Business of Entertainment and Media attracts a lot of eyeballs, in fact more than its due share and that is the reason it front ends in current times in marketing some of the other business endeavours. It may not be financially the most prudent or efficient and yet it carries an overweight in terms of eyeballs. What is the enduring lure over generations and what makes it so popular? Content of course as we all know is at the heart of this business and we talk of this every time we discuss entertainment. Content is not something that is availiable off the shelf, whether it be written, spoken, on the video or integrated into a story. It has to be created and that creation involves ideas, writing, direction, photographic skills, story telling and presentation skills which then allow it to become a whole. This is true of content of any kind, whether it is live action, written content, a podcast, video or filmed content.This is the edifice on which the whole business of Entertainment stands. Some say distribution is also key and while I agree but its the basic content which has to be there first to distribute. We sometimes pay significant attention to the distribution and economics ignoring the other factors. It is in fact the excellence of the creative team which is key, as its creative vision is the soul of the content which as we know is at the heart of this business. How does one put a value to this creative excellence?
It’s clearly a very difficult task to discover value in a creative endeavour. It’s not a simple calculation of time and costs like any other input for the real value in this case lies in the eyes of the beholder which is the public or the audience. Also what pulls in the audience is also unclear. Is it the star cast, is it the story or the photography or the combination of all? Audience polls in recent times have been employed as indicators of audience acceptance but how reliable are they is again unclear. Besides these actions, putting a value to the artistic or creative endeavour is difficult. A good creative endeavour not only generates money but also can turn ordinary mortals into stars overnight. How does one put a value to that? That is one of the reason why economics of any entertainment enterprise is fraught with risk. Therefore we can have a windfall or we can be in depth of a deep crevice based on how we assess and price our content. India makes 1000 plus movies every year besides other video content and yet what is the success ratio? Very little despite the experience!
We probably are never going to be able to judge a true worth of a piece of content or for that matter a piece of creative art.For all the art conossieurs, this is a known fact through many centuries and should be true for other areas of artistic or creative excellence. There is always going to be an element of luck or probability as part of this process and if one is to be in this business then one needs to recognise the same. All good content may not be a success and all bad content is not necessarily unsuccessful. Though one thing is for certain, more investment as well as appreciation needs to go into the creative endeavours. Besides the stars, more incentive needs to be built for writers, directors, technicians who are the real part of a creative vision which is the soul of the entertainment business!!
Entertainment business has never been easy but always enjoyable. As one enjoys one’s next instalment, appreciate the creative rigour that goes behind it and if one does that, this article would have served its intent. Have a lovely weekend and stay safe!
eye on media blog 