Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharati on Saturday expressed concern over the news media industry’s prospects of revenue generation via the internet platform.
According to him, even as the industry was looking to the online and digital platform for sustainability, online content accounted for less than five per cent of the total advertisement revenues.
“The print media organisations are not making money online. It is the morning newspaper that is still giving them money,” Sircar said here.
He, however, pointed out that the film industry has found a way out by way of selling rights on the digital platform.
Sircar was addressing a seminar on the future of the print and electronic media, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
According to him, the non-mobile online advertisement revenue stood at nearly Rs 2,000 crore in 2011-12.
Citing examples of increasing online and digital access for news, he said the number of internet users would touch 873 million in the country by 2017, as against a TV viewership of 496 million.
By then, Sircar added, there would be approximately 241 million internet-enabled smartphones.
He was of the view that the next major shift of viewership would be from fixed TV to hand-held devices.
> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in
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