchange will lead to:

• Connect the best entrepreneurs;
• Help findand build the right strategic partners and partnerships;
• Close the Deal.

Indian Companies in Attendance:

• Sabbas Joseph, Founder and CEO Wizcraft International Entertainment, India’s leading event management company with 12 business verticals and brands including:
• The globally-renowned IIFA Weekend and Awards,
• Green Globe Foundation Awards,
• Global Indian Music Academy Awards and
• The Film & TV Producers Guild Awards.
• Ashish SH Kulkarni, CEO Reliance Animation engaged in development, co-production and finance of Animation content.
• Sanjay Wadhwa, CEO AP International, the largest distribution of South Indian movies; owner of a digital distribution platform for South Indian movies and music and Blu-ray.
• Ashish Redji, Co-Founder Career Catalyst who has worked in the Indian Media and Entertainment industry for over 25 years. He is solution oriented helping companies wanting to come to India and be an IMP/Link in the eco value system chain. His approach is practical looking at how business can be done and move forward…rather than get stuck.

DME Aims & Objectives:
AIMS

• Connect the best entrepreneurs;
• Help findand build the right strategic partners and partnerships;
• Close the Deal.

OBJECTIVES

• Two way learning: Leading to business collaborations and deals.
• Collaborations: How Manchester companies can work collaboratively to benefit from India’s burgeoning digital industries and take advantage of opportunities brought about by new technologies;
• Showcase:Opportunity for Indian companies to showcase their products and services;
• Showcase:Offer Manchester-based high growth companies the opportunity to present their innovative products, creative talent and pioneering business ideas to Indian companies.
• Showcase Manchester’s creative and digital sector assets and as business destination:
• MCUK, The Landing, BBC and ITV Studios.
• Salford University + 100 other education institutions.
• Pop Music – The Hacienda Club;
• MCU and MC Football.
• Manchester is 2^ndLondon for Northern England.
• Model for other British Cities on Civic Leadership.
• Doing Business with India:Understand in detail the opportunity presented by the Indian market, how international relationships can improve performance and how to establish a market entry strategy.

Indian M&E by Numbers:

• Demographics:2 billion people, of who 572 million are under the age of 24 – India is currently the country with the biggest youth population in the world.
• Middle Class:Rising income levels and a growing middle-class – metros and 2^ndand 3^rdtier cities – India matters and presents significant opportunities for UK businesses.
• The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E)industry:
• One of the fastest growing industries in the country, generating $15 billion and growing at 15.2% per annum through its various segments—film, television, advertising, prints media and music among others.
• The industry leaders believe it can reach $100 billion.
• Growing Digitisation:
• Growing digitisation and media consumption are the most important drivers responsible for the growth of this industry.
• By 2020, India will have over 600 million internet users;
• over 900 million mobile users,
• 300 million wireless connections – creating a lucrative market for technology businesses with smart IP.
• Facebook went from 38 million to 85 million all on mobile;
• India will become third largest mobile App market by 2014 – India is the great digital story.
• Technology:
• Technology is also empowering a whole new wave of innovation and growth in industries as diverse as banking, telecom, e-governance, retail, e-commerce, professional services among others: Flipkart; Make My Trip; Hungama Digital Distribution.
• The end-focus is on delivering greater value to the customer.
• Role of Government: Soft Power of M&E
• The government is playing its role to give the M&E industry the necessary infrastructure and right policies to scale the India M&E sector to $100 billion.
• Recognises that leveraging the soft power of Indian M&E sector can bring innumerable benefits to the Indian economy.
• Deploying innovation in Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector and supporting a start-up ecosystem would propel us to achieve high M&E growth.
• The ongoing digitization will bring transparency and best practices in monetization of content. Innovation and technology will bring new ways to reach out to audience, cut piracy and fuel new growth prospects.
• In the media he said, there are two civilisation playing out – one in the physical and another in the virtual world. Government needs to respond the both.

Challenges facing Digital India include:

Monetising Digital:

• Challenge is to convert consumer to pay for content for Apps, Mobile Gaming, VOD;
• Innovation in micro-payment system such as Airtel Money, Vodafone’s M-Pesa; Pre-paid Wallets by online retail platforms.
• Growing Companies– supporting and building start-ups systems through incubators, angel investor networks and hubs;
• Filling the Talent and Skills Gap- how to attract best talent from India to work in the industry. The industry is facing a massive shortage of both technical and creative which can retard pace of growth and crumble businesses. Internal training is one solution in medium term but Schools of Excellence are needed in long term.
• Creativity and Innovation in Content– this is lacking in India.
• Need people who are disruptive to enter the sector.
• There is huge unmet demand for good quality, long format content at affordable prices for video viewership online.
• Video on demand – insights from developed markets for India as the catalogue, technology and broadcast platforms improve.
• Reducing Ad dependency and develop new revenue generating business models.
• Building Infrastructure and Facilities– Digital Cinemas; Digital Media Hubs. Bandwidth – this will be game changer for M&E, it is the new oil.

New Media:

• Innovation in the device ecosystem – mobile and tablets – for content providers, media platform owners and telecom companies.
• In the digital advertising market – creation of original web programming for digital consumer and the development of more innovative and ad engaging formats for brands.
• Companies need help with developing holistic and integrated digital strategies encompassing consumers, the enterprise ecosystem and channels to cater to evolving demands and behaviour of the digital Indian consumer.

Challenges for Manchester SME’s:

• Lack of awareness in India of Manchester’s Digital Story;
• Accessing the Indian Market
• Finding the right Partners

BFI International Strategy:

• India is 3^rdin list of priorities – USA and China; Europe and then others.
• India ranked 19 in between Norway and Belgium in terms of Film Economics for UK!
• Future weighting ranking India in 20 – bottom of the list just above Norway and Belgium!
• This despite the fact the India and China are the largest populations in the world!