NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007: Session Wise Coverage
Given the kind of acceleration mode that both UTV (Animation & Gaming) and Reliance (Gaming) are in, the keynotes by UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala and Reliance Digital Entertainment President Rajesh Sawhney were eagerly anticipated.
Both, Screwvala and Sawhney did share some extremely insightful perspectives in a lucid objective manner.
Screwvala spoke about the right mix mantra that animation business would need to adopt, balancing both origination and services.
Talking about Animation outsourcing being quite more challenging than BPO, Screwvala shared that in this business, client briefs go far beyond the contractual obligations. “We also need to go up the value chain, Animation Outsourcing is going to be an interesting business” he shared.
Talking about the Origination (creating of original animation content for India and Globally) business, Screwvala shared that “We need to have our first â€?hitâ€? original animated TV series, and game. Hanuman as the first hit animated movie has spurred action in the animated movies space and there’s more in store”
Stating that original content creation has to have a 360* revenue generation model, Screwvala shared, “Ancillary revenues are getting integral and the origination business is about building brands and then building brand centric business models around the various revenue streams”
Putting down his list of call to actions,
Training: It has to be industry based and a road map has to be created for actual scalable training
Perception Management: The career options within the industry have to be known by the parents and students. We have to position the industry
Blanket Entertainment Tax Exemption for Animated features: Such a directive wont cost the government much but will go a long way in making this business all the more attractive and one would then witness a beeline for making animated features
Content Creators need to position themselves in a different way with Telcos and Operators: The industry has to collectively get together and put forth the point across that content is a pull factor for services and devices. It is not just something that contributes to a fraction of operator revenues. And we have done that in the Movie Business where Producers have dealt with Multiplexes and have put across the point about content being the pull factor.
Marketing and Positioning the Industry collectively: We need to identify two global markets and position and market the industry collectively
The bottom line is let�s strike a balance and let�s talk from a position of strength. The growing per capita income, 60% of audience being youth and the platform proliferation overall is going to create a huge spectrum of opportunities.
And financial capital will follow big vision, creative skills, and exhibition skills.
“Capital is a commodity, but Managing Capital is not”: Sawhney
Reliance Digital Entertainment President Rajesh Sawhney�s keynote address focused on the fast emerging opportunities and some of the demands of succeeding in today�s digital and interactive entertainment scenario.
“There is a huge domestic opportunity” shared Sawhney, “We have the most favorable youth population dynamics in the world. The digital entertainment and lifestyle scenario is changing a lot of things and one must realize that with a numerous opportunities that exist within this space, choosing the right business model is extremely crucial and there are no permanent successes in this space, the sands are always shifting and consistent performance, constant innovation based on consumer feedback is essential”
“New Media and multiple platforms is creating a need for new kind of competencies for creating content at a super fast speed” Sawhney pointed out.
Stressing upon other issues, Sawhney shared that, “Financial Risk Management needs to be learnt, managing IP in a co creation world needs to be learnt”
“Monetisation is a complex process. Capital may be a commodity but managing capital is not, I do feel that managing financial risk is crucial for all kinds of business models” he added.
Talking about IP and products, Sawhney spoke on the need to have IP centric companies in the ecosystem. “We need to have Indian Pixars, Indian Dreamworks, Indian Animation Yash Chopras. IP creation is a long cycle, it took Pixar 20 years, they had one single partnership but yet they delivered significant value for their share holders, because they delivered consistently”
“People are amongst the greatest assets, we need to see how many of us are willing to share wealth with creative talent in a serious way. We are predicting 10X Growth, but we have to find ways of addressing HR issues in terms of culture, retention and poaching of talent” said Sawhney.
“Last but not the least” shared Sawhney ” is that we have to focus on our marketing and distribution competency. Believe in marketing and create distribution for yourself” he concluded.