Capturing the changing face of Media & Entertainment

In its eighth year, Frames, has once again put together some of the best E&M minds to discuss the way forward for the industry. In the last few years, Frames has been one platform where industry heavyweights and government officials have chosen to speak on some crucial industry trends and developments.

It’s that time of the year again. Top professionals in the entertainment and media (E&M) industry are often careful on the appointments they have to make in the months of March or April. The reason: the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has chosen this period to organise Frames, the global convention in Asia on the business of entertainment. For seven years now, the event has brought burning issues of the E&M industry under the scanner that domain leaders and professionals -- national or international -- don’t want to miss.

In its eighth year, Frames kicks off on March 26, 2007, in Mumbai. The three-day event has once again put together some of the best E&M minds to discuss the way forward for the industry. In the last few years, Frames has been one platform where industry heavyweights and government officials have chosen to speak on some crucial industry trends and developments -- whether it was I&B officials first speaking about the revenue-sharing policy for radio in 2005 or visionaries like Subhash Chandra speaking on the take-off of DTH and CAS and their aftermath in India -- all of which are realities that the industry is dealing with today.

Continuing with its objective to bring government officials on the same platform as broadcasters, the convention would be inaugurated by Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Minister for Information & Broadcasting (I&B). I&B Secretary S K Arora will also address audiences at the event. He would give a special keynote address on ‘Regulatory Framework for entertainment industry’.

Some of the issues expected to be raised at the event range from the government’s decision to make mandatory the sharing of live feed by private broadcasters with pubcaster Doordarshan of events like cricket to taxation in the sector, to even the take-off of new distribution platforms like CAS and DTH.

The Italian ‘Job’

A key aspect of FICCI Frames 2007 would be the presence of Italy as a partner. HE Paolo Gentiloni Silveri, Italian Minister of Communications, is the Guest of Honour at the event and would in fact join in the inauguration of the convention.

The 80-member, high-powered film and media delegation from Italy would be led by Silveri. This also includes representatives of several Italian associations like ANICA (The Italian Film Producers Association); Filmitalia (Italian Movies Promotion Body) and Regione Lazio (The region of Rome which is located in the film industry cluster of Cinecitta) besides Confindustria. A special highlight will be the presence of Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini and Italian actress Anna Galiena.

Explaining why Italy is the ‘featured country’ this year, FICCI’s Amit Khanna (Chairman, Reliance Entertainment Pvt Ltd) said, “There is much that is already happening between Italy and India right now. In terms of availability of physical requirements like the locale, to favourable policies that allow the two countries to co-create, to even something like talent, Italy and India have a lot to offer to each other. Despite this, you don’t really see much on Italy and we think that this is a good time to change that.”

“With the kind of delegation that would be here, people can interact and you can already get the right contacts to look at Italy as a potential partner for JVs, co-productions and other such options,” added Khanna.

Frames as usual

The FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers Annual Report on Indian Entertainment & Media Industry is now a tradition with the two organisations releasing the report at Frames every year. Tradition continues this year as well and if the highlights of the report ‘Growth Story Unfolds’ is anything to go by, the M&E professionals have some more good numbers to look forward to.

The FICCI-Amarchand Mangaldas Entertainment Law Book will also be released at the inaugural session on March 26. A draft framework of Optical Disk Law formulated by a high-power committee under the aegis of FICCI will also be presented to the I&B Minister.

Sony Entertainment Television India is back as the Convention Partner of Frames this year too. The co-sponsor of the event is IBM and Moser Baer Entertainment will be the FICCI Living Legend Award Nite Sponsor. Other sponsors comprise Geo as co-sponsor for the TV Track; the BAF Awards sponsor is Autodesk; lunch hosts include Star Network, Zee Network and Radio Mirchi; plenary session sponsor is Radio City and co-sponsors are Media Flo and Rhythm & Hues studio; the delegate bag sponsor is Adlabs, Networking Cafeteria would be organised by INOX, Gala Nite is co-sponsor Reed Midem and Media lounge sponsor is Yahoo!.

In addition to this, the film track co-sponsor is Cinemax; session sponsor is XBOX 360; session co-sponsor is Nokia N-Series; session co-sponsors include IMAX, DLP Cinema, Graffiti, Sathyam Cinemas; and the supporting sponsors are E-CITY Ventures, Canada. The knowledge partners are PriceWaterHouseCoopers and Amarchand Mangaldas.