Case Studies on Media and Entertainment Industry – Vol. I

Edited by : Saradhi Kumar Gonela
ISBN : 978-81-314-1644-0
Price: $25  ( INR)
236 pages( Hardcover edition )

Change is all but evitable. As the technology supporting the media and entertainment industry evolves, companies operating in the industry, big and small alike, are required to evolve – last fate, call quits. Television providers were successful to some extent in defying the menace of internet. Contrary to the widely held belief, that internet would kill television, the broadcasters who have used the new technology and managed their operations in sync, have had remarkable success. The popularity of the internet however, has not been such a boon for all companies in this industry. The World Wide Web is not letting any of the old guards of the media and entertainment industry slip way. Internet is punching them on their collective soft spot – advertising revenue. Printing and publishing, television, radio and all other segments are competing with the enormous advertising platform of the internet. Furthermore, television, radio and print media content that was once exclusively available through subscriptions is now (both legally and illegally) just a click away. In effect, the click of the mouse is sounding death knell for the media vanguards.

Just consider these figures, in 2006, newspaper and magazine companies earned over $73 billion in ad revenues, in which around $49 billion was the share of newspapers (daily and weekly). The Newspaper Association (NA) of America reported that 2007 newspaper ad revenues were down 9.4% to $42 billion, the most significant percentage loss in the 50 years that the NAA has been reporting these figures. If that is the plight of one segment, one can imagine how depressing industry wide losses could be. And making matters still worse, internet is just one of the multitudinous changes in the industry. Far many changes are complicating the jobs of executives running the, so called, old economy companies.

This book, Media and Entertainment Industry Vol. I, captures many such dilemmas along with success and failure stories in the media business. Albeit the main intention of the book is to aid classroom learning, through debates and discussions, it can also be used by practising managers. Apart from keeping them abreast with the latest dilemmas at some pockets in the media industry, this book will also help them in understanding and adopting the best practices and also in avoiding the potintial pitfalls.