Owing to economic downturn the media and entertainment (M&E) industry has been cautious in taking investment decisions. Information technology (IT) spending by the M&E industry is expected to grow to Rs 1,440 crore by 2010, with a compound annual growth rate of 32%. However, Springboard's report, titled “IT in the Indian Media and Entertainment Industry: Emerging Trends and Opportunities” forecasts that the annual growth will slow down to 23% in 2009 compared to 30% in 2008, but will pick up again in 2010.

According to ITC Infotech head media & entertainment Bala K, “Usage of IT, especially across key functions spanning core content, enabling business applications and surround infrastructure support is essential for the M&E sector. These firms should target 20% to 30% cost reduction by rationalisation of hardware and software IT assets, supporting their multiple media properties. Initiative towards Green IT are also gaining prominence.”
Technology has influenced the entertainment industry in a big way, bringing in DTH and digital cinema. This has transformed content delivery as well as viewership experience.

Ernst & Young advisory services (technology, communication and entertainment practices), partner, Devendra Parulekar told FE, “IT plays an important role in the M&E sector as it is used in various segments. Consumption of IT in post production, distribution and digital companies is higher than film companies. For the television industry the entire scheduling is dependent on it.” Companies are increasingly transforming from production towards content creation.Investments in agile content and business application portfolio will be crucial for companies to grow rapidly in a competitive environment to monetise assets. Bala added, “M&E companies will focus on cost take-out propositions that can reduce total cost of ownership while transforming to the new media world.

IT spends are also foreseen in solutions that can help companies monetise their assets efficiently across multiple channels.” Ad sale systems, scheduling system, and traffic systems are some of the technologies largely used by the M&E sector. For distribution companies, customer relationship management and billing systems are essential whereas enterprise resource planning solution and accounting systems are critical for print companies.
“Most of these technologies are mission critical for the industry. Investment on these technologies will continue but will experience a different game due to recession. Industry players will negotiate with the vendors, systems providers, and software providers for the technologies with subject to the ROI calculation,” added Parulekar. Experts feel that digital content has dramatically changed the M&E sector.

“Digitisation is the new game in the industry that helps to reduce total cost of ownership. IT plays a huge role in digitisation as it has changed the consumption pattern of content. The print media realised that the eye ball of the consumers is shifting from paper to the internet so news was made available on the net. IT has transformed the music industry and has allowed digital distribution of films,” said Parulekar. Moreover, experts feel that in FY 2009-10 the M&E sector will see new applications and ways of building the business. Outsourcing will find its place in a big way in the M&E sector where production and printing practices will be given to a third party and content generation, distribution, etc, will be home grown.

The Indian economy is likely to recover much earlier from the impact of the global downturn than other countries, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank's governor, Mr D Subbarao, who however did not forecast the timeline for the same. Mr Subbarao, currently participating in the Group-20 meet being held at London, told a prominent global broadcaster that India could be an engine for global economic revival.

"India can be a growth engine. Not that India can recover ahead of the world. But when recovery starts, India's recovery is going to be sharp and rapid," said Subbarao. He further added that the slowdown has hit the Indian economy in financial and manufacturing sectors, and it is difficult to predict when the economic recovery will occur. However, India's financial sector still remains sound, safe and well-capitalised, thanks to the prudent policy actions initiated by the government and the Reserve Bank, the governor said. Major actions taken include the two stimulus packages announced by the government and several key interest rate cuts by RBI.