MUMBAI: CEOs of eminent TV channels at a discussion on The Future of Electronic News at FICCI FRAMES 2011 said that digitisation, brand building and pooling of resources are vital for future revenue streams in electronic media.

The panellists were TV Today Network executive director & CEO G Krishnan, Star News CEO Ashok Venkatramani, UTV Global Broadcasting CEO M. K. Anand and CNBC Awaz editor Sanjay Pugalia.

Krishnan put much store by digitisation of content to allow the viewers to watch a news channel of their choice and bringing down the carriage cost of news. Venkataramani saw merit in investment in content production and delivery for news breaks, rather than persist with the current practice of following the leads put out by newspapers and running them in news channels 11 am onwards.

“Brand building has to be an in-house effort, dictated by the needs of the consumer. This would go a long way in differentiating the product for the discerning consumer,” added Venkatramani. This was imperative in a scenario where there are news channels that are guided by considerations other than economic returns.

The panellists also spoke about the need for consolidation in a fragmented market, the need to capture the potential of a market of young consumers, free pricing and self-regulation to keep the intruders at bay.