MUMBAI: The impending death of the television is something people have been talking about but that future is yet to arrive. However, one can’t ignore the fact that today’s audiences do consume content anywhere and from any platform.

Zee Melt 2018 saw a session on ‘The Next Seismic Shifts in Television’ with panellists Zeel domestic broadcast business CEO Punit Misra, Mediabrands IPG CEO Shashi Sinha and BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. Provocateur Advisory principal Paritosh Joshi moderated the panel.

When asked about the move to launch Zee5 as being a defensive strategy or a move to be at the front foot in the industry, Misra said, "Advertisers look for ROI. ROI on TV is significantly higher than any other. But it is a business of content and there is huge consumption happening on digital. However, if you do just digital, ROI can go horribly wrong.”

He added that consumers would find ways and means to consume content as long as it is great content. “I see the synergistic benefits of having an OTT platform which will benefit from the content that is being made for the consumers as they want and equally we will create content which is tailor made for the audiences. In fact, I am thinking of how to bring digital to television again,” he said.

Sharing his views on the path proposed by BARC to tackle non-TV screens, Dasgupta said, "It is all about how you measure content. Unfortunately, it needs to be discreet in this digital space. Although there is a convergence at every level, which makes it important to measure what India watches today now more than ever.”

Dasgupta further explained that TV ratings body BARC is moving towards convergence, where telecom operators are moving towards distributions and distributions are moving towards telecoms. “You’ll see convergence at every turn,” he said.

Sinha said that cost per thousand (CPT) as a currency for buying commercial time on TV has its own advantages. "I believe for a variety of reasons that CPT is a way of life. A lot of advertisers in the country use CPT and so too do agencies. CPT has multiple advantages. I presented a tool to a client that makes cross-media comparison much easier. For planning, CPT is there. But don’t mistake that for negotiations that happen. By and large, as markets evolve and as digital gets more share it is a matter of time where the agency and clients move towards gross impressions. It is happening.," he said.

The panellists agreed to one point that it is too soon to say whose future is brighter –TV or digital. But content will be the winner as people will consume content by any means and ways.

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