Anurag Batra on The Immense Opportunities Created By the Combined Entity of Zee-Sony in Terms of Employment Generation, Advertiser Sentiment & Spending

One of the youngest media moguls from India, Anurag Batra is a serial entrepreneur and a mentor to many successful entrepreneurs. He is a man of many talents and someone who adorns many hats. Anurag Batra is also an author, an angel investor and a TV show host and the founder of the iconic exchange4media group and Chairman BW Businessworld group. Dr. Anurag Batra, Editor-in-Chief, e4m & BW Businessworld, writes on the immense opportunities the combined entity of Zee-Sony will create in terms of employment generation, advertiser sentiment & spending.

Russia finally invaded Ukraine on 22nd February, polarising the world into allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its own traditional allies of the Soviet era like Belarus. The cacophony of opinions and views on Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, which has been aspiring for a NATO membership, just turned shriller. Even as media professionals landed in the war zone, rumours and unverified social media posts began to confuse the actual situation on the ground.

According to Anurag Batra, polarisations are not only typical of geopolitics, where vested economic interests decide who takes which side. “We have been witnessing polarisations in domestic politics on ethnic or racial lines ‒ not just in India ‒ but also in the world’s oldest democracy, the United States of America. And information wars are preceding real conflicts, and then escalating them. Years of cultural and ideological conditioning supplemented with incessant fake news has often fructified into hardline opinions and strategies”, Dr. Anurag Batra explains.

Beyond the war zone and here at home, India is in the midst of a deep technological acceleration and is aligned with the world – and in some cases even ahead of the curve – in digital adoption across every aspect of life and business. Anurag Batra details, “Let’s look at some interesting numbers. The US retail market is the largest in the world, where e-commerce made up 16 per cent of it till February 2020, 20 years since retail went digital. In just two years since then, the percentage of e-commerce in retail has jumped to between 26 per cent and 30 per cent. Imagine an acceleration of that kind in just two years since the pandemic struck”.

Anurag Batra

Let’s also look at India, he says. “The country had 10 million retail investors, which has swelled to over 25 million in the past few years, driven by new-age apps such as Zerodha. Technology IPOs have seen great success – at least at listing – driven by these investors. India has recovered faster than any country in the world post-pandemic and I am sure we will remain on target to be a $5 trillion economy before the decade is out”.

If there are three words that describe the post-pandemic change in our professional and personal lives, they would be: Contactless, Collaboration and Compassion. India has embraced the 3C economy wholeheartedly – and we are seeing consolidation across the board driven by this new paradigm, Anurag Batra points out.

The media and entertainment sector are an important part of the creative economy. In my mind, the Zee-Sony merger is part of this move toward the 3C economy. The merger is a welcome development by all measures. Zee is a home-grown Indian company and its merger with a global heavyweight augur well for the industry as it is bound to drive consolidation and growth while bringing in enhanced investment into the sector.

“It is my hope that the merger will be approved by all stakeholders, policymakers and regulators, and withstand all legal challenges. This is essential if we have to grow the media and entertainment (M&E) industry. We need a broadminded approach across the legal, policy and regulatory framework to enable such a merger and acquisition (M&A) to pave the way for a lively and growth-oriented future for the industry. I also have a clear view of another perspective here. My belief is that financial investors should not suddenly assume the mantle of strategic partners”, says Mr. Anurag Batra.

If they want to see the creation of value for all stakeholders, they must continue to trust the management and board of the company while establishing appropriate checks, balances and governance controls. This is especially important if the management is always delivering spectacular returns. Strategic support and inputs would certainly assist the management but intervention, where none is required, is a surefire recipe for long-term disaster on the back of some misplaced desire for short-term satisfaction, Dr. Anurag Batra concluded.