Poor show ; This sunshine industry has failed on many fronts and needs to do better.

It has been half a decade since Young India redefined not onlythe way it consumes content, but also what that content should be.But the industry is still looking at content in a linear fashion.

In 2007, projections were made that the Media and Entertainment,or M&E, Industry would be a Rs. 100,000 crore sector by the year2011. Well, 2011 is ending and we are at just Rs. 76,000 crore.People are calling Media and Entertainment the 'sunshine' industrybut we've done 11 per cent CAGR growth while sectors likepharmaceuticals, healthcare and even FMCG are seeing growth at 17-18% CAGR.

We need to understand the consumer and what he is consuming.

Do we really ask ourselves who our audience is? Do we really knowit well? Do we hear what it is saying or are we just following aherd mentality - where as soon as something new works everyoneclaims it as the next big thing to follow, mostly even withoutprobing why it worked first place. Young India wants content to bebeyond just entertainment - it wants a 360 degree experience.Content needs to be personal, Interactive, community and socialbased, offering immediate gratification across all the technologyplatforms they have adopted.

If we go segment by segment, then in the movies spaceblockbusters are few and far between. So what we need is much moreresearch and feedback, innovation, sharpening the art ofstorytelling and thinking of building franchises. While TV broadcastforms a big chunk of the M&E industry today, what has been the lastinnovation for the consumer on this platform? How will the broadcastsegment see scale when the biggest player enjoys just $50 to 70million profits in the largest emerging market in the world? Pay TVneeds to change the fortunes of this segment but are we reallyprepared for it? When Pay TV arrives, the consumer will be brutallyselective of his viewing habits and may demand commercial free andon demand viewing. That's a transition only mature and reallyfocused players can make.

A few things that can change the M&E story in India:

-Games, while currently ignored, have a huge potential with theadvent of Smart Phones, 3G, Broadband and Payment gateways ondigital. They can overtake the 100 year old movie Industry in lessthan five years.

-Mindset towards the small screen has to change. It does not haveto be a TV set and the delivery does not necessarily need to happenvia cable or DTH. What we need to create is content that offers a100% new experience and not just re-jigged linear TV shows & Movies.

-The potential of the Rural Market must not be underestimated.Rural folk learnt to SMS even though they were not literate, theyadopted DTH services which grew faster in rural areas than what itdid in cities but most importantly they have a growing agriculturalincome and more free time for content consumption.

-Content is usually brought down to 'entertainment' but the powerof innovative storytelling and strong creativity with effectivecommunication if used in sectors like education, career enhancement,healthcare and wellbeing can explode this nascent Rs. 76,000 croreindustry manifold. Traditionally we are not used to paying forcontent. Pay possibility is likely to come from kids and youth whichis a very circumspect audience - so what will be the offering?

-Audience Democracy has emerged as the most powerful tool, whichcan influence the fate of a product / service instantaneously. Itsword of mouth, user generated and most of all interactive and istherefore scoring big with young audiences.

-Franchise is a big hit globally especially cross-platform, butin India the thinking is not there yet.

My deepest regret has been that over the last decade all segmentsof the M&E ecosystem could have and should have worked together tocreate a sector of global scale, rich with IP's and a strongrecurring consumer base across platforms. That has not happened.

I will end by saying if we don't want to let the next decade passas this one has done, Media and Entertainment has to be part of the'India consumption story' and that's not a simple task as thegrowing consumerism is creating new pull for consumption but theindustry has not risen to the occasion. We should get our acttogether and walk the talk!

The author is Founder & CEO, UTV