Rising Awareness To Promote Steady Growth Of Media Asset Mgmt In India

The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry has started to accept the concept of media asset management, and is slowly, but gradually increasing its adoption. There are about 18 strong vendors that offer solutions for media asset management (MAM) needs of broadcast, production, and other media companies.

As the magnitude of media files that broadcasters have to manage on a regular basis increases, the need for applications that enable the management, acquisition, authoring and editing, deep indexing, meta tagging, querying and retrieving, manipulation, annotation and display, and repurposing of media assets also rises. This will be the most important driver for an increasing demand for MAM solutions.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, finds that the market earned $3.5 million in 2012 and estimates this to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent till 2018.

Indian broadcasters who have implemented MAM solutions believe that new adopters would be attracted to simplified and standardised solutions that would reduce complexity and enhance reliability. Increasing awareness for MAM among key decision-makers in the broadcasting segment will also bolster the demand for such solutions.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

Frost & Sullivan finds that the laborious process of digitising tape-based workflow that has to be done prior to MAM deployment is also seen as a challenge to market advancement. Nonetheless, digitisation of tape-based archive content tops Indian broadcasters’ agendas and will continue to do so for the next 24 months.

“Digitisation of a tape-based ecosystem in the Indian television industry has encouraged broadcasters to adopt file-based workflows in their production-supply ecosystem,” noted the Frost & Sullivan Digital Media Analyst. “As a result, broadcasters and content creators have an expanding file-based repository of video content. To manage, streamline, and repurpose such content, solutions such as MAM are essential. This represents a significant opportunity.”

However, the high costs associated with international MAM products, together with the heightened price sensitivity of Indian consumers, has encouraged local vendors to develop low-cost, customised MAM solutions. These frequently do not conform to standards used by international vendors and, moreover, lead to high industry fragmentation.

Frost & Sullivan’s analysis finds that while there are several local vendors burgeoning to cater to MAM requirements among broadcasters, there continues to be a higher demand for “tried and tested” solutions.

“In order to tap the potential of the Indian MAM market to the fullest, international vendors will need to collaborate with Indian system integrators to ramp up marketing and training on MAM benefits, without which end users will not be convinced of its value proposition,” concluded the analyst. “While international vendors stand to gain with critical partnerships with companies that can help identify specific client requirements, local vendors will have to increase their brand equity with an expanded product portfolio as well as customer enlightenment.”