Vanita Kohli-Khandekar: The shocking truth about Bigg Boss

It is probably the first decision the information and broadcasting ministry has taken on anything in a long time

The decision to shift Bigg Boss, Rakhi Ka Insaaf and other such TV shows to late-night slots is shocking. Not because it is either good or bad, but because it is a “decision”.

It is probably the first one the information and broadcasting ministry has taken on anything in a long time. The last really big ones were, arguably, in 2005, when foreign institutional investment was allowed in print and the downlinking guidelines were changed. After that there has been a lull. Once in a while there are committees appointed or a paper from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the things that hold back growth of the $17 billion media and entertainment industry. But nothing seems to get the powers-that-be as excited about policy-making as television content.

However, ordering Viacom18 (Colors) or Turner International (Imagine) to shift their shows to a 11:00 pm band is an easy decision to take. It wouldn’t take too much to implement once the legalities have been thrashed out.

Besides, these are soft targets. The really hard decisions — licensing the wild-at-heart cable industry, removing price regulation in television, clamping down on paid content in newspapers or on TV, or increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in TV distribution, among others — are the stuff the government has steered clear of. This in spite of scores of roundtables with the industry and some very sensible consultation papers from Trai.

Eighteen years after private television took off in India, there is no enabling regulation in place, except for the Cable Act of 1995 (a good piece of legislation). Even as the lack of cross-media restrictions allows regional monopolies to build up, the government is busy planning to spend taxpayer money on television ratings.

That is sad. Because the impact of even one good decision is unimaginably huge.

Take the film industry as an example. In 1998, films got industry status. Soon multiplexes happened. From 1998 to 2008, the film industry has grown over seven times in revenue size, average ticket prices have doubled, margins are more predictable and, more importantly, the Indian film business is clean as a whistle.

But it took almost 50 years for the government to take this logical step to facilitate the industry’s growth. The first time it was suggested that films be granted industry status was in 1951 by the S K Patil Committee. After that, several committees have recommended it, with no effect.

What would be nice is some urgency, clarity and a sense of priorities. For instance, there is a huge amount of regulatory focus on a Rs 1,500-2,000 crore news broadcasting business even while $3.8 billion (over Rs 17,400 crore) is lost every year because money leaks out of the cable system in India. Even at 30 per cent in taxes, that would bring in over a billion dollars (Rs 4,500 crore) to the state’s coffers.

One reason for this ad-hoc attitude is the nature of the business. Media and entertainment is one of those industries that regulators either like to control or are afraid to touch. The other reason is size. The Indian media and entertainment business brings just about 1 per cent of GDP against 7-odd per cent from IT. It is, at one level, peripheral to policy-making.

As a result, in spite of being one of the largest media markets in the world by volume, other BRIC nations beat India hands down on revenues and margins.

At 134 million TV homes, India is the world’s second-largest TV market. Brazil’s TV population is 40 per cent of India’s. Yet the Brazilian TV industry makes two times the revenues of the Indian one and more than twice the margins. China will end 2010 with more than 90 million digital TV homes against India’s 25-odd million because the Chinese government is funding digitisation, directly and indirectly.

By pushing these shows to late-night slots, the government has, after a long time, shown the will to take a decision on the media and entertainment industry. Here is hoping it takes some more on the things that really matter.

Vanitakohli@hotmail.com