By Swaroop Banerjee

Live Entertainment in India and around the world, as we knew it, is over. The way we will consume entertainment in theatres, live arenas, sports stadiums or grand prix seats post COVID-19 will all change. Let’s please move on. Yes, I will touch upon how the 11000 Cr 15% CAGR growing live entertainment in India or the 1trillion dollar global game has come to a sudden halt, but I think every third person is already telling you that. Frankly, I am a little overwhelmed by this repetitive narrative of doom of how in the last 2 months stocks of public limited live entertainment companies have crashed, how music and sports festivals have stopped, how conferences and product launches will not be held for the foreseeable future, and this one is my favourite – how suddenly from being the hallmark of stepping out, we are being called the business of ‘mass gatherings’ or would you prefer ‘masked gatherings’?

I remember having made at least 15-20 calls to my artistes, crews and peers, as in the interest of the safety on our audiences, on the 2-3rd of March we called off our Holi Gig. Most others followed suit. We halted all ops in early March and the chances of getting back on ground before October/November looks grim, to say the least. I would foresee this needle further down to March 2021 for the larger acts. It would be grossly inadequate and unfair to put consumers, artistes and our guests at risk. We are in the business of packing in stadiums. Even with social distancing norms and every SOP for sanitization in place it will have to be phased. Who are we kidding? We hug each other, jump with joy, cry, laugh when our favourite teams score, or our favourite tracks played on stage. Live entertainment is alive and physical, and this is exactly why when the World is ready to follow a new normal, so should we.

Technology – It is no longer adequate to adapt to it, you better be adept at it, otherwise the new normal is not for you. When the holographic projection, 3D printing or multi live streams with built in VR interactivity or AR or even the google glass was new, most of the of the old world live entrepreneurs resorted to it as luxury tech. There was an affordable tech which day to day event managers used, as the cheap quality was profitable. Luxury tech was spoken of only if the client had the money. On the 5th of January 2020 I had authored a paper that started with the numbers of people that viewed Felix Baumgartner live on their screens as he jumped from space and went into how much Coachella makes through streams and a host of other examples, all the way to current day IPL. My data then, just before Covid 19 hit us, was already dated. We have had the tech for years now. Yes, it does get better by the day, but we have been livestreaming for eons. We just started doing it for free and doing it every day because the virus pushed us to.

OTT Subscriptions, films launched directly on digital and the rising numbers of average monthly users on social platforms are real time indicators of consumption that tell us how Live to Home is the new mid-term normal because everyone is online. It’s on us, put together tech like SuperM did for the first edition of Beyond Live, Supermoon, Global Citizen or my personal favourite iForIndia did with every superstar featuring in it. Jonty Rhodes is teaching us how to be fit, Sanjyot Keer is teaching us to cook up a storm, Shilpa is sharing her yoga routine and Shalmali is keeping us entertained through her singing. Have the consumers and fans ever felt so close to their demi gods before? That too, without having to pay for an entry pass. Their monthly subscriptions in most cases have them covered. A rare case of pay per view pops up here and there, like Naver that managed the 26$ average.

From a brand engagement point of view, I am amazed on how the essentials categories cashed in on this period and used every influencer worth their ‘salt’ to advertise. The most consumed live to home segments have been fitness, mental health, music, food, kids and education. It is extremely interesting to see innovations by independent musicians. Those releasing music now have the same field of play as their playback counterparts, because there are no releases. The digital field is for all depending on how one can play. Brands are paying for innovative influencers and the ones good at it are hosting their own masterclasses. And so, I am going to say, all is not lost. While most of my peers will disagree, pay per view in this particular category is here to stay.

This brings me to the stark reality of revenues. The first 3 quarters of this financial year will see an 85% or more decline in revenues as planned from on-ground. This will see the landscape take a paradigm shift. In an ecosystem that thrived on small to medium agencies, most will perish due to standing costs unless they collaborate or innovate. Corporate organizations will take the lead in showing the world that they can launch products and host conferences online, yielding lower revenues for event agencies. As for live IP players, while the last quarter and the first quarter of the new FY will bring hope, it will also take costs up dramatically. Venues will allow lesser seats and therefore lower revenues. Higher investments will be required keeping in mind sanitization and social distancing budgets. The organized segment will lead the new normal with the ability to invest. Global talent that was the headline act of 2019 will only be available virtually. Live entertainment owners seldom remember that they also produce live original content. That and digital innovations will keep them afloat.

Governments will be a large saving grace for an industry that employs over 60 million people directly or indirectly. 10 million livelihoods have already been affected and just in under two months 3000crs, wiped out. I commend the Event Management Association of India for having articulated this in their request to the various state bodies. While the industry still waits its turn at the grand table, relooking at taxation for a limited period, offering the hundreds of government venues without cost in a phase wise opening, allowing small venues to start off in the monsoons with stringent social distancing measures before the large ones are steps one would hope the government is looking at. Denmark, Dubai and a lot of countries have started drive ins, the Bundesliga is going spectator less if that is any telling of what the IPL might look like, for each student writing to me and the new start-ups asking for advice and the questions on the job market in the Live Entertainment industry. My honest answer is; the short worse term is over, there will be a mid-term with virtual and social distanced models, the long term new normal for this field will start arriving in the last quarter and we should all suit up. In the meantime, upskill, upskill, upskill.

-The author is COO and business head, Zee Live at Zee Entertainment. The views expressed are personal.