ITV

Category: Production House

  • Shemaroo Entertainment now brings Live Ganga Aarti on Shemaroo Bhakti app for the Devotees straight from Assi Ghat at Varanasi

    Shemaroo Entertainment now brings Live Ganga Aarti on Shemaroo Bhakti app for the Devotees straight from Assi Ghat at Varanasi

    National, October 1, 2018: In a bid to offer services to the Ganga devotees from the comfort of their homes, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, one of India’s leading integrated media content houses brings Live Aarti and online Ganga Pooja for its consumers through the Shemaroo Bhakti app. After receiving an overwhelming response during the live streaming services offered from Lalbaugcha Raja pandal in Mumbai, Shemaroo Entertainment takes a step ahead by bringing the devotees closer to holy Ganga.
    Assi Ghat at Varanasi is one of the sacred places for Hindus and derives its name from Lord Shiva. Given the fast-paced lives, Shemaroo is helping the devotees across the globe to connect with spirituality through technology. In addition to the existing services like Live darshan, online mannat, Prasad booking, astrology & panchang, devotional e-commerce products, online poojas, horoscope, users will now be able to offer online pooja services like Ganga Pooja, Brahman Bhoj, Pind Daan etc. through Shemaroo Bhakti app. Keeping in mind the ongoing Pitru Paksh period, Shemaroo is offering a unique facility to the followers of Hinduism where in they can offer Pind Daan and Brahman Bhoj directly from their mobile phones till 8th Oct through Shemaroo Bhakti app.

    Mr. Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., shared his thoughts on the association, “The use of technology and Smart phones in India has grown by leaps and bounds. Taking the advantage of increase in the usage of mobile phones, we at Shemaroo always offer our audiences with the best of services. Shemaroo has been in the devotional space for more than a decade now. Devotion is the most under rated category in India and we think India has got a huge potential to grow under this segment. Holy Ganga has been a part of our divine land for more than 80,000 years now and is an integral part of every Hindu’s spiritual journey. We are glad that we can provide services to the devotees of Holy Ganga through our Shemaroo Bhakti app and make their lives simpler and actually take them closer to their beliefs.”
    With the help of Shemaroo’s Bhakti app, Ganga devotees will also be able to enjoy LIVE Ganga Aarti from Assi Ghat Varanasi on their mobile and TV sets. Devotees will also be able to book devotional services directly on their phones. Shemaroo Bhakti is the latest offering in the devotion category by Shemaroo and it is a one stop destination for all the devotional needs.

    Devotees can download the app by giving a missed call on 8824022011. Contacts Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd: Shubhi Grover | Mobile: +91 9769331787 | shubhi.grover@shemaroo.com Avian Media: Udita Lal | Mobile: +91 7045644970 | udita@avian-media.com

  • SVF boss Mahendra Soni on Bengali TV biz

    SVF boss Mahendra Soni on Bengali TV biz

    MUMBAI: From film to television to digital, the Bengali entertainment industry has been one of the strong bastions in the country over the years. But it hasn’t been a hunky dory ride always. SVF, eastern India’s undeniable entertainment king, has played the role of a game changer for the entire industry. While its digital arm Hoichoi has completed its one year anniversary and the film and distribution business is creating new records, the television business still counts as highly important.
    Though the “Yashraj Films of the East” holds more fame for its film business, its television business has also fared well in the last decade. The big shot production house started its television content production in 2008. Since then it has produced many Bengali TV shows and worked with all three big broadcasters, directors and co-founders of SVF, director Mahendra Soni said in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com.
    Soni said that as TV works in a cycle, the number of shows on-air changes from time to time. While SVF started with two shows Bandhan and Durga, it reached up to eight shows at a point of time. However, the focus isn’t on quantity. Currently, they there are three shows on air, two with Star Jalsha, one with Zee Bangla.
    “We do television only when we have some exciting stories because our shows have been very different than the usual shows you would see on GECs,” Soni said. He cites the example of Potol Kumar Ganwala, one of its top shows, released a couple of years ago, which is being remade in Hindi now. Other than that, the production house has a number of shows which have crossed into other languages. Speaking about the future, he said there are five shows in the pipeline – two with Colors Bangla, one with Zee Bangla, two with Star Jalsha.
    The experienced executive of the Bengali TV industry said good stories prevail over everything and that there cannot be a particular genre which works better than others. However, he mentioned the entry of BARC into TV measurement has impacted TV content making in the last three years. Mythological shows and fantasy drama are being made in large numbers.
    “Television is very important because you can reach out to so many people at a time. It is a very different kind of storytelling and lot of pressure and competition which you love as a producer and storyteller,” Soni said.
    However, the production house is a little sceptical about reality or non-fiction shows. “Lot of great properties (in non-fiction space) have already been created by international companies. So, until and unless we get something exciting, we are not going to do non-fiction at the moment,” he commented.

  • Sony’s production house Studio Nxt to co-produce KBC 10

    Sony’s production house Studio Nxt to co-produce KBC 10

    MUMBAI: The 10th season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) is all set to see more involvement from its host channel Sony Entertainment Television (SET). The broadcaster is co-producing the show via its newly launched production house Studio Nxt along with rights holder Big Synergy. The show will be aired from 3 September, weekdays at 9 pm.

    SET business head and EVP Danish Khan said, “Sony Original is the sub brand of SET, Studio Nxt is another independent entity which is a production house to produce fiction, non-fiction, scripted, non-scripted and digital IPs.”

    He added that it is an independent production house that will cater to Sony as well as platforms outside.

    The show was kick-started with the campaign #KabTakRokoge, celebrating the spirit of resilience in people. Viewers can look forward to a special curtain raiser episode which will be telecast on Sony on 2 September at primetime.

    The network claims to have received record-breaking registrations of over 31 million within a span of 15 days. The show promises to be a visual delight for viewers with the use of Augmented Reality (AR) for the first time on Indian TV.

    Since Khan’s tenure at Sony as marketing head, KBC has always seen brainstorming for every aspect except the host. “Amitabh Bachchan was the best host in our mind from the day one. Since then, every year we have been trying to do something new, last year we had introduced the Fridays, Nayi Chah, this time we are coming up with AR to happen for any reality GEC in India. We have done huge investments and it is worth it,” he said.

    When it comes to the promotion of the show, Khan said that there is a lot of media explosion. He added that as there’s a lot of penetration of social media and internet, there is little to plan and more to create.

    The channel expects the ad inventories to be completely sold out within the next seven days. The show is co-powered by Vivo V11 Pro and Mahindra Marazzo while Aakash Institute, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, CEAT, Raymond and Syska Wires & Cables are the associate sponsors.

  • Eros International Plc Announces Full and Final Dismissal of Class Action Lawsuit

    Eros International Plc Announces Full and Final Dismissal of Class Action Lawsuit

    MUMBAI: Eros International Plc (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, today announced that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued a Summary Order affirming the U.S. District Court’s earlier dismissal, with prejudice, of the putative securities class action that was originally filed in November 2015 against Eros and certain of its officers and directors.

    Eros previously disclosed that, on October 23, 2017, lead plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal, individually and on behalf of the putative class, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. On August 21, 2018, the Court of Appeals issued a Summary Order affirming the District Court’s dismissal with prejudice.

  • Eros International Plc Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2019 Results

    Eros International Plc Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2019 Results

    MUMBAI: Eros International Plc (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros” or “the Company”), a leading global Indian film and digital studio, today announced unaudited financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2018.

    Financial Highlights:

    Q1 FY 2019 Highlights

    · Revenue of $60.2 million in Q1 FY2019 compared to $60.8 million in Q1 FY2018.

    · Reported strong Adjusted EBITDA(1) of $19.2 million in Q1 FY2019, compared to $15.8 million in Q1 FY2018, an increase of 21.5 % year-over-year.

    · Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 31.9% in Q1 FY2019, compared to 26.0% in Q1 FY2018.

    · Reported net debt of $186.8 million as on June 30, 2018, compared to $189.2 million as on March 31, 2018 and net leverage ratio of 2.28x. The net debt to equity ratio remains conservative at 18.9%.

    (1)   A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed within this release to our GAAP operating results are included at the end of this release. See also “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

    Key Business Highlights:

    · As of June 30, 2018, Eros Now worldwide paying subscribers increased by 248.3% year-over-year and 27.8% sequentially to 10.1 million. The Company is reiterating its guidance of 16 million paying subscribers by fiscal year end 2019.  

    · As of June 30, 2018, Eros Now has exceeded 113 million registered users worldwide across APP, WAP and Web.

    · Over the next year, Eros Now is planning to launch a stable of feature films, made-for-digital originals films and over 20 original episodic programs, all of which will be available exclusively on Eros Now to paying subscribers. Three original series, Side Hero, Flip and Smoke, will be launched in the next few weeks. Originals will feature popular names like Rohan Sippy, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Siddharth Anand and Pavan Kriplani in various capacities.

    · Eros Now announced a partnership with InMobi, a leading global digital marketing platform. The partnership will for the first time enable advertisers to directly monetise on Eros Now’s video platform.

    · Eros Now reinforced its mission of non-stop entertainment, anytime, anywhere with one-of-a-kind brand campaign ‘Bolo Kya Dekhogey.’ The campaign, which rolled out three television commercials, reiterates Eros Now’s leadership position in the movie category, offering its extensive movie library across languages.

    · Eros released 14 films in Q1 FY2019 (one medium budget and 13 small budget films) as  compared to five films in Q1 FY2018 (one high budget, one medium budget and three small budget films). This is in line with Eros’ strategy of developing its own intellectual property and concentrating on content-driven films rather than high budget star-driven films.

    · Bhavesh Joshi  (Hindi), Meri Nimmo (Digital release), Blackmail (Overseas), Haami (Bengali), Goodnight City (Bengali), Alinagarer Golokdhadha (Bengali) and others were the main revenue contributing films during the first quarter.

    · Reliance Industries Ltd (“RIL” or “Reliance”) completed its acquisition of a 5% equity stake in Eros at a price of $15 per share for a total cash consideration of $46.6 million on August 6, 2018.

    · On a pro forma basis including the $46.6 million equity investment from RIL, Eros’ net debt as of June 30, 2018 is $140.2 million and the net leverage ratio is 1.71x.

    · Eros formed a ground-breaking joint venture with V. Vijayendra Prasad, one of India’s top screen-writers and directors. The exclusive collaboration will build a quality content pipeline through joint development of scripts and production and distribution of films and web-series.

    · Eros also partnered with Phars Film, one of the UAE’s largest film distribution and exhibition networks. Eros also intends to partner with Pana Film, one of the largest Turkish film studios for Indo-Turkish co-productions.

    · Eros releases ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ in Turkey across 190 screens after over $45 million in box office collection in China.

    · Eros also has a distribution partnership with Central Partnership in Russia, which may open new markets for Eros releases. These strategic partnerships not only help Eros augment its in-house content production model, but also expand the geographical canvas for content monetization.

    Kishore Lulla, Eros’ Group Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated:  

    “We delivered a strong set of results this quarter, underscoring our market leadership, solid business fundamentals and continued growth in our digital platform, Eros Now.  As we continue to develop our digital offering and adapt to the dynamic global media landscape we operate in, I want to reflect on the journey we have taken so far. At our core we are, and always have been, a content company delivering premium Indian filmed entertainment to the masses with unparalleled distribution capacity. Almost 20 years ago, Eros developed the first vertically integrated film studio model in India. We combined premium content production and acquisition abilities with best-in-class international distribution reach. Over the last decade we have witnessed many of the major Hollywood studios make their entries into India. It is a testament to our content offering, brand strength and people that we have been able to maintain and grow our market share in the face of this competition.

    We are also proud to have one the deepest and richest Indian content libraries in the world. Over the last 10 years Eros has been responsible for 30 of the top 100 highest grossing box office films in India. We must not forget that even in the digital age, premium content is still immensely valuable. Our industry relationships spanning over 40 years allow us access to the best talent across the nation. Our library is constantly evolving and replenished every year with new and innovative content that appeals to all consumers.

    We continue to focus on appropriate budget films promising high IRR’s based on our unique portfolio approach. As we increase production across genres and languages, the stories we tell are driven and backed by pre-sale potential with reduced reliance on box office success. The real star of today is the story being told on screen. We are especially excited about our upcoming theatrical slate this year, in addition to our upcoming slate of Eros Now original releases.  Our content partnership with Reliance, new venture with V. Vijayendra Prasad and continued relationship with Aanand Rai are all instrumental to our future and will be keys to our success.”

    Rishika Lulla, Chief Executive Officer, Eros Digital who received the award for ‘Women leadership in Industry’ at the Times National Awards for Marketing Excellence, commented:

    “The continued strength of our digital entertainment offering was once again a significant driving force behind our solid start to Fiscal 2019. With our diversified and unparalleled library we continue to see growing consumer appetite for compelling content. We are excited to have the largest paying and registered users, beating our own target of 2 million every quarter to be at 10.1 million paying subs this quarter. Our new partnership with InMobi will also allow us to start monetising our 113 million plus registered user base while still being an SVOD model. Living up to our core philosophy of innovative and non-intrusive ad formats, we will also be experimenting with new concepts such as allowing brands to engage seamlessly with branded and high quality digital content.

    We truly believe that Eros Now’s extensive content bouquet will satisfy the insatiable appetite of our audiences and further enhance our commitment to be the source of entertainment with penetration in 100 cities across India. This is a significant expansion and with the best talent on board in our industry for movies and originals, we aim to capture an even larger audience with our upcoming star studded ‘Originals’ slate starting with ‘Side Hero’, the first ever Indian original comedy-drama featuring Kunal Roy Kapoor and directed by Rohan Sippy.

    India is undergoing a digital revolution which is further fuelled by Reliance Giga venture and other telcos bringing consumers a seamless connectivity experience, where  Indian OTT players are now leaving no stone unturned to lure the viewers to sign up. Eros Now with its matchless proposition of 52 weeks of 52 premiers across genre and languages is uniquely positioned to execute a wide distribution strategy with a library of over 11,000 films spread across over nine Indian languages. According to our proprietary data, the longest content format is the most engaging where the best movies on Eros Now gets viewed in less than two sessions and an engaged viewer returns at least three times a week, spending a minimum of 40 Minutes, making it safe to say that Eros Now is the best engagement platform.”

    Prem Parameswaran, Group Chief Financial Officer and President of North America, also commented:

    “I am pleased with our first quarter performance, highlighted by strong margin expansion, continued balance sheet strength and solid subscriber additions out of our Eros Now business. We believe the Company is now firing on all cylinders as our Adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion is at 21.5% and 587 bps respectively. This coupled with our conservative balance sheet with net debt leverage ratio of 2.28x has us poised for growth in the coming fiscal year. 

    Having reached over 10.1 million paying subscribers in Eros Now through the end of the First Quarter, we are confident in continuing to grow our subscriber base over the next few years, especially given our premium content offering coupled with the large Indian and global market opportunities.”

  • Contiloe Pictures’ ‘Vighnaharta Ganesha’, india’s first ever motion capture technology show completes one year

    Contiloe Pictures’ ‘Vighnaharta Ganesha’, india’s first ever motion capture technology show completes one year

    MUMBAI: Extensively winning hearts of audiences across the country, bringing alive the incredible story of the deity Ganesha, today marks a special day for Contiloe Pictures’ Vighnaharta Ganesha. Achieving a true milestone, the show, airing on Sony Pictures Entertainment, completes one year of being telecast and marks a landmark completion of 262 episodes today! 

    ‘Vighnaharta Ganesha’ showcases the journey of the deity Ganesha and presents a magical visual extravaganza with impeccable production design, costumes and ingenious audio-visual experience through Motion Capture technology. This technology helps replace the age old depiction of Lord Ganesha with an inert mask and bring alive the detailed life-like movements and facial expressions to the fore giving the viewers a delightful visual treat.

    Commenting on this success, Abhimanyu Singh, the Founder and CEO of Contiloe Pictures said, “We have always used technology to tell stories in a bigger and better manner. Using motion capture technology on a daily basis has been one of the greatest challenge and I am grateful to my team on planning and executing this huge task. Needless to say that the creative team at Contiloe Pictures has taken great pain in researching and telling us some fantastic untold stories about Lord Ganesha. I thank the audience for the love and appreciation they have shown to our show.”

    This magnum opus show Vighnaharta Ganesha is supported by a stellar star-cast that includes Akanksha Puri as Parvati, Malkhan Singh as Shiv, Basant Bhatt as Kartikeya and Anand Garodia as Narada Muni. This show reiterates the producer’s strength in telling some great historical and mythological stories to a new-age audience. Contiloe Pictures uses Motion Capture Technology in each episode, they have been the first production house in the world to use this technology on a daily basis, for 262 episodes straight within a year.

    “Our focus on identifying the future of Indian Television and understanding the need of bringing better technology has worked for us” adds Abhimanyu.

  • Shemaroo Entertainment Ties-up with TikTok and Vigo Video

    Shemaroo Entertainment Ties-up with TikTok and Vigo Video

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, a leading content powerhouse has tied-up with Vigo Video and TikTok. This association will promote Shemaroo’s Bollywood merchandise brand – Yedaz. Yedaz – Bollywood Madness by Shemaroo is the official Bollywood licensing and merchandising rights holder with a presence in more than 15 different categories like T-shirts, coffee mugs, coasters, mobile covers, cushions and other exciting product line-ups, Vigo Video and TikTok apps are renowned for creating, sharing and discovering short user generated videos. Both the apps are leading the top charts of Google Play store and iOS free app charts.

    In the first phase of partnership between Yedaz by Shemaroo and Vigo Video will see the audio and video content of Shemaroo on Vigo Video platform, followed by a presence on TikTok in the next phase. Consumers who login to TikTok and Vigo platforms will have access to a wide array of famous Bollywood dialogues and music from Shemaroo’s library of blockbusters. They can make promotion videos enacting the popular dialogues from epic Bollywood movies. In addition, the Vigo app will be promoted on Shemaroo’s social media and other media assets.

    For all the Bollywood buffs who expect some surprise, Shemaroo will upload  their exclusive and iconic dialogues which will be used as skins by audiences who participate in Yedaz-Vigo contest. The winners of this contest will win exclusive gift hampers from Yedaz along with exciting discounts and offers for purchasing exclusive Bollywood merchandise on Yedaz.com.

  • How Travelxp plans to conquer the travel space

    How Travelxp plans to conquer the travel space

    MUMBAI: Travelxp wants to travel far and wide. The Mumbai-based lifestyle channel, that has already seen a steady revenue growth for the last few years, now intends to grow by 30-40 per cent in the coming year.

    The network intends to expand to at least 15 more countries by the end of 2019 fiscal, and Latin America is one of them. The channel is already available in English, German, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian and Bulgarian, and Travelxp director Nisha Chothani says it will soon be launched in Chinese too by December 2018. The channel caters to the Indian local markets through its Hindi, Tamil and Bengali feeds. The plan also includes launching certain South Indian and Marathi languages as well.

    “Since our plan is to enter Latin America and Russia, we will be launching one of these two languages depending on which country we are in Latin America. Spanish or Portuguese language might be the one and then Russian as well,” said Chothani.

    All shows on the channel are original in-house productions and its content is divided into six main categories – destination, lifestyle, food, culture, nature and heritage. Audience analysis has found that shows about hotels or anything related to spa works well.

    When it comes to the growth of OTT platforms, Chothani feels it is just another medium of consuming content. “So today when we say that TV viewership is dipping, at the same time we see that all these OTT platforms have become a part of the apps on television, and that’s more like having one more channel on TV. So ultimately you are watching it on TV, whether it’s coming through satellite or internet,” she said.

    She added that when it comes to OTT platforms, Netflix and Amazon are also the channels that provide differentiated content and have more content than other players in the market. As far as the preferences of the viewers are concerned, they might consume daily soaps, movies, news or infotainment on digital as well, which is the same that you see on the linear television. “TV is just the medium to transport our content,” she added.

    While producing a show, in order to keep the viewers glued to their channel, it obviously takes a lot of effort for not by the broadcaster but the crew making the show. Chothani said that when they produce any show, five people are required to take up the responsibility as the amount of equipment that is carried by them is difficult for an individual person to handle.

    When it comes to the time and efforts made in making just a show, Chothani said that if it’s just the shooting for the program, it takes minimum 20 days to shoot at the destination. Pre-production and post-production take around four months and later the post edit part also consumes four weeks to set the ball rolling. “By the time we start identifying the destination, designing, what all you need to see in a destination, getting the permissions for the shoot to be done, getting 4K ready, where it takes the longest time, from ingesting a material to rendering an episode and dubbing the same in various regional languages, it is a long process,” she explained.

    Travelxp has had its content work in most countries. “Mauritius now wants to include in different packages, earlier, we were only in one package but now they want us in more than one package because they find people liking this particular genre in travel,” she added.

    The channel is all set to launch its new programme named 10 Days Cyprus. The story revolves around a normal traveller who visits a place in 10 days, shooting all the exciting things about that place, in a bid to make the viewer plan a holiday by watching the show.

  • Eros International profits up in first quarter

    Eros International profits up in first quarter

    BENGALURU: The Sunil Lulla-led Indian film and media company Eros International Media Limited (Eros) reported 25.3 per cent year on year (y-o-y) jump in profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 (Q1 2018, quarter, period under review) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter (Q1 2018). Eros reported PAT at Rs 59.95 as compared to PAT of Rs 47.86 crore in Q1 2018. On account of items that will be classified later as a profit or a loss, total comprehensive income more than doubled (up 1.31 times)y-o-y to Rs 100.91 crore in Q1 2019 from Rs 43.56 crore.Calculated simple EBIDTA for the period under review increased 48.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 93.33 crore (42.8 per cent of operating revenue) from Rs 47.86 crores (24.2 per cent of operating revenue.)

    Eros operating revenue in Q1 2019 declined 16.1 per cent y-o-y to Rs 217.93 crore from Rs 259.62 crore. Total Income declined 18.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 223.57 crore from Rs 273.36 crore.

    The company says in its earnings presentation that revenues during the quarter were driven by releases of Bhavesh Joshi(Hindi), Meri Nimmo (Digital release), Blackmail (Overseas), Haami (Bengali), Goodnight City (Bengali), Alinagarer

    Golokdhadha (Bengali) and others. Eros released a total of 14 films during the quarter, consisting of 1 medium budget and 13 low budget films  as compared to 5 films in Q1  2018, consisting of 1 High Budget, 1 Medium Budget and 3 Low Budget Films). TV and Others segment included satellite sales of catalogue films to Zee TV and others.

    Eros says that Theatrical Revenues contributed – 30.7 per cent, Overseas Revenues – 12.6 per cent and Television & Others – 56.7 per cent as a percentage of income from operations.

    Company speak

    Eros executive vice chairman and MD Lulla  said: “We have started the year on an excellent note on operational and strategic parameters. Our strategy of a content driven approach reflected in a robust green lighting process enabling us to de-risk our model. Our film content is deeply researched and evaluated for its revenue potential across platforms and markets by our business leaders, due to which we were able to again deliver margin enhancing performance in Q1 2019.

    The new JV kicking in with V. Vijayendra Prasad for Hindi and regional content and Reliance Eros Productions LLP for USD 150 million already in process is bound further boost our content strategy and reflect in our financial performance in the forthcoming quarters. The first quarter was marked by the successful releases of our films which contributed to the overall growth. Our strong slate across languages, active pre-sales and catalogue monetization of our films ‘ library further supported the performance during the quarter. Looking ahead, we have drawn a compelling line-up for the remainder of the year featuring high-potential movies such as Color Yellow Productions Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi, Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyan, the IndiaChina co-productions, Panda by Kabir Khan, trilingual Haathi mere Saathi and multiple other films across languages.

    Lulla further added, “As always, we continue to be a pioneer in industry innovations in catering to the changing tastes and preferences of the audiences. In this quarter, we released Meri Nimmo straight-to-digital on the Eros Now platform. I am happy to share that the film received a tremendous response from the audience and we look forward to launching more such films and originals on the Eros Now platform during the course of this fiscal. Along with it the roll-out of fresh and strong original content, makes us confident that the pace of subscriber addition for Eros Now will further accelerate, going from 50 to 100 cities and almost doubling the subscriber base to 16 million by end of the Fiscal year.”

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by the company

    Total Expenditure (TE) during the period under review declined 32.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 146.45 crore as compared to Rs 217.81 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

    Films rights costs including amortisation costs in Q1 2019 declined 29.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 90.15 crore from Rs 128.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Employee Benefits Expense in Q1 2019 declined 14.5 per cent y-o-y to Rs 13.54 crore as compared to Rs 15.83 crore in Q1 2018. Other expenses (OE) in the Q1 2019 reduced 63.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 19.15 crore as compared to Rs 52.84 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Finance costs in Q1 2019 increased 5 per cent y-o-y to in Q1 2019  Rs 19.5 crore from Rs 18.58 crore.

  • IPL powers 21st Century Fox’s international ad revenue

    IPL powers 21st Century Fox’s international ad revenue

    MUMBAI: At a point when Rupert Murdoch’s media empire 21st Century Fox is preparing to sell the bulk of its film and TV assets to Walt Disney Co (Disney), its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations. The conglomerate’s total revenue was up 18 per cent from $6.7bn to $7.9bn in the April-June quarter thanks to the higher content revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment and higher affiliate and advertising revenues at the Cable Network Programming and Television segments.

    Talking about the international revenue, Indian Premier League’s (IPL) contribution was mentioned. “Star India secured Indian Premier League’s global media and digital broadcast rights and, aided by the inaugural broadcast of the IPL, further penetration of its Hotstar platform and continued general entertainment growth, nearly doubled its profit contributions year over year,” the company said in a release. International advertising revenue which increased 55 per cent was led by the broadcast of the IPL at Star.

    While analysts were expecting 54 cents in per-share earnings on $7.55 billion in revenue, it earned 57 cents per share after certain items on $7.94 billion in revenue. Though the stock was unchanged following the release, shares of Fox have surged 62 per cent in the past 12 months in last one year.

    “As we move closer to combining our businesses with Disney and establishing new “Fox”, we are convinced that the paths we are creating for our iconic businesses will drive enduring and growing value for our shareholders,” executive chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch commented after the result. Lachlan Murdoch reiterated that news and live sports will underpin the profile of the new Fox in a call with analysts.

    The cash-and-stock transaction which is predicted to be closed in the first half of next year is awaiting the green light from more than a dozen countries, including China, Russia and regulators from the European Union, after winning approval from US regulators. Fox will retain its TV stations, Fox Business, Fox News and its sports channels after the sell.

    In such scenario, the three segments cable network programming, filmed entertainment, television boosted their revenue, and the first two improved their operating income too. The filmed entertainment unit which saw revenue jump some 27 per cent to $2.3 billion, the surge was driven largely by the success of Deadpool 2. Revenue from the cable division rose 13.8 per cent and accounted for more than half of overall revenue.

    Fox is still now locked in a bidding war with Comcast over the 61 per cent of Sky it does not currently own. While Comcast’s current offer is higher than Fox’s offering, it still has 46 days to revise its offer.