2017 in Review: Hopeful of closing FY17-18 on a positive note: Megha Tata

Looking back at the year that is going to end in a few days, Megha Tata, COO, Business Television India (BTVI), encapsulates the major game-changing developments that happened in 2017 in the Broadcast sector that will have a significant impact on the business operations. 

The broadcast sector is witnessing strong growth owing to recent government initiatives and major developments such as Make in India, Skill India, Digital India and Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation. The Government of India’s initiative of digitising the cable distribution sector to attract greater institutional funding, increasing FDI limit from 74 per cent to 100 per cent in cable and DTH satellite platforms has had significant impact on the overall business. 

India’s media industry is the fifth largest in the market, witnessing a rapid growth. The Central Government, too, has introduced various initiatives like increasing the FDI limit and digitisation of cable to facilitate growth in the media industry. The implementation of GST is likely to have a positive impact on different media industry sectors such as television, digital and broadcasting. For example, consumers paying a service charge tax of around 15 per cent for all broadcast services pre-GST will pay a single tax between 18 per cent and 20 per cent, thereby reducing the overall tax burden on consumers. 

While the first few months will be challenging, long-term growth will help the industry to shift from an unorganised sector to an organised sector. 

In the quarter of demonetisation, broadcast sector was negatively impacted owing to traditional advertisers holding back their ad spends waiting for clarity to emerge on demonetisation’s impact on individual sectors. However, subsequent quarters have seen ad spends of major advertisers back to earlier levels along with some new category of advertisers like mobile wallets pushing overall ad spends higher than before. With GDP growth rebounding to 6.3 per cent in Q2 of FY 2017-18 as GST jitters recedes, broadcast industry is optimistic about ad spends and we are hopeful of closing FY 17-18 on a positive note. 

2017 – annus horribilis or annus mirabilis? 

The broadcast industry has struggled to attract viewers and generate advertising revenue. While consumers increasingly subscribe to online streaming platforms, advertisers too increased their efforts on digital and online media. Television channels are now focussing on restructuring their business models to better integrate programming with digital platforms. 

As for BTVI, we have witnessed consistent growth with an increase in our viewership base by 1000+ per cent in this past one year. We have launched new programming to highlight our core brand proposition. We undertook a rebranding exercise this year with a new dynamic logo and refreshing brand campaign. We continue to focus on our differentiated content and are increasing our market share substantially. 

In the general news genre, we have seen many new entrants in the past decade, which has led to the growth of the genre. However, that’s not the case with business news, everyone is eating out of the same pie, making it all the more competitive. At BTVI, we aim to provide most credible information to our viewers as we continue to reach out to recognised authorities whose thoughts and opinions matter to millions who follow them.