The 13th FICCI Frames featured delegated across countries on Day1

The first day schedule showcased insightful sessions by delegates from various fields and industry, with media experts. Japan has been announced as the partner country for this year's event. Japan participates with a high-powered delegation comprising key stakeholders from the Japanese media and entertainment industry with a strong representation from the animation segment.

The 13th FICCI Frames started off with the Inauguration ceremony by actress Sonam Kapoor and dignitaries present on the dais ( Karan Johar Co-Chair, FICCI Entertainment Committee, Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India & Chairman, FICCI Broadcast Forum, Prithviraj Chavan, Honourable Chief Minster, Maharashtra, Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman, (Motion Pictures Association of America) MPAA, Jehil Thakkar, Head Media and Entertainment Practice, KPMG, Uday K Varma, Secretary, Ministry of Information &Broadcasting, Govt. of India, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Convener, FICCI-MEBC- East and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Secretary General, FICCI.) Johar, begun the session with welcome speech followed by the key note by Uday Shankar, who expressed concern at industry's lack of preparedness to transform or find new business models for the digital media. Shankar said, "With universal digitisation, he cautioned, broadcasting business models which are built on centralised creation and distribution of content and even a centralised advertising revenue model will come under huge pressure. He called for a clear policy to enable multiplicity of beams and splits that would be a powerful trigger of content and revenue opportunities."

Present at the occasion, Senator Chris Dodd, said, "I am honored to be here to celebrate with all of you something else that unites our two countries: movies. Like America, India is a nation where movies matter. And as in America, movies matter not only to the richness of your culture but to the vibrancy of your economy and the prosperity of the Indian middle class. He underlined the urgent need to protect content by saying that, "When content is stolen, 95 per cent of the people who contribute to the vitality and success of a film are adversely affected", said Dodd. Quoting an Ernst & Young report, he said, movie theft contributes to a loss of US$ 1 billion annually and threatens the jobs of half a million people.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra, released the FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2012; FICCI-Amarchand Lawbook and "Positivity: The impact of television on India' by The Indian Broadcasting Foundation on the Dais today. Chavan said that "the Maharashtra Government would protect any creative work that is within the framework of law and will not allow fascist elements to thwart creativity." He also assured the film industry that its concerns over policing on film locations, the high levels of entertainment tax and stamp duties was receiving close attention of the government.

Varma continued, "The Ministry will also provide assistance in training programmes and workshops to sensitize the police, judicial and administrative officials about the Copyright Act. We will aim at facilitating research on the effects of piracy, as well as the development and implementation of public-private strategies to combat piracy."

Varma also announced the Government's proposal to set up a National Film Heritage Mission to safeguard and salvage India's celluloid history by undertaking frame-by-frame picture and sound restoration of more than 2,500 films that are an important component of Indian film history. In Addition, the Mission, with a budget of over Rs 500 crore, would also look at constructing preservation vaults to international standards for archiving restored material, and for conducting workshops and training to further consolidate the processes of restoration, preservation and archiving. The (Information & Broadcasting) I&B Ministry have notified the dates mandating digital addressable transmission in phases, beginning with the four metros which will switch over to digital transmission on July 1, 2012. The entire country will go digital by December 31, 2014.

Putting forth a more pragmatic outlook, Jehil Thakkar, Head of Media and Entertainment, KPMG said, "The Media & Entertainment industry landscape is undergoing a significant shift. Cable digitization, the promise of wireless broadband, increasing DTH penetration, digitization 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."

The day featured Mark Hollinger, President and CEO, Discovery Networks International, who spoke about new initiative taken up by Discovery, as Discovery is entering the Kids genre in India and will be launching Discovery Kids in the second quarter of the calendar year. The channel will also launch in Indonesia and Philippines.

Speaking about India's growth potential and the impact of the digitisation drive, Hollinger said, "There is no other country where people emanate such a sense of optimism. I find that Indians are raring to go and win in the world. Mix that with Indians' appetite for information and entertainment and you get a fantastic environment to be in the pay television business. The fact that India is moving towards 100% digitisation presents an overwhelming opportunity for all of us. Digitisation of broadcast will make bandwidth usage more efficient, leading to wider choice for the viewers and newer opportunities for media companies. Digitisation means viewers will be more discerning and I predict that the programming with the best storytelling, compelling characters and stunning visuals will win out."

The day also features discussions on digitization, India- Japan partnership in animation, marketing, distribution and monetization of films, raising the power of digital distribution, challenge for the print medium in the coming decade, emerging business models and revenue systems in the online space, a debate on providing high quality entertainment experience, financing the media entertainment business and protecting copyrights, infringement in the presence of new trends.