Connect revolution

IN CONVERSATION

, who looks after British Telecom's (BT) media and broadcast operations in the Asia-Pacific region, is involved in keeping BT at the centre of the media and entertainment boom not just in India but in Asia as well.

In Delhi to share BT's expansion plans, Chatrath spoke to Shuchi Bansal on the company's prospects in India's burgeoning media and entertainment space

What's the focus of BT's media and broadcast arm?

We have established a fibre network (media network over IP) connecting the entertainment cities around the world. We believe that 80 per cent of the entertainment business is done in about 20 cities.

In Asia, we have connected countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and even Korea which is a market leader in animation.

However, India's importance is evident from the fact that we have already connected Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai through fibre. Clearly, India is our focus market since we launched our network here even before we've launched it in Europe (except the UK).

Why is such a network required?

Remember Mughal-e-Azam? It took seven to eight years to make. Today, speed is critical and films are made in six weeks.

In case the film is being shot in, say, Australia (how many Hindi films are shot in India these days?), the editing can be done almost simultaneously in a studio in Mumbai. The director could send his shoot/footage on our network.

But that's sent on a tape or a CD.

That's history. You waste 48 hours in just delivering tapes on a flight. The network allows content delivery in almost real time. Even before we set out establishing the backend two years ago, we talked to producers, entertainment and media industry experts on their pain points. They were basically speed and security.

What's India's importance in the media and broadcast industry?

We have reasons to believe that India will become a major outsourcing hub for the media and entertainment industry across the globe.

The global market for entertainment is huge and creative work could move to India. You have companies such as Adlabs and Prime Focus which will get editing, graphics, special effects work from outside.

Foreign films are doing phenomenally well and they need to be dubbed in Hindi and other Indian languages. They can go back and forth between Hollywood and Mumbai on our network. We are not just a delivery vehicle but manage the work flow for companies.

How many Indian clients have you got already?

We can't name them, but they are more than we can handle. The NDTV deal, where we deliver their feeds to two DTH platforms abroad has already been announced.

We could, for instance, work with DTH operators in India who want exclusive foreign content for their platforms. We could link it to their platforms. The same could be done for IPTV players. We could customize or reformat the same content for other media such as mobile TV or Internet.

UK has been the test bed for our services and hundreds of channels go though the BT Tower in London. We send channels to BSkyB, Echostar and ITV, among others. We are not into content or production. We are just the catalyst.