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Tag: Eros International

  • Eros International inks co-production pact with Drishyam Films

    Eros International inks co-production pact with Drishyam Films

    Mumbai: Eros International Media Ltd (Eros International) has signed a four-film co-production deal with leading production house, Drishyam Films.

    According to Eros International’s release to the BSE, the first of the four projects, titled Kaamyaab starring Sanjay Mishra along with Deepak Dobriyal and directed by National-Award winning filmmaker Hardik Mehta, has already gone on the floor and commenced shooting on November 25.

    In 2018, Eros and Drishyam will jointly produce four films “to pave the way for presenting a new wave of cinema that the companies have come to stand for.”

    Speaking on the alliance, Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO, Eros International said, “We feel the kind of cinema Drishyam makes and the agenda we have for the next five years at Eros perfectly match. At Eros, we believe that our future slate should have a mix of blockbusters such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bajirao Mastani as well as beautiful stories made on smaller budgets like Aligarh, Nil Battey Sannata, and Newton. We’ve already started our relationship with Drishyam by distributing Newton, Rukh, and Kadvi Hawa and with this new co-production slate, we are hoping to present some very compelling stories to our audiences worldwide.”

    Manish Mundra, founder of Drishyam Films added, “We are very excited to associate with a leading studio like Eros who are backing our kind of content-driven cinema, and happy that our stories have found a home here. It’s heartening that they have come forward to not only distribute our films but also create a vision to tell stories together. We at Drishyam have built a brand of cinema that we are very proud of and we hope the association with Eros will take our films to a much wider audience.”

  • Eros seeks to protect stakeholder interest, files case against US short-sellers

    Eros seeks to protect stakeholder interest, files case against US short-sellers

    MUMBAI: Eros International Plc has filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court against Mangrove Partners, Manuel P. Asensio, GeoInvesting, LLC, and numerous other individuals and entities.

    Eros International Plc, which has an extensive library comprising over 3,000 Hindi, Tamil, and other regional language films, acquires, co-produces and distributes Indian films across all available formats such as cinema, television and digital new media.

    The lawsuit alleges the defendants and other co-conspirators disseminated material false, misleading, and defamatory information about Eros and are engaging in other misconduct that has harmed the company. The lawsuit also names various “John Doe” defendants who will be identified and joined as the case unfolds, an Eros press release stated.

    The complaint alleges that Mangrove Partners and many, if not all, of its co-conspirators held substantial short positions in Eros stock and profited when its share price declined in response to their multi-year disinformation campaign. Eros seeks damages and injunctive relief for defamation, trade libel, civil conspiracy, and tortious interference, including but not limited to interference with its customers, producers, distributors, investors, and lenders.

    The filing of this lawsuit marks another important step in Eros’ vigorous defense of itself and the company’s stakeholders. On 25 September, 2017, Eros also reported that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative securities class action, with prejudice, that was originally filed in November 2015 and arose from a series of baseless accusations that the Eros complaint alleges were disseminated by short sellers.

    The company previously announced that it retained Michael J. Bowe, a partner of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, to investigate and pursue all available legal remedies against those responsible for these blatant attempts at market manipulation. The counsel is continuing its investigation, the release added.

  • Eros Worldwide pays off $40 million

    Eros Worldwide pays off $40 million

    BENGALURU: Eros Worldwide FZ LLC, the promoter of Eros International Media Limited has informed the bourses today that it has completed sale of 11,716,850 shares of EIML between April to August 2017 amounting to over $40 million to reduce its revolving credit facility. The company says that with the paydown from sale of shares and internal accruals, the $123 million facility now stands reduced to approximately $45 million. Post this sale and as of date, Eros Worldwide together with Eros Digital Private Limited continues to own 60.47% of EIML.

    Eros International is a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, which co-produces, acquires and distributes Indian language films in multiple formats worldwide.

    At the time of filing of this report, EMIL shares of face value of Rs 10 each, were trading at Rs 174.75, down 3.21 percent from the previous close of Rs 180.55. The share had opened this morning at Rs 181.55.

  • Eros stock gains even as it denies being privy to parent’s talks with Apple or Netflix

    MUMBAI: Shares of Eros International gained 4.5 per cent on Monday even as it clarified that it was not privy to any strategic discussion that its NYSE-listed parent Eros International PLC may be having with various potential partners.

    There were speculative reports that the Mumbai-based film production house Eros was in talks with the tech giant Apple to sell its 3,000-plus film and music library including ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ for around $1 billion (Rs 63.7 billion).

    The unconfirmed potential deal, for which Eros reportedly started exploring six months ago, could include Eros Now — Eros’ digital OTT platform. Discussions were also reportedly being held with competitors — Netflix and Amazon. Eros Now, having 55 million global users, has rights to over 5,000 movies in 10 Indian languages and over 250,000 audio tracks from 13 Indian music labels.

    Eros’ parent, which is facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly overstating Eros Now’s subscriber base, had attempted engaged with broadcasters including Sony, Viacom, 21st Century Fox’s Star India and Zee to sell the library, it was reported.

    AlsO Read :

    Eros Now available with free Amazon Fire TV subs

    Zee gets Sarkar3 & Munna Michael syndication rights in deal with Eros

    Eros International signs co-production deal with Turkish co Pana Film

  • Eros International signs co-production deal with Turkish co Pana Film

    MUMBAI: Eros International Media, a global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, has announced two Indo­-Turkish co-productions with Pana Film, a leading Turkish film studio owned by Turkish actor Necati Sasmaz, known for playing the lead role of Polat Alemdar in Turkey’s television series Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves).

    With proposed actors from India and Turkey including Sasmaz, both films will be collaborative with shoot venues and crews in both countries and will be made bilingual. Original stories blending Indian and Turkish cultures will be conceptualised and developed by Eros’ in-house writers along with top Turkish writers.

    Eros International chairman Kishore Lulla said, “We are honored to associate with a company such as Pana Film. Following our Indo-China joint production initiatives, we continue to expand the scope of Indian films internationally with our exciting Turkish collaboration. With our similar cultures, we want to tell stories with a mainstream appeal that transcend language and geographical boundaries. We hope our Indo-Turkish productions will pave the way to open one of the significant regions in the world and reach out to fans across the two countries and the MENA (Middle East to North Africa) regions.”

    Sasmaz added, “Pana Film values this exciting partnership with Eros International. Our common goal is to build a cultural bridge between both regions. With our Indian collaboration, we aim to expand our presence and tell new stories that can bring Indian and Turkish audiences together.”

  • Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

    Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

    MUMBAI: Folks at Eros are popping bottles of champagne! Eros International’s OTT platform Eros Now has achieved two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and Vodafone.

    Between the four platforms, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60 per cent of India’s total mobile user base of more than a billion. Jio has announced a user base of 52 million users in just a few months following their launch.

    “Our strategy remains to distribute Eros Now, a world class OTT platform, to consumers across telecoms and OEMs with compelling content and product features. We view the recent demonetization move in India as a great opportunity for the OTT business as more consumers are signing up for online and mobile pay systems. I am really excited about the exponential growth in front of Eros Now and am confident we will continue to consolidate our leadership position and first mover advantage,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh.

    These deals across 20 different telecom operators and OEMs alone provide visibility to a minimum of 4-5 million subscribers annually to Eros Now at an average annual ARPU of $4-5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Since these deals were agreed at various points in time in FY 2017, Eros Now will see the full year benefit of these deals flowing through in fiscal 2018. Most of these contracts are long term deals averaging five years.

    With a movie library of over 5,000 films and a further library of 5,000 films being added to this list, Eros Now plans to offer the widest repertoire of Indian movie content across any OTT platform in the world.

    In another development, Eros International’s Sanam Teri Kasam was one of the eight chosen films that were screened across 21 cities at the Bollywood Film Festival in Russia. The week-long event flagged off on 30 November.

    The film debuts Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane and is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. Rane was also invited for the film’s screening and was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation the movie received.

  • Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

    Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

    MUMBAI: Folks at Eros are popping bottles of champagne! Eros International’s OTT platform Eros Now has achieved two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and Vodafone.

    Between the four platforms, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60 per cent of India’s total mobile user base of more than a billion. Jio has announced a user base of 52 million users in just a few months following their launch.

    “Our strategy remains to distribute Eros Now, a world class OTT platform, to consumers across telecoms and OEMs with compelling content and product features. We view the recent demonetization move in India as a great opportunity for the OTT business as more consumers are signing up for online and mobile pay systems. I am really excited about the exponential growth in front of Eros Now and am confident we will continue to consolidate our leadership position and first mover advantage,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh.

    These deals across 20 different telecom operators and OEMs alone provide visibility to a minimum of 4-5 million subscribers annually to Eros Now at an average annual ARPU of $4-5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Since these deals were agreed at various points in time in FY 2017, Eros Now will see the full year benefit of these deals flowing through in fiscal 2018. Most of these contracts are long term deals averaging five years.

    With a movie library of over 5,000 films and a further library of 5,000 films being added to this list, Eros Now plans to offer the widest repertoire of Indian movie content across any OTT platform in the world.

    In another development, Eros International’s Sanam Teri Kasam was one of the eight chosen films that were screened across 21 cities at the Bollywood Film Festival in Russia. The week-long event flagged off on 30 November.

    The film debuts Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane and is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. Rane was also invited for the film’s screening and was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation the movie received.

  • Eros International-Central Partnership step into content distribution

    Eros International-Central Partnership step into content distribution

    MUMBAI: Eros International PLC, a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, has announced a strategic partnership with leading Russian distribution and production company Central Partnership (CP), affiliate of Gazprom Media Holding, to promote and distribute Indian and Russian content across multiple platforms in both countries.

    This association includes exploitation via licensing of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets and distribution of film projects for both India and Russia, opening up the market for the two companies to explore new geographies. CP will dub films from Eros’ extensive film library in Russian language which will enable the company to cater to a much larger audience in Russia and CIS. Eros can further utilize the dubbed content on its digital platform, Eros Now, to reach out to a wider audience in Russia.

    With the rapid growth of satellite pay TV in Russia, there is an increased demand for premium digital and television content. This alliance will pave the way for CP to showcase extensive repository of Bollywood films from the Eros library on pay TV. Furthermore, CP will also approach free TV channels to explore showcasing of Indian titles. Similarly, Eros will endeavor to distribute CP media assets on Indian television.

    This collaboration will also enable the launch of Eros Now, the on-demand OTT digital platform of EROS, in Russia and CIS. CP will endeavor to showcase Eros Now’s VOD content on the leading digital distribution network RUFORM through Rutube (web video streaming service targeted in Russia) while Eros will facilitate featuring Russian content on Eros Now.

    Eros International group CEO & managing director Jyoti Deshpande said, “With our entry into the Russian market, we continue to build our strong global position and are delighted to take the lead in associating with the prestigious Russian film company Central Partnership. Russia’s domestic market potential is promising and coupled with the rise in digital consumption by local audiences, we see a huge opportunity in exploiting exciting, unique and high-quality content together to reach audiences across the two diaspora.”

    Central Partnership CEO Pavel Stepanov added, “Our strategic partnership is a big step for both companies in their international expansion, since content from India is now underrepresented in Russia and vice-versa. Our plan is to benefit from both companies’ leading positions in domestic markets to change this layout.”

    Russia’s box office grew in the first half of this year by 8.6% to 29 billion rubles (US$ 413 million), while attendance was up year-on-year by 9% (112 million tickets sold). Foreign films continue to be the main driver of growth in the market. Between January-June box office for foreign films grew by 9.6% to 23 billion rubles (US$ 327 million), while attendance rose from 78.6 million to 88 million. Meanwhile, box office for Russian films in the period increased by 5.1%, to about 6.1 billion rubles (US$87 million), while attendance improved fractionally from 24.5 million to 24.7 million people.

    Eros International acquires, co-produces and distributes Indian films across all available formats such as cinema, television and digital new media.Central Partnership, the exclusive distributor of Paramount Pictures in Russia, owns the largest library there comprising over 700 features and 3300 hours of TV series.

  • Eros International-Central Partnership step into content distribution

    Eros International-Central Partnership step into content distribution

    MUMBAI: Eros International PLC, a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, has announced a strategic partnership with leading Russian distribution and production company Central Partnership (CP), affiliate of Gazprom Media Holding, to promote and distribute Indian and Russian content across multiple platforms in both countries.

    This association includes exploitation via licensing of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets and distribution of film projects for both India and Russia, opening up the market for the two companies to explore new geographies. CP will dub films from Eros’ extensive film library in Russian language which will enable the company to cater to a much larger audience in Russia and CIS. Eros can further utilize the dubbed content on its digital platform, Eros Now, to reach out to a wider audience in Russia.

    With the rapid growth of satellite pay TV in Russia, there is an increased demand for premium digital and television content. This alliance will pave the way for CP to showcase extensive repository of Bollywood films from the Eros library on pay TV. Furthermore, CP will also approach free TV channels to explore showcasing of Indian titles. Similarly, Eros will endeavor to distribute CP media assets on Indian television.

    This collaboration will also enable the launch of Eros Now, the on-demand OTT digital platform of EROS, in Russia and CIS. CP will endeavor to showcase Eros Now’s VOD content on the leading digital distribution network RUFORM through Rutube (web video streaming service targeted in Russia) while Eros will facilitate featuring Russian content on Eros Now.

    Eros International group CEO & managing director Jyoti Deshpande said, “With our entry into the Russian market, we continue to build our strong global position and are delighted to take the lead in associating with the prestigious Russian film company Central Partnership. Russia’s domestic market potential is promising and coupled with the rise in digital consumption by local audiences, we see a huge opportunity in exploiting exciting, unique and high-quality content together to reach audiences across the two diaspora.”

    Central Partnership CEO Pavel Stepanov added, “Our strategic partnership is a big step for both companies in their international expansion, since content from India is now underrepresented in Russia and vice-versa. Our plan is to benefit from both companies’ leading positions in domestic markets to change this layout.”

    Russia’s box office grew in the first half of this year by 8.6% to 29 billion rubles (US$ 413 million), while attendance was up year-on-year by 9% (112 million tickets sold). Foreign films continue to be the main driver of growth in the market. Between January-June box office for foreign films grew by 9.6% to 23 billion rubles (US$ 327 million), while attendance rose from 78.6 million to 88 million. Meanwhile, box office for Russian films in the period increased by 5.1%, to about 6.1 billion rubles (US$87 million), while attendance improved fractionally from 24.5 million to 24.7 million people.

    Eros International acquires, co-produces and distributes Indian films across all available formats such as cinema, television and digital new media.Central Partnership, the exclusive distributor of Paramount Pictures in Russia, owns the largest library there comprising over 700 features and 3300 hours of TV series.

  • Eros International raises $30 million for Eros Now

    Eros International raises $30 million for Eros Now

    MUMBAI: Indian Bollywood major Eros International is getting hotter on OTT. It announced this morning that two of its existing top 10 institutional shareholders have increased their holdings in the company through a private placement and are pumping in approximately $30 million. The proceeds of the allotment will be primarily used to fund the further expansion of Eros Now, its OTT platform.

    Eros International group CEO & MD Jyoti Deshpande commented: “Our vision to transform Eros from a leading film studio to a leading digital company with a global footprint is well underway with Eros Now, our OTT platform crossing one million paid subscribers as of 30 June 2016. Our ownership of content and our strong balance sheet should provide tailwinds to grow the Eros Now subscriber base from one million to ten million and eventually hundred million within the next decade.”

    Eros Now is Eros International Plc’s leading on-demand Bollywood entertainment network accessible anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected screen. Eros Now offers users across 135 countries a large library of films (Eros Now has rights to over 5,000 films), as well as premium television shows, music videos and audio tracks.

    Eros Now is also working on launching compelling original drama series for its viewers. It also has compelling product features such as offline viewing where premium subscribers can download the content and view it when not connected to the Internet make Eros Now a unique offering with focus on user experience.

    Available on Apple and Android platforms, Eros Now has integration deals with Airtel, Idea and Reliance Jio and several other operators internationally. A crucial deal was struck with Reliance Jio, the 4G player that has rolled out the most aggressive plan for digital India. In its platform-agnostic strategy, Eros has struck deals with OEMs and telecom operators such as Micromax, Airtel, Idea, LeEco, and Maxis.

    Through the Eros-Jio partnership, new and old movies including Bajirao Mastaani, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Tanu Weds Manu Returns, will be available on the JioOnDemand app. With 30 HD channels, Jio is offering live streaming of over 300 TV channels 10 genres and 15 languages.

    Available on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and pre-installed in Android TV, Eros Now crossed over 50 million registered users worldwide across WAP, APP, and Web, as of 30 June 2016. It has already crossed over 1.1 million active unique paying subscribers who have paid for at least one month.

    Eros released 14 films in Q1 FY17 of which three were high, two were medium and nine were low-budget films. Sardaar Gabbar Singh (Telugu),Housefull 3 (Hindi), 24 (Tamil), Marudhu (Tamil) and Ki and Ka (Hindi) were the main revenue earning films during the quarter. Eros Now is planning to acquire 10,000 additional films to add to its strong library.

    Eros Now, in October 2015, partnered with Ortel, an MSO (multi system operator) and ISP, to offer a subscription-based movie streaming service. Eros had, in August last year, also negotiated a partnership with Airtel to offer video and movie content on Wynk. Eros Now tied up with WeChat in June 2015 so as to allow users to watch videos, listen to music, and get Bollywood gossip and news. Eros Now, in the same month, inked a content acquisition deal with Hum TV of Pakistan.

    Eros Now has a five-year worldwide target of at least 15-20 million subscribers with a blended annual ARPU of $30 internationally and $5 from India. Trinity Pictures, owned by Eros International is building its franchises with two Sino-Indian co-productions, with a scheduled FY 2018 release.

    Eros Now hopes to achieve at least two million paying subscribers by the end of FY 2017 and five million paying subscribers by the end of FY-18.