NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, OCT 31
The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation, a body representing television broadcasters in India, on Tuesday re-elected K Madhavan, Punit Misra, I Venkat and Rajat Sharma to the board in its 24th annual general meeting (AGM).
Incidentally, this is fourth consecutive term for K Madhavan, Country Manager and President, Disney Star India, who was unanimously re-elected.
- India TV’s Rajat Sharma and Rahul Joshi re-elected Vice Presidents
- IBDF also hosted a lunch in honor of Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister for Information & Broadcasting
- 2023 will be a defining year for the Indian M&E industry with digital ad revenue expected to surpass ad revenue for traditional media: IBDF President
Others on the board include Rahul Joshi, Aroon Purie, NP Singh, Nitin Nadkarni, Punit Goenka, R Mahesh Kumar and Gaurav Banerjee.
Office-bearers of the foundation include K Madhavan as president, Rajat Sharma as vice-president (news and current affairs), Rahul Joshi as vice-president (government and regulatory affairs) and Punit Misra as treasurer.
In the IBDF board of directors meeting that followed the AGM, John Brittas and Kevin Vaz were co-opted to the board.
“Despite the ongoing geo-political issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle-East due to the Israel-Hamas war and accompanying economic volatility, the Indian economy in general and the media and entertainment industry, in particular, have shown extreme resilience,” Madhavan said at the event.
“India has firmly embarked on a digital transformation journey with 868 million broadband users in India, and within a year of launch, 5G services have been rolled out across 97% of Indian cities resulting in internet speeds going up by three times. Connected TV continues to grow with 90% of TV sets sold in India being smart TVs,” he said.
Madhavan pointed out that 2023 will be a defining year for the Indian M&E industry with digital ad revenue expected to surpass ad revenue for traditional media. Pointing to the linear TV penetration in the country, he said that with 900 channels, linear television continues to enjoy an unparalleled reach of 900 million viewers and is the largest media platform in India.
“Unlike in other developed markets, there is significant growth potential for linear TV as one-third of households in India do not have access to television. It will require the collective might of the IBDF members to connect the left out 100 million households to our fold,” he added.
IBDF also hosted a lunch in honor of Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister for Information & Broadcasting. Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary (P&A), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting also joined the IBDF members on the said occasion.
