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| Changing Tracks in Media |
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The Media Track at the ILS 2008 dealt with the theme of how democratisation of content is changing the face of this industry. The panellists comprised Parminder Singh, Vertical Head – Technology, Google India, Anuj Poddar, Senior VP, Corporate Strategy & Business, Viacom 18, Paritosh Joshi, President-New Ventures, Star India, Ravi Kiran, CEO South and South East Asia, Starcom MediaVest, and it was moderated by Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Co-founder, Media2win.
 The panel took up issues covering the journey from media to multimedia. The over-used word “Convergence” was dealt with by the panel. Poddar expressed, "Convergence to me is one more platform to sell your products. People just tend to get lost in jargons.” Ravi Kiran said that consumers today are forcing the players in the media arena to re-look at heavy words such as this. “It is not about devises and wires. The consumer wants more experience, he wants simplicity," he said.
Joshi added that according to him, it was more of a time of divergence in the manner content is distributed rather than convergence, which is actually a "counter-intuitive” term. “It is more of a convergence of multiple- activity," he noted.
The moderator then asked whether convergence was only for the young people. “Is it because the amount of complexity that youth can handle is more?” he asked. Singh said, “One need not discuss about convergence. It was always there. When your life is seamless, that is convergence. Making information available at anytime without worrying about the device, that is convergence.”
An audience question about competition in media was tackled well by Poddar. “What catches my audience’s attention, what takes his attention away, what he chooses to do with his time, that is my competition,” he replied. Ravi Kiran added, “I have never met a consumer who has complained about choices. Fragmentation works well for them as no consumer in India understands more than 30 channels at a time, out of the 400 channels he can access.” He further added that this is an era of visual engagement. This experience can be satisfied by any medium - TV, Youtube etc. “Any company that delivers the same experience is our competition,” he said. Singh also mentioned how at present webisodes on Youtube and the like were fast catching up instead of episodes.
The panel then went on to deliberate on the concept of Return on Investment (ROI) in media. While Ravi Kiran was of the opinion that ROI should apply only to non-moving objects like factories, and not to concepts like marketing where “the moment you finish, it is gone”, and so return on objective is more important than return on investment, Joshi said that there can never be an objective without an investment. “Mere existence of a brand does not guarantee its respect and revenue,” Joshi added.
The panel concluded that “curiosity, collaboration, and conviction” were some essential qualities for a professional in the media field, and that the sector is in need of people with unique qualities and interests.
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