The Evolution of Media

No, I am not writing a post on the rise of Social Media (not yet!). The recent producer – multiplex owners conflict made me wonder as to how important is entertainment to us. It suddenly made me think about the ever changing entertainment needs of human beings and the way we consume media today. Thus this post on the evolution of Media. These thoughts are not purely mine, as the person who got the ball rolling in the first place was a certain learned guy, and yes, I borrow heavily from him.

Here, I attempt to make the connection between the evolution of our societies and the evolution of our media.  The point I am trying to make is that entertainment is an evolutionary by product, defined by how changing social and economical conditions have led to changing media habits, as opposed to the view that only technology has been instrumental in changing the media space. The supporting argument I make here is that the evolution can be traced to the concept of leisure time.

In the Agricultural age, people worked by the day and rested by the night. Since agriculture was the main mode of commerce, most people had plenty of time free in the evenings. People came together to discuss important issues as well as entertain themselves. Community events were the order of the day and thus the art forms of dance, theatre, operas and folk songs were popular.

With the industrial age coming into being, the concept of working time changed. People were no longer restricted to working only in the day, as 24 hour work cycles with 8 hour shifts became the norm. The labour classes had work, but were essentially poor. Not just economically poor, but time poor as well. The luxury of free time was reduced and thus there was a need for the source of entertainment, which was not live, easily repeatable and cheap. Thus came about the evolution of Cinema, which came to be known as the poor man’s opera.

As people started moving from rural to urban areas for work, becoming tiny cogs in the giant machine of industrial revolution, distances from their hometowns increased. The desire to know about events around their homes, a desire never felt before owing to their proximity to their homes, suddenly erupted, which led to the invention of News, and with the printed word being in force, the steady rise of newspapers.

And as I jump into the information age, skipping the advent of the radio and TV, today we work not just in 24 hour cycles, but in different time zones. We are extremely cash rich but hopelessly time poor. The need for entertainment still remains with us though. We no more had the time to go to places to consume entertainment. The content became mobile, rather than the consumer. The path between content and consumer, which was defined by content previously, now, starts from the consumer. It is we who decide when, where and how we will entertain ourselves. We wish to challenge the dimensions of space and time to suit our needs. Entertainment is being dished to us today in our hands, through a zillion mediums and more.

Over the years, the content has undergone a fair amount of change, but essentially it is the medium which has seen radical changes.

With leisure time decreasing rapidly over the last 300 years, where are we headed now? Is the industry ready for the solution for the time starved, entertainment hungry, impatient, ruthlessly demanding consumer? If the evolution of Media is indeed linked to the concept of leisure time, will the evolving media be a step ahead of the consumers or will just try to follow and catch up ?

 

Producer-Distributor vs Multiplex standoff in India

All ye Hindi movie buffs out there, it is time to rejoice as the over two months long standoff between movie producers/distributors vs the 7 exhibitor chains(multiplex chains) has ended.

For those unaware of full proceedings, the issue goes like this: India has roughly 11,000 screens out of which around 800 screens are multiplex screens. However, the revenue share is highly skewed in favour of multiplexes which generate around 50% of overall theatrical revenues. As Vanita Kohli’s article in Business Standard puts it:

According to Prakash Chafalkar of The Multiplex Association of India, of the 11,394 screens in the country, 800-odd are part of multiplex chains. They sell tickets at anywhere between Rs 120-150 against the all-India average of Rs 30-50. Overall, theatre revenues accounted for 76 per cent (or Rs 9,700 crore) of the Rs 12,600 crore that Indian films made in 2008. According to Kapur, multiplexes bring in 55-60 per cent of a film’s theatre revenues, while the remainder comes from the 10,500-odd single screens.

Hence, the producers-distributors want a bigger share of revenue-share pie from the multiplexes now. Now, it’s a known fact the Mumbai territory brings in the highest amount of revenues for industry. But in Maharasthra, due to Government waiver, multiplex chains save all of the 45% entertainment tax — which goes into their pockets only. From the rest of 55% money, the revenues used to be split in the ratio of 48% for first week, 40% for second week and less than 35% for third week.[These ratios are valid all across India, not just for Maharashtra]. The reason for the standoff was that producers-distributors now wanted 50-50 revenue share for all the weeks.

In an analysis done on 18th April, IndianTelevision tried to gauge the financial impact of a long running standoff on both the parties. It estimated a loss of Rs. 850-900 million for the industry in case the strike lasted for over a month. Well.. the losses should turn out to be biggger now.

In a further analysis on 30th May, they tried to analyse both parties’ stands, jotting down pros and cons of their currents stands and ramifications of any potential reconciliation efforts. From the movie industry front, folks were more or less united with Aamir  Khan even going upto the extent of asking his fans to avoid his own movie “Raakh”, which was being released in single screen theatres.

But now, finally, the issue has been settled. “The final agreement with multiplex owners will give producers a 50% share of box office takings in the first week, 42.5% in the second and 37.5% in the third, with the final week yielding 30%. The settlement also allows for a 2.5% swing either way in the event the films make above Rs17.5 crore or less than Rs10 crore. In case of the latter, the films are released with at least 500 prints. ”(source: Mint)

Some people have been left over voicing over three other equally important concerns of the industry. First of these issues is Accounts settlement. Ideally, the producer should get his share of money within a week or two of the ticket sales, but multiplex chains usually take 2-3 months sometimes taking upto 7-8 months for settlements. So, even though as the Indian Media and Entertainment industry tries to scale up to global standards, the business practices still confirm to Unorganized sector behaviour.

The other issue is control over release strategy of movies. Since each print usually costs Rs. 60,000 to the distributor, Distributors usually want to release movies only in select locations so as to maximize their revenues. So, for e.g. release a movie in Cinemax Versova and Fame Lokhandawala but not in Mulund. But this would hurt the theatrical collections of buyer multiplex chain for its Mulund location.. Hence, the standard practice is to have buffet approach — either the producer/distributor has to agree to provide copies to all the screen of Exhibitor chain, or face zero presence in that chain. But then, in heat of the moment and mounting losses, probably no one bothered to discuss nitty gritties. [For more on these issues, you can listen to the podcasts attached to these articles on Mint (1 and 2).]

The final issue concerns with the quoted amount of theatrical revenues itself.

The real issue is not what the share distribution of the pie is, the real issue is what exactly the pie *is*. Many producers and distributors quote inflated collection figures in trade papers which are very different than what is actually being indicated by the multiplex collection feeds. This is not to speak of internal squabbles between the producers and distributors themselves once its time to split the presumed overflows. [via IBOS]

As far as my personal opinion is concerned, I personally don’t have a stand on this issue, except for the fact that single-screen theatres(which in turn means small towns and villages also) have been totally ignored out of this discussion, as if they don’t matter. Also, the amount of disorganization in industry is appalling and leads to loss of scale in terms of revenue potential, quality. After all, everybody in industry is here to entertain people and make money.. and if despite all these no-settlements or settlements, the industry continues to make pathetic movies and deliever flops after flops, the audiences will hardly care for them.

 

Hello MICAns!

In today’s world where attention rather than information has become the unit of currency, understanding Media has become more important than ever. This blog will try to serve as a showcase to the world what MICAns think about the medium and society around themselves.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to add something useful here. All MICAns there, you’re always invited to be an author here. Just drop a mail to me and I’ll add you to the authors list.

Cheers,

Himanshu Gupta