ITV

Category: TV 18

  • TV 18 breaks off ad sales deal with Sony for CNBC India

    TV 18 breaks off ad sales deal with Sony for CNBC India

    Is it the precursor to a parting of the ways? Maybe, maybe not. Raghav Bahl’s Television Eighteen India Ltd declared today that henceforth it would be managing the sales of advertisement time (free commercial time) of CNBC India business news channel.

    Ad sales has been managed from the beginning of the channel’s launch in India by Sony Entertainment Television (SET). TV 18 has set up the initial marketing infrastructure, which is being further strengthened for handling ad sales, the company has said.

    Queried about the fate of the distribution alliance that TV 18 has with SET for CNBC India, chief executive Haresh Chawla said he could only confirm that the arrangement would continue in its present form till March 2003. After that everything was open, Chawla admitted.

    The announcement was tied into TV 18’s finally closing the chapter on an on again off again courting that has gone on for over two years. The company declared today that it had has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it planned to retain its 49 per cent equity stake in CNBC India and would not be divesting any equity in CNBC India in favour of SET.

    TV 18 holds 49 per cent in CNBC India through Television Eighteen Mauritius Ltd. The remaining 51 per cent is held by CNBC Asia. Earlier the board of directors of the company had decided to give up 20 per cent stake out of the 49 per cent in favour of SET Satellite (Singapore) Pvt Ltd. Market sources had pegged the value of the deal at Rs 200 million.

    TV 18 BOARD APPROVES ALLOTMENT OF EQUITY SHARES:

    At the meeting of the board of directors of TV 18 held today, it was decided that:

    1. Allotment of 7,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each issued at a premium of Rs 78 per share aggregating to Rs 88 per share as preferential allotment pursuant to the approval of the board meeting dated 7 December, 2001 and the EGM dated 2 January, 2002.

    2. Issue of secured partly convertible debentures (SPCD) of Rs 150 each, to be issued to the existing shareholders on rights basis in the ratio of one SPCD for every 13 equity shares held. The detailed terms and conditions will be worked out in consultation with the lead managers to the rights issue.

  • TV 18 opens at a whopping 1000 per cent premium; to launch portal on Budget Day

    TV 18 listed at a massive 1,000 per cent premium on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today. It opened at RS 1,950 and touched an intra-day high of RS 1,990 on the first day of its trading. The RS 10 scrip was issued at RS 180 and had received a overwhelming response when it was oversubscribed by 55 times. A whopping 150,000 shares were traded in the first ten minutes trading and the volumes rose to 3,50,000 in just two hours. The share was hovering around RS 1,600 after a couple of hours of trading. The market had already speculated the opening price to be RS 2,000 on the day prior to its listing.

    The company has announced its plans to launch a business portal on 29 February which would coincide with Budget Day. “The portal will be different from any that is around today. It will take synergies from the television channel CNBC to offer the consumer a unique experience,” says TV 18 managing director Raghav Bahl.

    The project is estimated to cost RS 200 million. Already having invested RS 30 million, the company would at some stage go in for Venture Capital. “We are incubating the portal under TV 18 currently. Later on we will spin it off as a 100% subsidiary. We cannot afford the portal dragging down the earnings of TV 18,” says Bahl. The company hopes the portal to break even within three years of business. Officials, however, refused to disclose details about the project.

    Earlier, TV 18 made history on 15 February when the Bombay Stock Exchange invited brokers for a pre-listing meet which was the first of its kind, at the trading ring of BSE. Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, Television Eighteen (TV 18) addressed the stock brokers and the media about the company profile and its operations and appeared to be confident about his stock.

    The stock is expected to show wonders for the investing community with very few media scrips to invest in. The questions which still remain to be answered are whether the company with revenues just around
    RS 300 million will continue to attract investor sentiment when biggies like UTV and Nimbus make their listings on the stock exchange. It does not have much library product like UTV and Nimbus as it mainly makes commissioned shows. Its only USP is its partnership business channel CNBC India. Bahl will have to take steps to remedy that at some stage.