Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation re-elects K. Madhavan as President

24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF) was held in Delhi on 31 Oct 2023. K. Madhavan, Punit Misra, I. Venkat and Rajat Sharma were re-elected as board of directors during the AGM.

The other directors on the Board of Directors of IBDF are: Rahul Joshi, Aroon Purie, N. P. Singh, Nitin Nadkarni, Punit Goenka, R. Mahesh Kumar and Gaurav Banerjee

The Office Bearers of the Foundation are:

• K. Madhavan, president-IBDF

• Rajat Sharma, vice president, IBDF (News & Current Affairs)

• Rahul Joshi, vice president, IBDF (Govt. & Regulatory Affairs)

• Punit Misra, treasurer, IBDF

In the IBDF Board of Directors meeting that followed the AGM, John Brittas and Kevin Vaz were co-opted to the Board.

IBDF also hosted a lunch in honor of Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Hon’ble Minister for Information & Broadcasting. Shri Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Shri Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary (P&A), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting also joined the IBDF members on the said occasion.

Addressing the members during the AGM, IBDF president, K. Madhavan said, “despite the ongoing geo-political issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle-East due to the Israel-Hamas war and accompanying economic volatility, the Indian economy in general and the Media & Entertainment industry, in particular, have shown extreme resilience”.

He added that “India has firmly embarked on a digital transformation journey with 868 mn broadband users in India, and within a year of launch, 5G services have been rolled out across 97% of Indian cities resulting in internet speeds going up by 3 times. Connected TV continues to grow with 90% of TV sets sold in India being smart TVs. 2023 will be a defining year for the Indian M&E industry with digital ad revenue expected to surpass ad revenue on traditional media”.

Madhavan also spoke about the Linear TV penetration in the country and said “with 900 channels, Linear television continues to enjoy an unparalleled reach of 900 million viewers and is the largest media platform in India. Unlike in other developed markets, there is significant growth potential for the Linear TV as one-third of households in India do not have access to television. It will require the collective might of the IBDF members to connect the left out 100mn households to our fold.