Industry will be taken into full confidence while framing media policies; I&B Minister Manish Tewari assures media and advertising fraternity

Industry will be taken into full confidence while framing media policies; I&B Minister Manish Tewari assures media and advertising fraternity

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Manish Tewari has assured the media and advertising fraternity that the industry views will be taken into full consideration while framing policies relating to the sector. Speaking at the International Advertising Association’s 1st IAA Leadership Awards function in Mumbai on Saturday night, Mr. Tewari listed out paradoxes associated with the media and entertainment industry – self regulation, skewed revenue model, imperfect audience measurement models, among others. He said “issues are contentious, no doubt, but if you delay decisions, situation will engulf you completely”.

Over-arching regulatory architecture
The Minister highlighted the need to create a statutory mechanism to address issues related to convergence across media, entertainment and telecom. He said “convergence across media, entertainment and telecom space, especially with digitization kicking in, is inevitable. Therefore, at some point in time there will have to be an over-arching statutory architecture to look into the issues.” He however said that the self regulation of the content remained the preferred option, but it had to be broad based and balanced.  Mr. Tewari said “freedom of speech should not extend to the right to offend and individual’s right to privacy must be respected”.
Digitization benefits
About the digitization programme of the government, the Minister said his Ministry is on course in implementing the second phase of digitization in 38 cities with million plus population. He said digitization, besides benefitting consumers in terms of better viewing quality, would also address the skewed revenue model of the media and entertainment industry by bringing in clarity about the customer base. He hoped, that would prompt the industry to observe limits on advertising time.
Mr. Tewari also mentioned about the imperfect model of audience measurement, and called for development of a ‘far more qualitative model’ to address the issue of television viewership.
The Minister presented the IAA Leadership Awards in various categories honouring individuals in the field of marketing, advertising and media. Veteran media professional Pradeep Guha, who was associated with the Times Group and Zee Network was inducted into the Hall of Fame, while advertising industry veteran Sam Balsara was honoured with the Media Agency Head of the Year award. In all there were 18 categories of Awards including Creative Agency Head, Best CEO, Media Person of the Year, best Editor, best News Anchor, Marketing head of the year in Banking, Insurance, automobile, telecom, FMCG products, travel and hospitality, among others.
The event was attended by more than 400 senior professionals from advertising, media and marketing fields from all over the country.

Annex-I
List of Award winners
IAA leadership Awards were given away in 18 categories at function held  in Mumbai on Saturday. The awards recognised and honoured “outstanding” individuals in the fields of marketing, advertising and media.
Advertising
Ogilvy & Mather Executive Chairman and National Creative Head Piyush Pandey was bestowed with the Creative Agency Head of the Year Award.
Sam Balsara was honoured with the Media Agency Head of the Year award.
Star India Executive Vice President Gayatri Yadav won the award in the Media & Entertainment category.
Marketing
On the client’s side, Chandramouli Venkatesh  of Cadbury India bagged the IAA Leadership Awards in FMCG-food and beverages category while Hindustan Unilever Vice-President – Arun Srinivas won the award in FMCG-Personal Care category.
Samsung Electronics CMO Rahul Saigal was given the IAA Leadership Award in Consumer Durables Category.
Vodafone Sr VP, Brand Communications, Anuradha Aggarwal bagged the marketer of the year award in telecom products & services category.
Asian Paints vice-president sales and marketing Amit Syngle won the IAA Leadership Award in household products & services category.
ICICI Bank Head of Marketing Sujit Ganguli got the Marketer of the Year award in the banking category.
LIC India Executive Director Rita Bhattacharya received the Marketer of the Year award in insurance sector.
Automobile sector awards went to Hero MotoCorp’s Anil Dua in two-wheeler category, Maruti-Suzuki COO Mayank Pareek collected the award in passenger vehicles category and Force Motors GM Cyriac Jacob won the award in commercial vehicles category.
Makemytrip.com marketing head Manish Kalra got the Marketer of the Year award in travel & hospitality category.
Bollywood star Salman Khan was adjudged the Best Brand Endorser-male and Katrina Kaif, Best Brand Endorser-female.
ITC chairman YC Deveshwar got the award in the best CEO of the year category
Media.
IAA had also constituted special six categories of awards for Editor of the Year that was won by Times of India Executive Editor Jaideep Bose. Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN was adjudged the News Anchor of the Year, while Media Person of the Year award was bestowed upon Hindustan Times Chairperson and Editorial Director, Ms. Shobhna Bhartia.
The winners were decided through a two-stage selection process; the first stage included nominations and short-listing by marketing, media and advertising professionals; and the final selection of winners was done by a voting process among the shortlisted nominees, by respective senior industry peers.  IAA has appointed A C Nielsen to execute the nomination and voting process. Ernst & Young has been appointed to conduct audit and validate the entire process.
PIB Mumbai/MD