India wants platform fair play in digital content monetisation

MeitY MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar and I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra urge big tech to share revenues equitably with content platforms.

The conference was held on January 20 in New Delhi.

Disruption will be the new normal for all things digital, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in his special address to the e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference & Awards on January 20. COVID-19 has caused a big jump in the content consumption pattern of consumers and this disruption will be the norm going forward, the Minister said.

Echoing the concerns of the digital publishing industry over the way the digital economy and the economics of digital content functions today, Chandrasekhar said ad-tech platforms’ control over digital advertising revenues has led to deep imbalances.

There are certain issues in the way the Internet has evolved, said Chandrasekhar, where ad-tech platforms are controlling digital advertising revenues and monetisation of content. This has led to a deep imbalance disrupting the whole dynamics of content creation and content monetisation, the MeiTY Minister said.

“It leaves the small guy at a disadvantage which is not really the right thing for a country like India where we potentially have hundreds and thousands of content creators,” said Chandrasekar in his virtual address. He added that it was clear that at some inflection point the consumption of news in particular and content, in general, would swing sharply to the internet.

Delivering a special address at the Future of Digital Media Conference, Apurva Chandra, I&B Secretary, said that digital platforms should get a fair share of the revenue from the big tech platforms. Chandra highlighted the impact the traditional news industry has taken over the years and said “if it continues, it will also impact the future of journalism”.

The conference was organised by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) at Hyatt Regency, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi. The speakers included Tanmay Maheshwari, Chairman of DNPA and MD, Amar Ujala; Sukumar Ranganathan, Editor-in-Chief, Hindustan Times; Puneet Jain, CEO, HT Digital; and Paul Fletcher, the Australian MP who played a pivotal role in the formulation of the country’s media code.