At the 25th edition of FICCI Frames 2025 in Mumbai yesterday, FICCI Media & Entertainment Committee chairman and JioStar CEO-Entertainment Kevin Vaz urged policymakers to ease the regulatory burden on television broadcasters, calling for a “light-touch” regime that encourages innovation, self-governance and growth.

He said excessive regulation on linear TV has created “artificial price barriers”, preventing the sector from competing effectively with digital media. “Forbearance is something we have always advocated for,” Vaz said, emphasizing that a flexible framework rooted in industry best practices is essential if India is to achieve its ambitious media-sector growth targets.

Delivering a keynote at the Frames’ 25th inaugural session, Vaz observed India’s broadcasting segment contributes nearly 40 per cent of the total media and entertainment (M&E) industry’s turnover and remains central to realizing Prime Minister Modi’s vision of making India the content hub of the world.

“Broadcasting growth is paramount for the overall vitality of India’s M&E sector,” he noted, adding that collaboration between policymakers and industry leaders will be critical to sustaining momentum.

Celebrating 25 years of FICCI Frames, Vaz said the industry has moved from advocacy to action — evolving from satellite television to cable, radio, OTT, and the fast-emerging animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) ecosystem.

He recalled that the first edition of FICCI Frames in 2001 coincided with the Government of India granting industry status to the M&E sector, a milestone that unlocked financing, infrastructure investment, and risk-taking in creative production.

Highlighting current trends, Vaz said India remains a rare “AND market”, where both television and digital media continue to thrive simultaneously. He pointed to sports broadcasting as a key growth engine, with cricket, football, kabaddi, and esports driving record levels of engagement and multilingual content consumption. To sustain this surge, Vaz called for “ease-of-doing-business reforms” to make live broadcasting from India simpler and more globally competitive.

Vaz also underlined how regional cinema and OTT platforms have become powerful ambassadors of Indian creativity, citing global recognition for films like ‘RRR’ and ‘The Elephant Whisperers’.

Concluding his address, Vaz described this as a “golden era” for Indian media, driven by unprecedented creative energy, technology, and global reach. But he tempered optimism with urgency, stressing that the pace of change demands smarter policy alignment, better infrastructure and continued collaboration.