MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is patting its back for the digitisation success in India. Minister of State for MIB Rajyavardhan Rathore endorsed the growth of the media and entertainment industry and the benefits of digitisation.

In response to a question raised in the Lok Sabha, he said that digitisation has led to enhanced revenue generation in the industry as it enhanced benefits to consumers as well as transparency in the subscriber base. The government passed the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act in December 2011 for digitisation of cable television networks in a phased manner.

He also added “Digitisation enables efficient utilisation of the spectrum bandwidth and enhances the capacity to carry channels on the cable. The consumers get a wider choice of channels, improved quality of content and added services and the states benefit from lowered incidence of evasion of taxes. Cable TV digitisation has also given a boost to the indigenous manufacturing of set top boxes (STBs) and it also results in skill development & employment generation in digital environment."

Rathore cited the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) report which estimated the growth of the industry at Rs 1660 billion in 2018 from Rs 1473 billion in 2017, while the figure stood at Rs 1026 billion in 2014.  

Indian M&E sector has not only seen investments from foreign behemoths only but from large domestic conglomerates. In addition to that, the current digital wave is boosting the growth faster.