Every year in February, for nine years now, the movers and shakers of India’s media and entertainment sector have congregated at Ficci-Frames. Organized by industry body the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the event serves as an interface between the industry and the government and also the industry and foreign investors, apart from presenting excellent networking opportunities.

For journalists, analysts and others with an academic interest in the sector, a key feature was the annual report on the industry, which has, over the years, grown to become the definitive source on growth numbers and projections on each segment of the industry. For the past five years, the report was done by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Unfortunately for them, its sister concern, audit firm Price Waterhouse, got embroiled in the Satyam scandal as the company’s external auditors. The scandal broke on 7 January and Ficci decided to engage consulting firm KPMG to do the report this year just when PwC had nearly completed the report. Another ‘big four’ audit firm, Ernst & Young, would have been a natural choice as they used to do the report before PwC, but their audit firm S.R. Batliboi and Associates was also in a sense caught in the Satyam crossfire. 

From what our source at PwC tells us, work usually begins as early as April for the report that is released in February the next year. And since 2009 marks the 10th year of Frames, Ficci wanted an in depth report so in 2008, work on the report started earlier than usual. So how will KPMG, with just two months in hand, be able to do a full report?

Rajesh Jain, who heads the information, communication and entertainment (ICE) practice at KPMG, tells us that the firm has been separately working on updating their media report that the firm brings out once in 2-2.5 years. “We have been working on it for 7-8 months now, so we will surely be able to produce a complete report,” Jain said. The report will focus both on sectoral views as well as key themes emerging across sectors, he added.