Asia Media Summit begins in Delhi from Thursday

Amid growing impact of digitisation on the media and entertainment industry, a two-day Asia Media Summit will be held here from Thursday that will discuss an array of issues including media business models in new era and emerging technologies in broadcasting.

The summit, being held in India for the first time, will be addressed by Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The theme of the summit is "Telling Our Stories - Asia and More" and will see participation of over 200 foreign delegates representing 39 countries including Pakistan and China. Representatives of international organisations including the FAO and UNESCO will be among those participating.

A "prestigious event" of the Asia-Pacific region which is into its 15th edition, it is being organised by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd.

The discussions will be around themes such as media regulation policies, should all good stories be commercially successful, new technologies in broadcasting and film industry to enhance story telling, media business models in new era and sustainable development stories.

While a pre-summit workshop was held on May 8 and May 9, the summit will be held on May 10 and May 11.

Officials said that media and entertainment industry in India was a "sunrise sector" and grew at 11 per cent in 2016.

They said total revenue was $20 billion in 2016 and is expected to touch $35 billion by 2021.

Citing a recent study, the officials said that the sector is expected to add around eight lakh new jobs in the next five years.

The total output of the media industry is estimated at 2.9 per cent of the country's GDP and about four million people are associated with it directly or indirectly, they said.

The officials said that creating a job in media and entertainment industry is estimated to create 3.6 jobs in the economy.

--IANS

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