Independent regulator for entertainment on cards

The information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry is all set to introduce a bill for independent regulator for the entertainment industry. S Jaipal Reddy, I&B minister, announced it at the inaugural session of FRAMES 2005 in Mumbai today.

"The UPA government is committed to the growth of the entertainment sector and we are going to table a bill relating to the regulatory authority in the next monsoon session," he said.

This statement was made against a string of appeals made to the government on behalf of the different sections of the entertainment industry on the first day of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) organised business convention of entertainment.

Subhash Chandra, chairman of Zee Telefilms, expressed his discontent over the regulatory framework and asked for a level playing field with global media players.

Reddy also said that the terrestrial satellite broadcaster- Doordarshan's DTH (direct-to-home) venture is the first of its kind in the world offering currently 33 free to air channels which would be 50 by July 2005.

The minister assured that the government is all for co-existence of local and international players in the broadcasting industry.

Veteran film director Yash Chopra, chairman of the Ficci entertainment committee appealed to the government to appoint a committee such as the one for value-added tax (VAT) to rationalise different entertainment tax structure in different states.

He also added that the imposition of fringe benefit tax on the film industry is more likely to do harm than good. The imposition of fringe benefit tax for the film industry would mean that every film maker would have to pay tax to the government on every outdoor location shoot.

The film industry also requested for a single window clearance for permission to shoot foreign films in India.

The three-day event also witnessed the release of PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the Indian entertainment industry.

The report forecasts that the entertainment industry is growing at 18 per cent and will touch Rs 45,000 crore by 2009. The largest contributor to this would be the television industry with revenues over Rs 30,000 crore.

Animation and gaming are the two fastest growing sectors and India with its high skilled manpower and low cost has immense opportunities to make it big.

Mobile gaming, in particular, will drive the gaming growth in the country according to the report. The future trends for the industry include rise in the distribution platforms leading to digitisation of content and securing rights of content.

Fight against piracy was a dominant issue. International speakers such as Barrie Osborne, producer of films such as Lord of the Rings- trilogy and Matrix and Daniel Glickman shared the concerns of the Indian entertainment industry and called for a collaborative effort on this front.

Even the Union minister extended the government's unflinching support to the issue of piracy by stating that the government is all set to house a meeting of state information ministers on tackling the piracy issue and also formulating a stand alone optical display solution.