ITV

Tag: Asian Age

  • Deccan Chronicle acquires 67 per cent in Asian Age, takes stake to 90 per cent

    MUMBAI: Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) has acquired 67 per cent stake in Asian Age Holdings Ltd for Rs 171 million, scaling up its holdings in the daily newspaper to 90 per cent.
     
    DCHL, which publishes the Deccan Chronicle newspaper, has bought out Zee Telefilms’ 15 per cent stake Asian Age Holdings. The other shareholders from which DCHL has acquired equity are MJ Akbar (26 per cent), United Breweries (23 per cent) and T Venkattram Reddy (3 per cent). Earlier DCHL had held 23 per cent in The Asian Age, a daily newspaper published simultaneously from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and London.

    The revenue and the brand ownership will be transferred to DCHL, with the Asian Age Brand expected to contribute Rs 750 million to Rs 1000 million to the top line by Fiscal 2007, the company informed BSE.
     
     
    “The acquisition of Asian Age will transform DCHL into a National player with presence in the large advertising markets of Mumbai and Delhi in addition to presence in Kolkata, Bangalore and London,” says DCHL managing director T Vinayak Ravi Reddy.

    Zee Telefilms had picked up 15 per cent stake in Asian Age Holdings in 2001. Currently, Zee is planning launch of a news daily in Mumbai with Dainik Bhaskar as the joint venture partner.

  • TV production companies, DD get investigative agency’s stick

    TV production companies, DD get investigative agency’s stick

    The cricket match fixing saga has spilled over into the television industry. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the issue of corruption in India’s national sport, yesterday sent its investigative officers into the premises of DD officials, TV production houses Stracon, World-Tel and UTV. The CBI believes that DD officials had connived with representatives of these companies, awarded them telecast and air time marketing rights unfairly at throwaway prices, and robbed the government of millions of dollars.

    The CBI is investigating deals dating back to 1997 and 1998 related to the ICC Knockout tournament 1998, Wimbeldon 1997, the French Open 1997, The Independence Cup 1997 and other sports tournaments. Stracon, UTV, and World-Tel were involved in these transactions.

    The CBI raided the premises of the then DD director general K.S. Sarma, deputy director general (sports) K. Kunnhi Krishnan, deputy director generals Rakesh Bahadur, Sanjeev Dutta, and P.K. Seth. The agency also struck at the premises of Stracon boss Siddartha Ray and Anurag Misra, World-Tel boss Mark Mascarenhas, and UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala, according to a report in newspaper daily The Asian Age.

    Will the CBI come up with a lot of dirt? An industry observer says that it is quite likely that UTV will squeak through clean, but Stracon and World-Tel may find themselves in the box. His view is that the CBI should take a dekko at how some of the officials had their children’s education paid for in the US, and how one of the officials took a long sabbatical from his DD posting.