Pakistan Video industry: Creating equilibrium through re-calibration of the roles and powers, for future commercial growth

Abstract

Pakistan's video industry is faced with existential challenges. This note present an industry overview through a practitioner's perspective and discuss both global trends and technologies in Pakistan's context. It goes on to make recommendations on how specific actions can transform our industry into an instrument of national power and commercial value. Key Points: Pakistan's video market is a combination of 100 million individual connections (TVs and mobile devices). This view is different than the regulatory focus on traditional TV Households Growth of our market is linked to a recalibration of the current regulatory frameworks. Pakistan should open its doors to foreign investments in content production & broadcast. Distribution segment of the video industry is its lynchpin. Nationwide distribution licenses with hybrid offering (traditional & OTT) are likely to be commercially successful in future. Pakistan must grow its video industry as an instrument of national power. For doing so, it must create a combination of foreign investments, indigenization of skillset and technology through industry-academia partnerships, and an enabling regulatory environment.