ITV

Tag: Bookmyshow

  • 9XM forays into live events; spends 20% of its total budget on marketing

    9XM forays into live events; spends 20% of its total budget on marketing

    MUMBAI: After having tasted success with ‘Tashan Nites’, organised by 9X Tashan and ‘Jhakaas Music Yatra’ with 9X Jhakaas, it is now Hindi music channel 9XM which aims to fly high in the live events space. The channel has forayed into ticket based events in order to improve revenues.

     

    Kick-starting the live event segment, 9XM is organising a music concert with singer Arijit Singh of Ashiqui2 fame. The channel has partnered with Mirah Entertainment and Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium to host the concert titled – ‘9XM Dome Musically Yours Arijit Singh Live with Symphony Orchestra.’ It is scheduled for 5 July at 8 pm at NSCI Stadium, Mumbai. The entire event has been conceptualised and executed by Ranaji events.

     

    “Live events are not new to us,” says 9X Media marketing head Kapil Sharma. Over the past three-five years the network has conducted multiple live events for people in Punjab and Maharashtra with ‘Tashan Nites’ and ‘Jhakaas Music Yatra.’ “All of these events have an audience of 10,000 people upwards. The last edition of ‘Tashan Nite’ which was done with the Tanu Weds Manu stars garnered eyeballs of close to 15,000 people. But, none of these were ticket based events. With 9XM, we want to get into that space,” explains Sharma.

     

    With 9XM being an established brand, Sharma says that the scale of the event is also huge and hence the network needs a combination of sponsorship and ticket revenue to recover the cost it incurs. “Doing events in Mumbai and Delhi are very expensive. To do an event which has a top class artist, a venue like Dome with an audience of 5,000 plus people, the overall production of the event shoots and it is impossible to recover the cost only from sponsor commitments,” explains Sharma.

     

    The channel is selling tickets online through bookmyshow (BMS) and a few offline venues which include clubs and gymkhanas. The tickets are priced at Rs 3,000, Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 and the capacity of the stadium is around 4,000-4,500. The company is expected to earn around Rs 1.8 crore in ticketing revenue.

     

    In the span of three weeks, Rs 10,000 tickets got sold and Sharma hopes the rest to be sold out by Sunday.

     

    The three hour on-ground concert will later be edited to a 30-minute show for 9XM, which will air either on 12 July or 19 July. The channel has roped in Welspun Spaces Home & Beyond as the title sponsor and Carwale and Hungama as the ‘powered by’ sponsors both for the on-ground event and on-air.

     

    Other partners include Hindustan Times Cafe as print partner, 9XE as digital partner, XXX Energy Drink as beverage partner, Red FM as radio partner and Bright Outdoor Media as outdoor partner.

     

    The channel got into a room with all the three players, i.e Singh’s, Mirah and Ranaji’s team about two months back to ideate on the first symphony driven concert with the singer in Mumbai for 9XM.

     

    “Ranaji had associated with Singh’s event about six months back which was organised in Navi Mumbai and 9XM was the TV partner. Post that, we thought that rather than just being TV partners, we could get into the space and organise the event ourselves,” informs Sharma.

     

    Speaking of his performance at the Symphony concert Singh says, “This will be my first Symphony concert in India and am pleased to present my fans with such a unique concert. The majestic musical extravaganza at the concert will surely delight music lovers. The precession and rehearsals required to pull off a live performance with symphony orchestra is a mammoth task and I hope that my fans will revel it just as I have enjoyed every moment of putting it together.”

     

    Digital has been the hero

     

    For the network, social media has played a big role in helping amplify the event, be it Facebook, Twitter or bookmyshow. The channel is using a combination of both, Above the Line (ATL) and digital to promote the event.

     

    Three weeks back, when the network started selling tickets on bookmyshow, it concentrated only on digital promotion. “We used 9XM’s social media which has close to 8 million odd fans on Facebook. Later, we went on to promote through Google ads, tapped into YouTube audience and of course on bookmyshow where the tickets were available,” explains Sharma.

     

    After first week, it started with the ATL activities with its other partners.

     

    On 1 July, during a press conference, the sensational singer did a periscope interview (a live Twitter video capability), where he spoke into his camera phone which got tweeted real time. Further, to engage with the online audiences, it kicked off a contest asking people to tweet their favourite songs of the singer, out of which three popular requests will be performed by Singh at the concert.

     

    “This will give an opportunity to the person whose song has been selected, but is sitting home and not at the venue, to watch him perform live via Periscope on Twitter,” asserts Sharma.

     

    It is learnt that 9XM is spending 20 per cent out of its total budget to market the property. 

  • Quality and versatile music is the way forward for Guvera: Ananya Amin

    Quality and versatile music is the way forward for Guvera: Ananya Amin

    MUMBAI: Global music streaming app Guvera, which was founded in 2008, recently reached the milestone of 10 million global users. In India, the app touched the three million users mark. Guvera international manager India and Middle East Ananya Amin is buoyed by the response so far in India. 

     

    “India is a versatile country with huge music fans, and in such short span the growth we achieved is indeed a matter of glory. Having said that, I must also say that we sense huge possibility of further growth in India where the smartphone base is increasing at a high rate,” Amin said.

     

    Streaming habit in India is very different from the West and is changing at a very slow pace, which can emerge as a strong challenge for apps like Guvera. When asked about the same, Amin said, “The ecosystem in India needs to mature. What we observe from our analysis is that in some part of the county we are very dominant, while in other parts we are at a very nascent stage. Hence, we understand that streaming itself is a new aspect and gradually with the betterment of technology, the streaming habit will also change.”

     

    “Independent rock and alternate rock are the genres that get maximum Indians to Guvera other than Bollywood and regional content. Independent bands and musicians whom we have featured so far have got immense encouragement and the audience also enjoyed their music. Going forward, we have aspirations of enhancing that base,” said Amin on the streaming trends observed in India.

     

    Be it sports commentary, news broadcasting or music, regional content garners maximum visibility in India. “Regional content plays a vital role in India and we have associated with numerous regional content creators, who create quality content to entertain audiences. Speed Records in Punjab & Shri Venkatesh Films in West Bengal are amongst them. Wherever there is scope, we will expand with further associations,” He said.

     

    Guvera is an ad based platform with ads as the only source of revenue. “Brands are happy with us because of the content we provide to our subscribers. Brands like Yes Bank, Harley Rock Riders, Ezeego1, Shaadi.com, Amazon, BookMyShow and McDonald’s have partnered with us and it’s a very cordial relationship, which is extremely fortunate for us,” adds Amin on the advertisers’ reaction so far.

     

    There are multiple apps providing similar content and hence it is important to have a good marketing and promotional strategy for which many organizations hire a creative agency. When asked about the marketing strategy and spend of Guvera, Amin informed, “We don’t have an association with any creative agency as our in house team orchestrates the creative strategies. In terms of marketing spends, our key focus is in India and that’s where we will be spending aggressively. Live events are integral part of our promotional activities and we will focus on that part too. Recently, we did Harley Rock Riders in partnership with Harley Davidson, which was a huge success. Going forward, we are looking at having many such activities.”

     

    “The obstacle that we have in our way has to be the Internet. Indian telecom is hugely dominated by pre-paid subscribers and with data being on the expensive side, it is very tough to penetrate to many such consumers, who would be interested in the product. However, with 3G spreading its network and the roll out of 4G, I must say that there are encouraging times ahead of us,” says Amin.

     

    Talking about the future, Amin informs, “Going forward, I am very confident that we will stand tall and emerge as the leader when it comes to music streaming industry. I think we have everything that an app needs, to succeed. We are also positioning ourselves as a platform that encourage independent musicians. Independent bands without a platform are more than welcome to join hands with us.”

  • Payback inks strategic partnership with MobiKwik

    Payback inks strategic partnership with MobiKwik

    MUMBAI: India’s multi-brand loyalty program Payback has tied-up with mobile wallet MobiKwik to extend the strengths of the two platforms to more than 50 million consumers. This partnership will provide MobiKwik’s 15 million customers value from Payback-enabled loyalty benefits for their transactions at MobiKwik and all other Payback partners.

     

    The mobile industry in India is growing at an increasing rate and M-Wallets are the next big trend. The partnership between the two promises to reach out to the customers by offering them with loyalty points.

     

    Payback India CEO and MD Rahul Rana said, “Mobile wallets are a fast growing category as India embraces technology and witnesses strong growth of e-commerce. People prefer to store their cash digitally and use it seamlessly via mobile and online transactions. This partnership will allow MobiKwik customers to earn rewards when an online transaction is made. Further Payback customers also get access to a seamless payment experience with wide merchant coverage. Our endeavor is to continue to partner with newer categories in online and offline commerce such that Payback Customers can have greater choice in earning and redeeming their rewards at the click of a button.”

     

    MobiKwik provides a user friendly, app-based interface for recharges, bill payments, shopping, and money transfer to friends and family, through the MobiKwik wallet. MobiKwik’s wide merchant coverage ensures that existing Payback customers can redeem their points for MobiKwik wallet balance, and thus use MobiKwik at coffee shops, to make e-commerce purchases, buy bus, flight, and movie tickets, recharge mobile phones and DTH. MobiKwik is now enabled across more than 20,000 merchants including Café Coffee Day, Jabong, Snapdeal, BookMyShow, Domino’s Pizza, eBay, HomeShop18, Infibeam, Purplle, MakeMyTrip, Naaptol, Pepperfry, ShopClues, TastyKhana, and JustEat.

     

    MobiKwik CEO and founder Bipin Preet Singh added, “We are happy to be associated with Payback as it will benefit the MobiKwik users at large. The aim behind this partnership is to create loyalty for MobiKwik users and attract Payback users to adopt MobiKwik as their mobile wallet option. With this increase in our network strength we are confident of leveraging on economies of scale to deliver higher value to our customers.”

  • Network18, SAIF and Accel invest Rs 150 crore in BookMyshow

    Network18, SAIF and Accel invest Rs 150 crore in BookMyshow

    MUMBAI: The holding company of one of India’s leading online entertainment ticketing companies BookMyShow, Bigtree Entertainment has received a shot in the arm. The company’s existing investors Network18 and Accel Partners and its new investor SAIF Partners have together invested Rs 150 crore in the company.

     

    With this round of financing, the company is looking at increasing its penetration outside tier I cities, build its infrastructure and expand its offering in order to take customer experience to the next level. Avendus Capital was the sole financial advisor and BMR Legal was the legal advisor for this transaction.

    On signing the deal, BookMyShow founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani said, “We are very happy to have SAIF Partners as our latest investors. The common vision of creating scalable and large businesses was aligned to our thought process. Their experience of having helped companies such as MakeMyTrip and Just Dial go public would be of immense value to us as we move forward in our growth plans. We are also very happy to have delivered value to our existing investors and the fact that both Network18 and Accel have further invested in this round, shows their confidence in the company and the ability of the team to continue delivering and innovating.”

     

    Commenting on the transaction, SAIF Partners MD Deepak Gaur said, “We are delighted to participate in this exciting journey of bringing world class convenience to consumers across entertainment verticals that BookMyShow offers. We are confident that with the current round of capital raise, BookMyShow team will continue to strengthen the relentless focus on innovation, customer service and technology as our country takes rapid strides in internet penetration.”

     

    Accel India partner Prashanth Prakash added, “As an industry leader, BookMyShow continues to set the agenda when it comes to movie and event experiences in India. We look forward to supporting the team in continuing to enhance value for their customers and realising the potential of becoming the default destination for consumers’ entertainment needs.”

     

    Commenting on the transaction, Capital 18 MD Sarbvir Singh said, “BookMyShow has emerged as the country’s leading entertainment ticketing destination. The company continues to attract high pedigree investors and with SAIF Partners joining Accel Partners and Network18, the BookMyShow team will be able to further enhance customer experience and market leadership. We were happy to participate in the transaction and look forward to the next phase of the BookMyShow journey.”

     

    A release from the company states that it gets more than 35 million visits and 500 million page views approximately and has sold more than 10 crore tickets till date. It has also re-launched a mobile app to facilitate ticketing in India and an additional 20 cities have been covered by adding new cinemas. BookMyShow now has a presence in over 200 cities and is trying to further penetrate the single screen cinema segment in each of these markets. 

     

    BookMyShow was the exclusive online ticketing partner for the ICC T-20 Championship in Bangladesh. The company is also the exclusive ticketing partner for many IPL teams which include Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals, Hyderabad Sun Risers, Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab. It also manages ticketing for IPL central rights along with accreditations. The other sport events for which BookmyShow has been the exclusive online ticketing partner are; Chennai Open Tennis championship, Super Fight League and Yonex Badminton.

  • Lowe Lintas is now Bookmyshow’s creative agency

    Lowe Lintas is now Bookmyshow’s creative agency

    MUMBAI: Bookmyshow.com, an entertainment ticketing platform, has unveiled its new brand identity comprising of a refreshed company logo and tagline.
    After a multi-agency pitch held in Mumbai, the company has appointed Lowe Lintas as its creative partner to represent the company’s ideology of ensuring simplicity and accessibility in its offerings to customers.

    Speaking of the appointment, Lowe Lintas and Partners chairman and chief creative officer R Balki said, “There can be no greater joy in advertising than creating ideas for a product you use and love.  BookMyShow is one of the rare products where we can craft communication as consumers. Such a rare pleasure!”

    The account will be handled by the agency team in Mumbai, led by Lowe Lintas president Raj Gupta. Speaking of the partnership, he added, “BookMyShow is a transformational business model and we wish to make it a revolutionary brand too”

    Unveiling the company’s new identity, Bookmyshow.com founder and chief executive officer Ashish Hemrajani said, “Bookmyshow.com has evolved rapidly and has become synonymous with online entertainment ticketing in India. Keeping this in mind, we felt that the company identity no longer reflected what Bookmyshow as a company represents. This re-branding is our inflection point. Extensive research and many integral aspects were taken into consideration during the creation of this new identity. We believe the new identity perfectly captures our current standing and future aspirations as a company. We have also introduced a refreshed tagline, which perfectly captures and communicates the three key things we do for our customers – we book their show, time and seats. Simple and clear!”

    The new company identity has been designed by Lemon Designs and retains continuity from the older logo of an enclosed ‘my’ and the ‘book’ and ‘show’ on either side, with a transition from the 3D ball to a ‘ticket’. This transition and the retention of the older construction suggest progressive evolution of the company’s offerings. The new tagline‘My Show. My Time. My Seat’ represents consumer choice and convenience i.e. an assured seat, for a show and time of choice.

    In addition to the unveiling of its new identity, the company also announced its first ever ATL (Above the Line) marketing campaign. The marketing campaign mainly comprises of three mediums i.e. television, cinema and digital.

    Talking about the key objective behind the marketing campaign, Hemrajani added, “Currently, only 10 per cent of the Indian audience buys tickets online on an average. We see a great potential for market expansion, especially with the accelerated growth of the Indian film industry and emergence of smart phones in India. In fact, India ranks as the second highest country in the world in terms of digital buys through mobile. Even in the Tier II – Tier III cities, we have witnessed a phenomenal growth ranging from 150 – 600 per cent. Being market leaders in the online ticketing space, we are now looking at growing the online ticketing category with this marketing campaign. We are aiming to change consumer habits and persuade the 90 per cent offline ticket buyers to buy tickets online.”
    The creatives of the campaign have been conceptualised around movies and cinemas, with the advertisements centered on different genres of films such as suspense, tragedy and love triangle. The advertisements have been dubbed in five other languages namely Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil.

  • BookMyShow.com and PVR Cinemas enter into a strategic partnership

    BookMyShow.com and PVR Cinemas enter into a strategic partnership

    NEW DELHI: Bigtree Entertainment, the holding company of the entertainment ticketing portal BookMyShow.com, today announced its association with PVR for a five-year deal as the online ticketing partner for PVR Cinemas across India.

    The companies are targeting ticket sales worth Rs 1,000 crore over these five years exclusively on Bookmyshow.com for PVR besides PVR‘s present existing sale of tickets from its Box Office and other channels

    BookMyShow.com founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani said, “This association is a great development from the entertainment industry‘s perspective, with two significant players in their specialised domain coming together. We are happy to partner with PVR cinemas, which is continuance in our efforts in making entertainment hassle-free for consumers. The partnership extends to areas outside just pure sales but also to harnessing bookmyshow‘s analytical ability to ensure targeting the right content to right users as well as marketing initiatives around non-movies and alternative content”.

    PVR Cinemas Group president and CEO Pramod Arora said, “In our everlasting zest to provide convenience to our esteemed patrons, we have associated and partnered with Bookmyshow.com as our preferred e-ticketing channel partner. We have been in discussions with BMS for quite some time to work out this association, which shall help us touch millions of new additional customers who may now experience the joy of watching films at PVR Cinema near them. This is another initiative to help augment the box office revenues by reaching out to more and more consumers and achieving better penetration in our micro markets. Besides a better reach, our association with BMS shall also help us in CRM initiatives by deploying tools like KYC (know your customer) to help us serve our customers with their preferred choice of seats, concessions and other soft offerings. To sum up, this association is a sure delight not only for us but for our patrons, film distributors and producers alike!”

    Bookmyshow will market and sell tickets of PVR Cinemas, over its web, mobile apps and other affiliate channels. The significant consumer shift over the past few years towards online and mobile sales, with a strong CRM backbone allows better segmentation and analysis in marketing relevant content to users. This shift also helps reduce the burden at the box office by reducing costs and making up for the lack of customer data thereby helping in predictive modeling.

  • BookMyShow.com is official ticketing partner for six IPL teams

    BookMyShow.com is official ticketing partner for six IPL teams

    MUMBAI: Entertainment ticketing portal BookMyShow.com has announced its association with the SunRisers Hyderabad team for IPL 2013, making it the official ticketing partner for six out of nine IPL teams this season.

    With this development, BookMyShow.com will be managing 60 per cent of the ticketing inventory for IPL 2013, making it the largest ticketing provider this season.

    BookMyShow.com has been associated with IPL teams for four consecutive years and will be the official ticketing partner for Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, Pune Warriors, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad this season.

    BookMyShow.com founder, CEO Ashish Hemrajani said, “We are happy to be long standing partners for these IPL teams, witnessing a year on year increment of around 18 – 25 per cent in revenues for our organisers each season. Online sales have become an essential element for every IPL team with 85 per cent of IPL sales in high internet penetration markets derived from online sales. Even low internet penetration markets have emerged with 75 per cent of tickets sold online last season, showcasing a 35 per cent growth in online sales since its inception

    “Being market leaders‘ in this space, we understand the sensitivity of each market and implement different and effective marketing strategies in accordance to the same. We are associated with 6 IPL teams this season, managing more than 15 lakh tickets for the IPL 2013 teams and we hope to partner with two more teams in IPL 2014.”

    In order to extend its reach among customers, BookMyShow.com has tied up with leading brands including Café Coffee Day, BMW, Mercedes Benz and more. Apart from being the official ticketing partner, BookMyShow.com will also manage the on-ground operations for all six teams which would encompass strategy and planning, ticket printing with security features, ground sales, home delivery, inventory management, stock distribution, cash collection, corporate and package sales, online marketing, gate entry validation plus management and reconciliation (post event). BookMyShow.com has also been awarded with accreditation management for four IPL teams – Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors India and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

    Apart from booking tickets online, customers can also view details such as seating arrangement, venue, offers, players‘ information, ticketing outlets and delivery tracking of tickets. One can also purchase the official teams‘ merchandise on the website. BookMyShow.com also has a customer support that can be reached online, on the phone or through its retail outlets for addressing any ticketing issues.

    Tickets for Delhi Daredevil, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, and Sunrisers Hyderabad are currently live on BookMyShow.com. Tickets for Pune Warriors India will be live from today 25 March.

  • ‘The news terminal biz is dominated by global players and we got a good price for NewsWire18’ : Network18 head of investments Sarbvir Singh

    ‘The news terminal biz is dominated by global players and we got a good price for NewsWire18’ : Network18 head of investments Sarbvir Singh

    Founder-promoter Raghav Bahl has started shaving Network18 Group‘s non-core businesses to stay focussed on the company‘s core strengths of television, digital assets and e-commerce.

     

    As part of the haircut, Bahl has found a buyer for NewsWire18, the home-grown real-time financial news and information provider, which competes in India with global giants like Bloomberg and Reuters.

     

    Private equity firm Samara Capital is buying Network18’s 77.50 per cent stake in NewsWire18 for Rs 900 million and has drawn up plans to expand the company‘s business, including an ambitious plan to spread out to other countries.

     

    For Network18, it is a profitable monetisation of its stake in the company it helped grow and stabilise since 2006. NewsWire made an operational profit of Rs 70 million on revenue of Rs 445 million for the fiscal ended 31 March 2012.

     

    Network18 has so far raised Rs 2 billion from stake sales in non-core businesses this year and expects to raise another Rs 3 billion over the next 12 months.

     

    It is also in discussions with new as well as existing investors (SAIF Partners and GS Shopping) to invest in its teleshopping and e-commerce arm HomeShop18 as it needs capital to grow. It intends to continue to hold a sizeable
    stake in HomeShop18, though not a controlling one.

     

    The other companies which Network18 will ultimately exit are travel portal yatra.com and Infomedia’s printing business.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Sibabrata Das, Network18 head of investments Sarbvir Singh talks about the Group‘s focus on profitability, cautious approach towards big-budgeted television channel launches, and strong digital and e-commerce assets.

     

    Excerpts:

    Q. Why is Network18 exiting from NewsWiire18 when it had turned into an operating profitable company?
    The news terminal business is dominated by global players (like Reuters and Bloomberg) and doesn’t fit into our scheme of things. We are getting a good price (Rs 900 million) for selling our stake (77.5 per cent) in NewsWire18.

     

    Q. Why didn’t the deal with Reuters consummate? Was it because it made sense for Reuters to have Network18 as an equity partner so that NewsWire18 would continue to benefit from the television news channels of the Group?
    I can’t comment on who the other interested parties were, but that (total exit) wasn’t an issue at all. We obviously sold to private equity firm Samara Capital because we got the best deal from them.

     

    Q. Wasn’t there a synergistic value as Network18 Group holds interests in television news channels?
    The news terminal business does not fall into our core focus areas; it also does not fit into our core business strength. It is a standalone business by itself and requires specific focus.

     

    We have decided to get out of our non core businesses. Our focus will be on three core areas: television, digital and e-commerce.

     

    Network18 is no longer the same company as it was in 2007. Our television business has grown exponentially, be it in the areas of news or entertainment. We have strong web properties and our e-commerce play is large.

     

    Q. Does this mean that the Group will launch more television channels through TV18?
    We may launch smaller channels, but there is no rush as such. We have too much on our plate. In addition to the existing channels, we have made a big acquisition (Rs 21 billion for acquiring assets of ETV Network) and will have to integrate operations.

     

    ‘Our focus will be on three core areas: TV, digital and e-commerce. Network18 is no longer the same company as it was in 2007. Our TV has grown exponentially. We have strong web properties and our e-commerce play is large‘
     

    Q. Is there a plan to revive the launch of a Hindi movie channel?
    We are not sure whether we would need a Hindi movie channel at this stage. The Hindi general entertainment channels have become like movie channels on weekends.

     

    Our focus will be on profitability and getting the distribution equation right. Distribution is a very important part of the evolution process and we have to set it right. We are unlikely to do big channel launches at this stage.

     

    Q. Sources say there is plan to launch a Gujarati business news channel along the lines of CNBC TV18. How far has this progressed?
    In media companies a lot takes shape at the planning stage. Everybody looks at opportunities. But as I said earlier, we are in no tearing hurry to do anything.

     

    Q. What are the other non-core businesses that Network18 is looking to sell?
    We are looking at getting about Rs 5 billion from our asset sales. We have already done Rs 2 billion this year and expect to generate another Rs 3 billion over the next 12 months.

     

    Q. Network18 has sold partial stake in bookmyshow.com. Will it exit from this as well?
    We will hold on to our remaining stake in bookmyshow.com and build that business. We want to be in digital commerce. We see ourselves as being one of the largest players in e-commerce through our presence in online and television through HomeShop18.

     

    Q. Which means the stake in HomeShop18 will be retained?
    We are looking at a similar model like bookmyshow.com. We may not remain as a shareholder with controlling stake but have a sizeable equity in HomeShop18.

    ‘We may launch smaller channels, but there is no rush as such. We are not sure whether we would need a Hindi movie channel at this stage. We have too much on our plate. Our focus will be on profitability and getting the distribution equation right‘
     

    Q. Isn’t there a plan to raise $50 million as pre-IPO funding for HomeShop18?
    We are looking at an external investor as the teleshopping and e-commerce firm needs capital to grow. We are in discussion with existing (SAIF Partners and GS Shopping) and new investors as well. There are many who come and talk to us. In the long term, we may look at raising capital through an initial public offering (IPO).

     

    Q. But isn’t the mandate given to an investment bank to scout for an investor in HomeShop18?
    I can’t comment on that.

     

    Q. Will Network18 exit from yatra.com before or after the IPO?
    We have expressed our intent to offload stake from yatra.com. But it is difficult to say whether it will be a pre-IPO exit or after it. We will see how it goes and what is the market situation then.

     

    Q. How many asset sales are we looking at for getting to the target of Rs 3 billion in the next one year?
    There will be a couple of companies which will fetch us Rs 400-500 million from each transaction. And then there is yatra.com.

     

    Q. Will Infomedia’s printing business form a part of this?
    Yes, it is on the block. But it won’t be a major part of this.

     

    Q. What about your sports marketing company Sport18?
    We are not bidding aggressively for the rights. We have certain rights (Professional Golf Tour of India, India Cyclothon, Hyderabad 10K and the Chandigarh Marathon) and this fits into our TV news business.