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The bygone year of 2011 finished on a mild note for the media & entertainment industry of India. A few major announcements & decision made during the year sets the course for initial development for the industry in 2012.

As per the FICCI-KPMG report Indian Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry registered a growth of 11% over 2009 and touched INR 652 billion in 2010. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14% for 2011.

For broadcast & technology sector approval to mandatory Digitization of the cable industry made it to headlines for the year. As per the estimates and forecasts by industry leaders Government of India is to rake in at least Rs 55,000 crore in the next decade as tax revenue with the implementation of the digitization across India by end of 2014. This may also result in an organised and more transparent cable sector in India, which will also impact the bottom lines of the TV channels.

While for the radio industry, the biggest breakthrough was the announcement to unleash the third phase of privatized FM radio expansion. The new policy is to bring over 800 FM stations across India with the permission to air news sourced from All India Radio and increasing the FDI limit to 26% from 20%. The expansion is said to require investments of Rs 2000-5000 crore over the next 2-3 years.

Computing another success story was the innovation of “Aakash”, the cheapest tablet PC in world. Developed by DataWind Ltd. in partnership with IIT Rajasthan, the Human Resources & Development Ministry's is to deliver 10 million tablets to post-secondary students across India under its scheme National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). The target price of the 10 million units is Rs.1,750 per unit (USD 35).

Meanwhile, the Print industry didn’t witness much change with exception of Press and Registration laws bill being tabled in Lok Sabha which proposes to restructure the laws making entry of foreign magazines into the country "hassle free".

On the other hand the international media was buzzing with the sudden closure of the 168 year old tabloid ‘News of the World (NOTW)’ after the “Illegal Phone Hacking” scandal surfaced. People included the likes of celebrities, politicians, families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, crime victims, among others.

Indian M&E is expected to witness phenomenal changes in 2012 with the year already beginning with the news of Network18 and TV18 acquiring bouquet of ETV Channels and at the same time receive funding from Mukesh Ambani’s RIL Trust for subscription to Rights Issues!