My media wish list for 2015

Santa Claus said goodbye yesterday and 2014 will do the same next weekHere then is my wish list for the Rs 91800 crore Indian media and entertainment industry in 2015 I wish that media and entertainment becomes a transparent clear and financially trackable business It is a nightmare to research this industry currently The financial data for private limited firms which should be available on the Registrar of Companies website is never there The site itself is so clunky and difficult to navigate that after three years and paying for several annual reports I have given up And am back to the the lsquobeg and borrow from friendly sourcesrsquo tacticConsidering that digital media is just about 3 per cent of the total industry maybe it should drop those chips and learn how to make money from print the most profitable segment of the industry and TV the largest PicThinkstockThe big broadcasters have joined hands to stop TAM from sharing data with media so TV audience data is a problem The Indian Readership Survey data is in limbo because publishers donrsquot like what it shows And boxoffice data is a mystery that only trade magazines that work in cahoots with producers to inflate figures can explain None of these lead to a very scientific or accurate analysis of this business If you wanted proper answers to questions such as mdash why does this industry offer such poor returns mdash then all this data is just the starting pointmedia owners and publishers should spend at least 10 per cent of their revenues on training editorial staff mdash reporters editors subeditors and others An army of welltrained journalists will do a world of good to the quality of journalism and therefore the quality of debates in India For instance if media was more economically literate it could have questioned the Comptroller and Auditor Generalrsquos calculations on the 2G scamMany economists have been questioning them This lack of literacy is true for legal financial and social issues too The Securities and Exchange Board of India recently came out with regulations for research analystsThere is some controversy over whether these should apply to journalists Maybe they should if a journalist is recommending a stock to a large section of the public on television or through a newspaper or magazine media owners and publishers learn to relax and take some of their own medicine Most media owners cannot tolerate any questioning forget criticism Newspaper owners are the worst of the lot say anything that doesnrsquot suit them and they will sulk for months not returning your calls or giving you any interviews Of the television owners a few are churlish Digital media owners are arguably as bad They have a sneery smirky attitude towards anyone who is not into new media And they believe that they have nothing to learn or to offer to anyone who makes their money from print or television Considering that digital is just about 3 per cent of the total industry maybe it should drop those chips and learn how to make money from print the most profitable segment of the industry and TV the largestthe Ministry of Information and Broadcasting MIB thinks hard about its role It is a policy maker and regulator both This is unheard of in most free media markets Add the fact that the government is one of the biggest advertisers through its Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity or DAVP This dual role and the conflict of interest has played havoc with media policy in India There is too much focus on controlling news and creative expression and too little on facilitating the business For instance pushing through digitisation giving infrastructure status to the building of broadband cable or film chains will be the biggest boost this industry can get This in turn will release pay revenues from the clutches of local cable operators and channelize it back to the creative industry a bit like what multiplexes did in filmsAnd many moreWish you all a happy 2015The writer is a media specialist and author Follow her on twitter at httptwittercomvanitakohlik