The first day at [tag]FICCI Frames[/tag]. I attended most of the television sessions that took place. The first was on the "Regulatory Freamework in the Entertainment Industry" – an interesting topic given the government’s desire to regulate, various Public Interest Groups deciding to act as ‘moral’ policemen, and the industry’s inability to work as one and put up a common front. The main presenters were Amit Khanna – who made an impassioned plea for the government to stop ‘moral’ policing, Kunal Das Gupta – Chairman of Sony Entertainment television, who pointed out that the Government’s policy deters choice by making it impossible for niche channels to survive, Philip Graf – deputy chairman of the British communications watchdog OFCOM – who shared the regulatrory approach in Britain, and SK Arora – Secretary I&B ministry who put forth the Government of India’s stand on regulation. S.K.Arora said that the Government’s regulatory policy was based on a 4 pronged approach: A) Provide consumer’s with choice at an affordable price. Within this:

– The model appropriate for Inda, according to the Government, was a mass volume low margin model

– ‘must provide’ ‘must distribute’ model as opposed to one based on exclusivity

– Channels must provide content on a ‘non-discriminatory’ basis

– Any network must provide channels to all platforms, it is the variety of platforms that will provide the choice

B) Inducing & Facilitating investments, both domestic and foreign C) Providing level playing field across the board D) Support the Industry to go global While the Government’s intentions are laudable – and I think that they are acting in what they think is ‘public interest’ – and i don’t have issues with their overall goals, there is something particularly lopsided about the way policy number 1 " consumer choice’ is being implemented. Currently as per CAS guidelines, every pay channel that is being delivered to the home can charge a maximum MRP of Rs. 5. If toothpaste was priced the same way that television is …. then we will all be using vicco vajradanti. The whole point of consumer choice is that we choose to buy everything at different prices and we as individuals figure if something is worth the price or not. And, the whole point of being a business is that we choose to make samething that we sell at a particular price and it is upto the business to figure if it wants little money from lots of people, or lots of money from a few people. It is, therefore, upto the consumer and the business to figure out whether a product sold at a particular price makes sense or not. Whether i want to buy a movie channel at Rs.30 a month and see 30 films or see a movie once a week on a GE channel and pay Rs. 5 per month. And, let’s face facts — content requires money to make, and if channels and content creators to invest in different types of content that offer consumer ‘choice’ then the revenue models need to commensurate with the risks taken. Otherwise evreyone will take the least risk path – and give us wall to wall soaps or reality shows and that is reall what is happening with television. But, in a certain way the solution lies not so much with the Government as the industry. If it, as a unified body that believed in itself and its growth pattern, provided a working solution to sort out the current mess – then maybe, the Government will not feel this tremendous urge to interfere.