Coronavirus pandemic estimated to decrease media and entertainment industry revenue by 16 percent, says I&B minister

COVID-19 in India has adversely impacted the media and entertainment industry and as per a report by a firm, it is estimated that the pandemic would decrease this industry's revenue by 16 percent, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said that while the government has not announced any package specific for the Indian film and television industry, relief packages already announced by way of loan restructuring plans and special relief package for MSME sector, may benefit it also."The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted media and entertainment Industry. As per CRISIL report, it is estimated that COVID-19 pandemic would decrease Indian media and entertainment industry's revenue by 16 percent," Javadekar said.He also said that the government has released guiding principle and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for media production activities to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.[caption id="attachment_8831281" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. Image from Twitter[/caption]Responding to another question, he said the government has launched a fortnightly magazine titled New India Samachar enumerating the people-centric schemes of the government in order to reinforce the message disseminated through different media.The first issue of the magazine was released for the fortnight 15-31 August, Javadekar said.To another question on whether the government has the power under requisite provisions to forbid the media channels from holding “media trials” of sub-judice matters, Javadekar said all programmes and advertisements telecast on private satellite TV channels are regulated in accordance with the Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and the Rules framed thereunder.The government takes action in cases where programme and advertising codes are found to be violated by the private TV channels, including issuance of advisory, warning, running an apology scroll and in extreme cases, directing the channel to be off air for a certain time duration, he said.During the last 10 years and current year, there have been 35 instances where private satellite TV channels were asked to prohibit transmission of telecasting content in violation of the Programme Code for the period ranging from one day to thirty days, Javadekar said.