Stephen Li, chief executive officer for the Asia–Pacific region for MEC, the media agency from the WPP Group, speaks in an interview about some of the key challenges facing the agency in India, including an impending government decision to restrict advertising time on air, and the changing role of media agencies. Edited excerpts.

It has changed quite fundamentally. If I look back to not so long ago, it took a lot of time for us within the media industry to break away from the fact that we were no longer a part of a creative agency set up. Media agencies were still, for want of a better phrase, a little apologetic. We were not used to the limelight because we were media departments. It took a long while for us to get over that and be confident. As media agencies we were terribly bad at asking for money and monetizing (our services). We are a significantly different business now from the one I entered into seven years ago. We are much more than just planning and buying. We are communication consultants, our realm includes content space, digital, activation, sponsorship. These days, I would be very confident in saying that for any client, the media agency partner is that client’s most important and most comprehensive partner.

The issue of talent is universal. As our business grows there is never going to be enough talent to satisfy the needs of the industry. The India-specific media challenges are more contemporary. All of us at the moment are debating issues like government regulations and what that means in terms of air time. The potential regulation that one is talking about is the one that restricts advertising to 10 minutes every hour. That could be a huge challenge. There is no definitive view about when that may happen. Current prediction is that it may even happen by the end of the year. Prime time television may be 10 minutes, pay TV may be five minutes. In other markets such as  Thailand where such regulations have come in, it has been a huge challenge for agencies. It leads to an inventory contraction, which means that the inventory is less than what the advertisers need. That leads to demand outstripping supply, and that not only leads to more expensive inventory for advertisers, but sometimes, and I don’t want to sound controversial here, but governments go into these types of decisions with the best intentions, wanting to create a better viewing experience for consumers, but actually one knock-on effect when you start reducing inventory at the channels is that their ad revenues can go down, which means quality of content goes down.

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