Category: Regional

Viacom completes process of 50% acquisition in ETV channels from Reliance

MUMBAI: Viacom Inc, which received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to acquire 50 per cent equity stake in Prism TV for Rs 9.4 billion (approximately $153 million) earlier this month, has completed the transaction.

The transaction was completed today (31 July) between Nickelodeon Asia Holdings Pte Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., and Shinano Retail Private Limited, a company effectively 100 per cent owned by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited.

Prism runs five regional language general entertainment channels namely ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla and ETV Odia, all of which were recently rebranded under the Colors umbrella.

With this acquisition, Viacom Inc. will hold 50 per cent of Prism TV and the remaining 50 per cent interest will continue to be owned by the Network18 Group, Viacom’s partner in the Viacom18 joint venture.

Viacom18 operates 10 channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Colors. The deal gives Viacom a significant presence in the fast growing regional TV sector in India, where almost 60 per cent of the population of more than 1.2 billion people speak regional dialects as their first language. Collectively, regional TV stations account for the second largest share of viewing in the Indian market, behind only Hindi general entertainment channels.

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman said, “We’re thrilled to be broadening our presence in one of the largest and fastest growing TV markets in the world, and deepening our already strong partnership with Network18. This acquisition is an important step in building on our leadership position in India, a key market in Viacom’s international growth strategy.”

Network18 CEO AP Parigi added, “This acquisition by Viacom International Media Networks further strengthens the partnership with Network18 both in terms of depth and breadth. I am confident India will emerge as a global entertainment powerhouse in the year ahead.”

Viacom International Media Networks president and CEO Bob Bakish said, “Regional TV networks – and regional ad markets – are the next wave of growth in India. Having a strong national and broad regional presence gives us a powerful platform to launch additional brands, and introduce successful franchises and formats across India.”

Viacom18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “This acquisition is a big milestone for Viacom & Network 18 and it showcases their combined conviction to build a powerful broadcast offering for the Indian market. We are delighted by the transaction and the next growth phase for the companies.”

July 31, 2015
Q1-2016: Sun TV results sunny; PAT up 19%; ad revenue up 16%

BENGALURU: Despite being in trouble recently with the Ministry of Home Affairs over security clearance for its channels, the Marans’ media behemoth Sun TV Network Limited (Sun TV) reported 9.1 per cent growth in standalone revenue (Total income from operations or TIO) in Q1-2016 (quarter ended 01 June, 2015) at Rs 691.09 crore as compared to the Rs 633.58 crore in Q1-2015 and 26 per cent more than the Rs 548.58 crore in Q4-2015. The company’s advertisement revenue in the current quarter increased 16 per cent to Rs 323.89 crores.

The company reported 19.1 per cent higher profit after tax (PAT) in the current quarter at Rs 197.28 crore (28.5 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 165.64 crore (26.1 per cent margin ) in the corresponding year ago quarter. PAT in the immediate trailing quarter (Q4-2015) was 2.8 per cent higher than Q1-2016 at Rs 202.99 crore (37 per cent PAT margin)

PAT in Q1-2016 would have been higher, but for the operating loss of Rs 56.61 crore by the company’s IPL franchisee SunRisers Hyderabad in the current quarter. The company’s Broadcasting segment reported EBIDTA of Rs 465.77 crore (78.3 per cent margin) on revenue of Rs 594.54 crore in Q1-2016. The company’s EBIDTA was Rs 409.61 crore (59.21 margin) because of the negative EBIDTA by Sun TV’s SunRisers segment.

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 Lakhs = 10 million = 1 crore

All figures in this report are standalone.

The company’s subscription revenues continued to grow with cable TV revenue growing q-o-q by about 13 per cent and DTH revenue growing q-o-q by nine per cent.

The board of directors of the company has declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 (120 per cent) per equity share of face value Rs 5 per equity share.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by Sun TV

Sun TV’s total expenses (TE) in the current quarter at Rs 412.10 crore (59.6 per cent of TIO) was 1.8 per cent more than the Rs 405.00 crore (63.9 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and 56.3 per cent more than the Rs 263.74 crore in Q4-2015.

The company’s TE in Q1 includes IPL Franchisee of Rs 85.05 crore (12.3 per cent of TIO), which is a non-recurring item during the other three quarters of the year. Sun TV’s ‘Other Expenditure’ (OE) is a major expense head that has changed q-o-q by a huge margin. OE in Q1-2016 at Rs 91.65 crore (13.3 per cent of TIO) declined 1.8 per cent as compared to the Rs 93.33 crore (14.7 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015, but was more than three times (3.2 times) the Rs 28.26 crore (5.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2015.

Sun TV’s Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in Q1-2016 increased 19.1 per cent to Rs 54.51 crore (7.9 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 45.77 crore (7.2 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and increased 4.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 52.16 crore (9.5 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

July 31, 2015
Raj TV y-o-y revenue up 3.4%: PAT down 60.5%

BENGALURU: South Indian television network Raj TV Limited reported 3.4 per cent higher net Total Income from Operations (TIO) in the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 (Q1-2016) at Rs 19.76 crore as compared to Rs 19.11 crore in Q1-2015, but 14.1 per cent lower than Rs 22.99 crore in Q4-2015.

The company’s profit after tax (PAT) in Q1-2016 declined by a massive 60.5 per cent to Rs 1.15 crore (5.8 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 2.92 crore (15.3 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and declined 56.3 per cent as compared to the Rs 2.64 crore (11.5 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

Raj TV’s simple EBIDTA without considering other income in Q1-2016 declined nine per cent to Rs 4.47 crore (22.6 per cent margin) as compared to the EBIDTA of Rs 4.92 crore (25.7 per cent margin) in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and was almost half (down 49.7 per cent) the EBIDTA in Q4-2015 of Rs 8.89 crore (38.7 per cent of TIO).

The company’s Total Expenditure (TE) in Q1-2016 at Rs 16.90 crore (85.2 per cent of TIO) was 14.2 per cent more than the Rs 14.80 crore (77.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and 23.3 per cent more than the Rs 13.70 crore (59.6 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2015.

Raj TV’s cost of revenues in Q1-2016 increased 17.3 per cent to Rs 7.30 crore (37 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 6.22 crore (32.6 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and was almost quadruple (3.82 times) the Rs 1.90 crore (8.3 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2015.

The company’s administrative expense in Q1-2016 was up 7.1 per cent to Rs 2.72 crore (13.8 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 2.54 crore (13.3 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and was less than half (57 per cent lower) than the Rs 6.33 crore (27.5 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

Raj TV’s employee benefit expense (EBE) in Q1-2016 at Rs 5.26 crore (26.6 per cent of TIO) was 3.1 per cent lower than the Rs 5.43 crore (28.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and 10.3 per cent lower than the Rs 5.87 crore (25.5 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2015.

Raj TV’s tax expense in the current quarter Rs 0.57 crore was 43.2 per cent lower than the Rs 1.01 crore in Q1-2015 and a little more than one-ninth (1/8.8 times) the Rs 5.09 crore in Q4-2015.

Click here to read unaudited financial result

July 21, 2015
Zeel expands into Odisha; acquires Sarthak Entertainment for Rs 115 crore

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) has acquired 100 per cent equity stake in Sarthak Entertainment Pvt Ltd which operates Sarthak TV, the Odia language general entertainment channel (GEC).

The acquisition will be from current shareholders of Sarthak Entertainment, subject to requisite regulatory approvals, as an all-cash deal at a consideration of maximum of Rs 115 crores.

With this, Zeel has entered the rapidly expanding regional market in Odisha. This acquisition further strengthens its already dominant line-up of regional channels.

Sarthak TV would complement Zeel’s regional bouquet of channels viz. Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Tamizh.

Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Sarthak as we continue to invest in tomorrow. The acquisition of an already profitable, market leading venture is going to be a value accretive investment in line with our philosophy of enhancing shareholder value. Sarthak will further add to our formidable bouquet of 33 channels in the domestic market.”

Sarthak Group founder and managing director Sitaram Agrawalla and Sarthak TV director Raj Thourani added, “It gives us great pleasure to announce that Sarthak will now be a part of India’s leading entertainment network. Being the oldest and market leading network in India, Zeel would provide the perfect platform for Sarthak to grow further in the future. With a history of successful operations, we are sure Sarthak will be a great value-add for Zeel.”

The channel has been successful in creating high quality content catering to the needs of local audience. It airs reality and non-fiction shows besides being the market leader in the fiction segment.

July 15, 2015
PMO unlikely to intervene in Sun TV case

MUMBAI: There seems to be no respite for Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV Network, as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is unlikely to intervene on the issue of withdrawal of security clearance to the 33 channels of the network.

According to a PTI report, the PMO is not keen on over-ruling the Home Ministry’s decision of withdrawing the security clearance given to Sun TV Network, on grounds of the ongoing criminal probes against promoter Kalanithi Maran and his brother and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

It can be noted that Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley had recently met the Prime Minister to take his opinion, after the Attorney General ruled in favour of Sun TV Network and the Ministry of Home Affairs decided to not budge from its stand of not giving security clearance to the Chennai based broadcast network.

According to the report, the key reason for the PMO’s unwillingness to get involved in the Sun TV issue is the CBI probe that the Maran brothers were facing over alleged allotment of 300 high-speed BSNL telephone lines to their installations when Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister.

Last week, the CBI questioned Dayanidhi Maran for 22 hours spread over three days in connection with the case.

July 7, 2015
Maa TV dominates Telegu GEC genre, Asianet stands out in Malayalam space: TAM

MUMBAI: Maa TV has maintained its dominance in week 26 too in the Telugu general entertainment channel (GEC) genre, despite a drop in viewership. The channel which garnered 616 GRPs in week 25 witnessed a decline and registered 545 GRPs. On the other hand, second placed Gemini managed to secure a slight gain as the viewership grew from 504 GRPs to 506 GRPs.

In Tamil GEC genre, Sun TV stood tall in the pole position with 1221 GRPs followed by Vijay with 346 GRPs.

In the Kannada region, Colors Kannada registered 403.9 GRPs and dethroned Udaya (401 GRPs) to grab the pole position.

In the Malayalam GEC genre Asianet again proved that it hardly has any competition. With 890 GRPs the channel comfortably sat on the fist position in TAM TV ratings. Asianet was followed by Mazhavil Manorama with 223.6 GRPs

July 2, 2015
Sahyadri Cine Awards 2015 felicitates artists and technicians of Marathi cinema

MUMBAI: The sixth edition of Doordarshan Sahyadri Cine Awards let no stone unturned when it brought under one roof the stars of Marathi film industry to celebrate work of excellence.

Powered Godrej Expert Rich cr?me the awards kept up with their tradition of an independent jury comprising representatives from film, critiques and senior film journalists such as film producer & director – Samruddhi Porey and Vidhyadhar Pathare, producer-director-senior journalist Ramesh Salgaonkar, senior journalist – Sudhir Nandgaonkar and Dilip Thakur, veteran Marathi actor -Maya Jadhav, retd. Doordarshan producer – Raviraj Gandhe and music composer and singer – Milind Joshi.

Additional DG – Doordarshan Mumbai Kendra Mukesh Sharma said, “With a spectacular range of Marathi films this year, the audience has been able to connect more with recent Marathi cinema. The Marathi films have managed to catapult themselves to an enviable position, mainly due to their novel stories and engaging narratives. The importance of these awards is that it recognises an industry in which almost a thousand of people work and many movies are produced every year, making it one of the biggest in cinema. Needless to mention the jury was unanimous in their decision regarding all the nominations for this year’s DD Sahyadri Cine Awards. And the channel (like every year) respects the decision of jury and does not interfere in their selection procedure to keep it impartial and maintain DD Sahyadri’s credibility.”

Godrej Consumer Products Limited executive vice president – personal care Chetan Gore stated, “We are proud of our association with DD Sahyadri Cine Awards for six years in a row now.”

“In alignment to our brand promise of innovation we introduced a new category of award called ‘Godrej Expert Rich Cr?me Oh My God Performance’ this year. The award category was appreciated by all for its quirk and innovation. We are proud to be associated with this coveted award ceremony that honors the best of craft and shall continue to value add to it year on year,” Gore added.

Apart from actors Abhijeet Khandkekar and Mrunmayee Deshpande who co-hosted the awarding ceremony, the audiences were kept engaged by wide variety of performances on stage ranging from classical fusion to romantic and western.

The award show will be aired on Doordarshan Sahyadri on 12 July, 4 pm onwards.

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July 2, 2015
Big Magic undergoes revamp; observes 30% viewership growth

MUMBAI: Comedy is a serious business. It was in the year 2011 when Anil Ambani-led Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) announced its foray into regional television space with the launch of its Hindi entertainment channel – Big Magic (for Central India – MP /UP).

In 2013, tailored to meet the preferences of Hindi speaking markets of India, it was launched across Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM’s) on the back of phase II of cable TV digitisation.

In 2014, it launched as a national general entertainment channel for India, positioned as a humour destination which comprised light relationship dramas, rom-coms, sitcoms, movies and a historical comedy.

This year, it has shed its current logo and gone for a complete makeover by launching a fresh new look and channel identity. The content as part of the renewed strategic vision will be unpredictable, cutting edge, quirky, contemporary, surprising, differentiated, hilarious and entertaining; targeting families, but predominantly the male audience.

With original content including a high degree of humour, viewers will enjoy shows in the sitcom, non-fiction space, focused on building iconic characters which are stand out, quirky and funny. The content offered will be platform agnostic with a large play on the digital and mobile medium.

Research, the key factor

According to RBNL CEO Tarun Katial as the consumers’ taste changes dynamically and quickly, the channel wanted to sharpen its comedy positioning and appeal to the urban audiences’ mindset and bring about a relatable icon in its identity which is emoticon. “Today emoticon is used by everybody and it’s an extremely relatable form of communication amongst consumers,” he says.

Including regulatory approvals, it has been a four month process for the revamp of the channel. Extensive research was done amongst the core TG to understand the kind of comedy and content consumers want. The research showed that the content being desired was extremely dynamic, vibrant, surprising and iirreverent comedy and the logo is build on that thought. The new look has been designed by Purple Pink agency.

Talking about the new look identity, RBNL network creative director Paritosh Painter says, “At Big Magic, we strive to offer comedy content that is fresh, surprising, unpredictable and fully over the top. In line with our new campaign, we will continue our commitment to offer a comical line up of hilarious sitcoms, surprising and unpredictable short formats on topical issues, laugh out loud weekend special and festive specials.”

With the new identity, the channel aims to build a strong line-up of content at both long and short formats. With currently two and half hours to three hours of original content running everyday with shows like Akbar Birbal, Tedi Medi Family, Total Nadaniyaan amongst others, the channel is all set to take the original hours of content to 4 hours a day. Big Magic will launch two new shows in the next couple of months, one of which will be an unscripted show in the late primetime band and an irreverent young comedy in the early evening.

The channel will also air an animated series with Akbar Birbal and bring one of its Big FM 92.7 Radio show – Actor calling Actor on to television.

“On the content front, our attempt is to build a certain amount of iconic characters around male irreverent comedy. We believe that Indians are ready to laugh at each other and themselves. This is predominantly young urban male skewed content that we want to launch,” explains Katial.

In terms of marketing, the channel will strongly focus on digital and mobile. Katial believes that comedy content moves very quickly and goes viral on platforms like digital and mobile. “For us content is marketing and marketing is content,” he says.

Katial further reveals that after Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India started rolling out data, the channel has witnessed a 30 per cent growth in viewership.

For the record, the channel is available across all DTH platforms such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, Videocon d2h, DD Free Dish, Dish TV, Reliance Digital TV along with all cable operators including the likes of Hathway Cable & Datacom, Incable, Digicable, Den Networks, 7 Star, ABS, Siti Cable, Star Broadband and GTPL amongst others.

June 24, 2015
Sun TV may approach Court on issue of security clearance, Centre moves new case against Kal Cables

NEW DELHI: Amid reports that Sun TV Group may be compelled to approach Courts of law following the view of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that it should not have been denied security clearance, it is understood that the Home Ministry has again approached the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) for its viewpoint before giving a final order.

Reacting to this, a Sun TV official told indiantelevision.com, “Our consistent view has been that the TV and radio broadcast business of Sun TV Network Ltd cannot be put in any jeopardy on the ground that the promoter is facing charges in another case. Till such time the case is decided, the cardinal principle of presumed innocent till pronounced guilty shall apply. Any deviation from this time honoured tradition of law will be a violation of natural justice.”

Asked about moving the courts, the spokesperson said: “Considering that our stand has been vindicated by the Attorney General, we hope that all clearances will be restored and we will not be compelled to seek any legal remedies. We wait to hear more from the government authorities.”

Meanwhile the PMO office, reportedly has also decided to stay with the Home Ministries decision to deny security clearance to the 33 channels under Sun TV Network.

The network has still not received anything in writing from either the I&B nor the Home Ministries. Furthermore, the uncertainty is affecting the position of the Group in the stock market.

Sun TV Network with 33 TV and around 40 radio channels is one of the largest media groups in the country with a reach to more than 95 million households in the country.

Home Ministry officials say their investigation shows serious charges of money laundering against Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun TV Network.

Home Ministry officials made it clear that neither the Ministry nor Home Minister Rajnath Singh will directly reply to the letter from Maran.

Rohatgi is of the view that there is a difference between corruption charges and national security as neither the owner nor the Network was a threat to the nation’s security. The opinion was given after the I&B Ministry had sought his opinion on the matter even as the Law Ministry failed to take a decision.

Rohatgi had said that mere filing of criminal charges in economic offences, in which trial courts were yet to frame charges against the accused, could not be a ground to infer that they had posed threat to national security because of the alleged offences.

It is also learnt that though it had been castigated in September last year for encroaching on the freedom of the media, the I and B Ministry has moved the Madras High Court against quashing of its order cancelling the multi-system operator’s licence. The matter has been listed befor the High Court on 1 July.

Justice V Ramasubramanian of the High Court in September had quashed the cancellation on the ground that no show-cause notice had been issued to the company.

June 23, 2015
Sun TV woes continue as MHA disagrees with AG, denies security clearance

MUMBAI: Even after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that denying security clearance to Sun TV Network was wrong, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said that it does not agree with Attorney General’s opinion on the issue.

According to MHA officials, their investigation shows serious charges of money laundering against Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun TV Network. In the light of this, MHA took the decision to deny it security clearance after high-level consultations. The MHA has now asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) to give its decision, post which; it will further take a final call.

It can be noted that Rohatgi had said that the MHA denying security clearance to Sun TV on basis of corruption charges was wrong, as neither the owner nor the Network was a threat to the nation’s security. The opinion was given after the I&B Ministry had sought for the Attorney General’s opinion on the matter.

Typically, when views of two ministries differ on a subject matter, the Attorney General’s opinion is sought. However, his judgment is not binding.

As per media reports, while the I&B Ministry is assessing Rohatgi’s opinion, in case there is still disagreement between the two ministries, one could well see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervening into the matter.

June 20, 2015