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Tag: Paul Aiello

  • Banijay to acquire Endemol Shine in $2.2 billion deal

    Banijay to acquire Endemol Shine in $2.2 billion deal

    MUMBAI: Now that’s what we call a mother of an acquisition. French production company Banijay Group  – which is headed in Asia by Deepak Dhar – has announced that it will acquire the Walt Disney: Appollo Global Management-owned Endemol Shine Group at a sticker price of $2.2 billion.

    A press release stated that the deal will encompass Endemol Shine’s 120 production labels with an estimated 66,000 hours of scripted and non-scripted programming together with over 4,300 registered formats. Upon completion of the acquisition, Banijay Group will own almost 200 production companies in 23 territories and the rights for close to 100,000 hours of content. The merged entity will have around 100,000 hours of content, making it the largest non-US production outfit. Total pro-forma revenue of the combined group is expected to be approximately $3.3 billion for the year ending 31 December 2019.

    Parleys for a deal between the two have been going on for more than 18 months now. The asking price early on was a humungous $4 billion, which lead to other interested parties like talent agency Endeavor and ITV losing interest quickly.

    The acquisition will be financed through a capital increase of Banijay Group and committed debt financing, which includes a committed full refinancing of Banijay and Endemol Shine’s existing financial debt, supported by Deutsche Bank, Natixis and Société Générale. Endemol Shine’s respective debt was approximately $486 million ($539.5 million) and $1.83 billion ($2 billion) as of December 2018. Postclosing, the combined group will be held by LDH (67.1 per cent ) and Vivendi (32.9 per cent).

    LDH is a holding company controlled by Financière LOV (52 per cent), Banijay chairman Stéphane Courbit’s investment arm. LDH has the following other shareholders: the Italian Group De Agostini with 36 per cent  of the capital, and Fimalac, the investment company of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, which will own 12 per cent of the capital through a reserved capital increase dedicated to the financing of the Endemol Shine acquisition. In addition to a direct investment in LDH, Fimalac will reinforce its long-term partnership with Financière LOV by increasing its stake in Financière LOV from 5.75 per cent to 8.4 per cent.

    The press release stated that: “Boosting Banijay Group’s scripted credentials and further building its reputation as a go-to provider of high-quality unscripted IP, the combined catalogue is expected to include some of the world’s best known brands and formats such as Black Mirror, Versailles, The Millennium Trilogy, Peaky Blinders, Big Brother, MasterChef, Survivor, Temptation Island, Wife Swap and The Island. Furthermore, with a significantly broader brand portfolio, and larger creative platform, the combined group will be in an even stronger position to create, nurture and drive fresh IP for both linear broadcasters and new players.”

    “Endemol Shine brings an incredible array of industry-leading talent, globally-renowned brands and high-quality creative content. Combining the resources of these two companies will instantly strengthen our position in the global market, and our capabilities across genres will further define us as a go-to provider of first class IP worldwide. Welcoming the Endemol Shine brands and talents to our existing business will signal enhanced opportunities in the marketplace, and we are all excited by what the future holds for the combined entity,” said Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti.

    “At Endemol Shine, we have continually inspired and entertained audiences around the world, a testament to every single person across the Group. This deal takes us into a whole new and exciting chapter and into a new enhanced global content house with many opportunities ahead,” added Endemol Shine Group CEO Sophie Turner Laing.

    The merger – when it is approved by the authorities  – is likely to lead to a rationalisation of manpower at both the groups.

    In India, Endemol Shine is amongst the top three production companies by revenue and is headed by CEO Abhishekh Rege. The overseas merger will probably result in him once again reporting to his former Endemol Shine India boss Deepak Dhar who has since gone on to set up Banijay Asia. The latter has been on an overdrive and in a very short span of time has emerged as amongst the top 10 producers in India. The Rajeash Kamat, Paul Aiello-headed Emerald Media group is one of the equity owners in Endemol Shine India.

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    Amagi: KKR-backed Emerald leads US$35 million funding; buys stake

    MUMBAI: Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by the leading global investment firm KKR, has been keen to invest in the media and entertainment sector. Today, it announced acquisition of a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs (‘Amagi’), the leader in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure.

    Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji (an existing shareholder), is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary US$35 million (Rs 237 crore/ 2.4 billion) Series D round. Mayfield India and Nadathur Holdings will continue to remain invested in Amagi.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Emerald Media is led by industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, supported by an experienced team of investment and operating executives. Paul and Rajesh together have a combined experience of more than 30 years in the industry and bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach.

    Headquartered in Bengaluru with offices in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, Amagi is a next-generation media technology company providing cloud-based managed broadcast services and targeted advertising platforms to customers, worldwide. Amagi enables TV networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms. Using Amagi’s patented technologies, advertisers can target audiences at a regional level across traditional TV and OTT multiscreen platforms.

    Amagi has today scaled up to be one of India’s largest TV ad networks, playing around a million ad seconds every month on premium TV channels. With numerous installations of Amagi’s playout and edge insertion servers around the world, they are already a global force in the broadcasting technology domain. Amagi has deployments in over 30 countries for leading TV networks and is India’s largest TV Ad network supporting more than 3,000 brands.

    The growth capital from this round of funding will enable Amagi to expand its targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of TV broadcasters and OTT networks.

    Amagi co-founder Baskar Subramanian said, “Emerald Media has a strong understanding of the TV broadcast industry and the OTT space. Their domain expertise and regional and global media relationships will help us further leverage the transition of the TV broadcasting industry to the cloud and expand our international footprint.”

    Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat said, “Amagi has harnessed the transformative power of technology (both hardware and software) to change the way TV networks and brands perceive content delivery and monetisation. Emerald will assist Amagi in driving this change by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth.”

    Emerald Media MD Paul Aiello added, “Baskar, Srinivasan and Srividhya are the pioneers of targeted-TV advertisement in India. Amagi’s high degree of workflow automation make TV networks future-ready compared to traditional models.”

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.

  • Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    Vice Media partners with Times of India group for multiscreen & Viceland rollout

    MUMBAI: So iconic youth brand Vice Media CEO Shane Smith is making good his commitment to enter the Indian market.

    Shane had told Indiantelevision.com in April this year that “India is one of the most important markets for Vice. What we needed was platform, capital, navigation of bureaucracy, waters of media. We went into China and it took us longer than it should have. For India we said if we went in our own, it would take a long time to get to the scale we needed to be. So we took our time looking at a bunch of joint venture partners.”

    Amongst them was Star India, Reliance and The Times of India group. And Smith and his team have finally decided on Vice’s Indian partner: it is the Times of India group, which runs TimesNow, ET Now, MagicBricks Now, Movies Now, Zoom and RomedyNow,

    Additionally, the prowess of the Vijay-Ajay Nair run OML also impressed him and Vice executive vice-president international & corporate development James Rosenstock. OML, has over the past year reportedly – according to sources in investor circles – also come into the Times of India fold with Paul Aiello and Rajesh Kamat of Emerald Media (and formerly CA Media), divesting their holding in favour of arguably India’s largest media firm.

    Vice Media is partnering with the Times of India group to launch and distribute its Viceland channel in India, apart from producing digital and online, mobile, and TV content. Shane made the announcement at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier today.

    The plan is to set up new production facilities – new studios in Mumbai – and to hire scores of journalists, film makers, editors et al to roll out the signature Vice content for the Indian market. Additionally, a core management team is to be put in place to keep a tab on content creation, keeping the local sensibilities in mind.

    What is not clear at the time of writing what OML’s role, if any, is going to be in Viceland and in content creation for Vice’s India foray. .

    But what’s exciting Shane and his company, which has attracted investment to the tune of $700 million from 21st Century Fox and Disney, is the rollout of 4G services in India.

    “The hottest thing is going to be growth of 4G in India, the mobile for young people. It’s not there now, but India has the youngest population. Cheaper smart phones from China and India. So we want to get in build our audience, make our mistakes. So that when traction hits, we are there,” says Shane.

    Details of the joint venture were not available at the time of writing. Shane says that the Indian foray is the company’s largest investment in a country overseas.

    According to media reports, the joint venture will also spawn Vice Media’s in-house creative agency as Virtue India, which will help deliver native and branded content to its swathe of advertising partners. Shane says that the creative agency is an important pivot of his India play. “It will help us offset some of our risk. Existing brands and new brands want us to produce content for them. We discuss brand strategy with them and speak and understand their language,” he explains. “And they love what we do.”

    Shane announced a clutch of other partnerships during the Cannes Lions Festival which would see the debut of Viceland across 51 different territories and countries worldwide.

    For West Asia and North Africa, Vice has signed on The Moby Group as its partner even as it is set to open local production offices in Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It has got into bed with Econet Media in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out Viceland into 17 countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda and Sierra Leone by end-2017.

    It has lined up SBS Australia as its cohort for a free to air service for Aussie viewers, while Kiwis in New Zealand will be able to tune into Viceland as part of the basic tier on Sky. Vice Media has charged Singapore-based Multi Channels Asia with rolling out the channel into 18 territories in south east Asia with programming being developed by its in-house creative teams. The company’s home base – as is well known – is Canada and it has inked an agreement with GroupeV Media to launch Viceland in the French speaking part of the country.

    Shane and the Vice team sure know how to do things with a big bang. Now, the challenge for them will be to make the global push work and deliver both to the top line and the bottom line.

  • APOS 2016: Decoding APAC’s digital video and TV future

    APOS 2016: Decoding APAC’s digital video and TV future

    BALI: The stage is set for a crackling APOS 2016 in Bali. The annual do organized by Vivek Couto’s Media Partners Asia got off to a flying start this evening with the opening and welcome reception hosted by Disney.

    It was held on the lawns of the Ayana Resort in the Jimbaran district of Bali. The mood was perfect: the skies perfectly clear and the breeze gentle, unlike one of the years earlier when rain disrupted the proceedings. The beer, fruit juices and cocktails flowed freely as Asia Pacific’s TV and digital industry professionals hobnobbed with each other.

    The attendance was stellar: distribution executives, owners & promoters, CEOs, APAC heads,  from the broadcast, cable, satellite sides of the business were all there. HBO Asia head Jonathan Spinks, the new Netflix vice president business development Asia Tony Zameczkwoski, Vice’s iconoclast co-founder & CEO Shane Smith, Walt Disney Co SEVP and chief strategy officer Kevin Mayer, Fox Networks Group Asia President Zubin Gandevia, SES Asia senior VP commercial Deepak Mathur, TV5 Asia director Alexandre Muller,  were among the familiar faces from the APAC region. and elsewhere.

    Among the Indian big names who showed up included: Zee Entertainment international head Amit Goenka was seen with his international team of Rajeev Kheror and Mukund Cairae. Videocon d2h deputy CEO Rohit Jain, COO Himanshu Patil were seen chatting with partners. Indiacast’s Anuj Gandhi was seen hobnobbing with executives from the region. Times Network was represented by international business head Naveen Chandra. For some the festivities continued late into the night as they headed to various restaurants and warungs  across Bali for some of the delicious Balinese food.

    APOS 2016 is markedly different this time because of the focus on different countries. Australia, China, India, Korea and Japan have special sessions that will look at unraveling the opportunity in each of these markets.  

    Global media leaders have sessions on their own. Whether it is Shine Endemol’s Sophie Turner Laing, or Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Kevin Mayer or A&E Networks EVP & CFO David Granville-Smith or Kudelski Group chairman & CEO Andre Kudelski or Viacom International Media Networks President & CEO Bob Bakish, or Emerald Media CEO Paul Aiello – they have all turned up to attend, hear, network and speak. One noteworthy absence is Dreamworks’ Jeffery Katzenberg who has not been able to make it for personal reasons.

    Of course, as most of MPA’s gigs are vaunt to be, APOS 2016 has oodles of investment banks, private equity firm executives all lined up to give their perspective on video distribution opportunities in the Asia Pacific market and in which territories and businesses they are willing to invest in. Among the notable names here: Evolution Media Capital’s founder & co managing partner Rick Hess, CAA head of global client strategy Brian Weinstein, CMC Capital Partners chairman & founding partner Li Ruigang and MD Alex Chen, Providence Equity Partners Head of Asia Bis Subramanian, and senior advisor Tony Ball, Jungle Ventures managing partner David Gowdey, Paul Aiello, iflix group advisor David Goldstein, and Raine Ventures managing partner Godron Rubenstein.

    Several operational heads from the US, Europe and Asia who have their teeth in the business are also speaking. Among these: Discovery Networks Asia Pacific president & CEO Arthur Bastings, PCCW Media group MD Janice Lee, A+E Networks president international & digital media Sean Cohan, Optus CEO Allen Lew, Cartoon Network president & general manager Christina Miller, Taiwan Broadband executive vice-chairman Thomas EE, CJ E&M media content business president DJ Lee,

    Additionally,  the two days of the conference are peppered with digital video discussions considering that OTT and digital VOD services are exploding in the region, including in India.

    The India session looks appealing especially considering the rollout of digitization in India cable and satellite TV. Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta, Reliance Industries’ independent director o the board Adil Zainulbhai, Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal and Viacom18 Media Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats slated to give their perspectives.

    Indiantelevision.com will be reporting from Bali to give you updates that are relevant to the Indian distribution ecosystem – right from cable TV to DTH to OTT platforms to content creation. So stay tuned

  • APOS 2016: Decoding APAC’s digital video and TV future

    APOS 2016: Decoding APAC’s digital video and TV future

    BALI: The stage is set for a crackling APOS 2016 in Bali. The annual do organized by Vivek Couto’s Media Partners Asia got off to a flying start this evening with the opening and welcome reception hosted by Disney.

    It was held on the lawns of the Ayana Resort in the Jimbaran district of Bali. The mood was perfect: the skies perfectly clear and the breeze gentle, unlike one of the years earlier when rain disrupted the proceedings. The beer, fruit juices and cocktails flowed freely as Asia Pacific’s TV and digital industry professionals hobnobbed with each other.

    The attendance was stellar: distribution executives, owners & promoters, CEOs, APAC heads,  from the broadcast, cable, satellite sides of the business were all there. HBO Asia head Jonathan Spinks, the new Netflix vice president business development Asia Tony Zameczkwoski, Vice’s iconoclast co-founder & CEO Shane Smith, Walt Disney Co SEVP and chief strategy officer Kevin Mayer, Fox Networks Group Asia President Zubin Gandevia, SES Asia senior VP commercial Deepak Mathur, TV5 Asia director Alexandre Muller,  were among the familiar faces from the APAC region. and elsewhere.

    Among the Indian big names who showed up included: Zee Entertainment international head Amit Goenka was seen with his international team of Rajeev Kheror and Mukund Cairae. Videocon d2h deputy CEO Rohit Jain, COO Himanshu Patil were seen chatting with partners. Indiacast’s Anuj Gandhi was seen hobnobbing with executives from the region. Times Network was represented by international business head Naveen Chandra. For some the festivities continued late into the night as they headed to various restaurants and warungs  across Bali for some of the delicious Balinese food.

    APOS 2016 is markedly different this time because of the focus on different countries. Australia, China, India, Korea and Japan have special sessions that will look at unraveling the opportunity in each of these markets.  

    Global media leaders have sessions on their own. Whether it is Shine Endemol’s Sophie Turner Laing, or Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Kevin Mayer or A&E Networks EVP & CFO David Granville-Smith or Kudelski Group chairman & CEO Andre Kudelski or Viacom International Media Networks President & CEO Bob Bakish, or Emerald Media CEO Paul Aiello – they have all turned up to attend, hear, network and speak. One noteworthy absence is Dreamworks’ Jeffery Katzenberg who has not been able to make it for personal reasons.

    Of course, as most of MPA’s gigs are vaunt to be, APOS 2016 has oodles of investment banks, private equity firm executives all lined up to give their perspective on video distribution opportunities in the Asia Pacific market and in which territories and businesses they are willing to invest in. Among the notable names here: Evolution Media Capital’s founder & co managing partner Rick Hess, CAA head of global client strategy Brian Weinstein, CMC Capital Partners chairman & founding partner Li Ruigang and MD Alex Chen, Providence Equity Partners Head of Asia Bis Subramanian, and senior advisor Tony Ball, Jungle Ventures managing partner David Gowdey, Paul Aiello, iflix group advisor David Goldstein, and Raine Ventures managing partner Godron Rubenstein.

    Several operational heads from the US, Europe and Asia who have their teeth in the business are also speaking. Among these: Discovery Networks Asia Pacific president & CEO Arthur Bastings, PCCW Media group MD Janice Lee, A+E Networks president international & digital media Sean Cohan, Optus CEO Allen Lew, Cartoon Network president & general manager Christina Miller, Taiwan Broadband executive vice-chairman Thomas EE, CJ E&M media content business president DJ Lee,

    Additionally,  the two days of the conference are peppered with digital video discussions considering that OTT and digital VOD services are exploding in the region, including in India.

    The India session looks appealing especially considering the rollout of digitization in India cable and satellite TV. Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta, Reliance Industries’ independent director o the board Adil Zainulbhai, Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal and Viacom18 Media Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats slated to give their perspectives.

    Indiantelevision.com will be reporting from Bali to give you updates that are relevant to the Indian distribution ecosystem – right from cable TV to DTH to OTT platforms to content creation. So stay tuned

  • The rationale behind Star India’s reorganization

    The rationale behind Star India’s reorganization

    MUMBAI: The buzz had been gathering pace since Ficci Frames in Mumbai at the beginning of this month. Change is  afoot at India’s leading media and entertainment major the 21st Century Fox owned Star India. But nobody was willing to say what. The company’s executives murmured that its businesses had developed octopus like and CEO Uday Shankar along with 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch was planning a managerial rejig.

    Management firm The Boston Consulting Group had been given the mandate of coming up with an organizational structure that would empower Star India’s senior executive team, unleash their expertise to execute and monetise the business strategy that Uday has put in place for the group to the fullest.

    The reorganization would allow Uday, who has been leading Star India at a frenetic pace over  the past few years to have some breathing space to further evolve the business plans that the Murdochs have for their Asian jewel and also get a helicopter view of the goings-on.

    And today’s announcement at a town hall within Star India seems to be a master stroke of sorts, according to several Star observers. A former Star India executive went as far as to say that it is a stroke of genius.  According to him, the entire burden of steering the company into the behemoth that it has become had fallen on Uday.

    When he was handpicked out of nowhere by the then News Corp COO Peter Chernin and Star group boss Paul Aiello to run Star India as its COO – a terrain he was not really familiar with – it was a market leader which had lost its way and was a much smaller operation: focused on simple general entertainment with a small interest in regional languages and sport. There was very little strength in senior management. Uday first went about tweaking the programming and took the network gradually to the No 1 spot. He simultaneously brought in senior professionals from the best companies to strengthen his core team. Over the years, he offloaded  investments Star India had made in other ventures, pumped in money into acquiring other regional networks,  made big bets on  sports and sports television, steered the media and entertainment major into the digital VOD ecosystem. And he roped in even more professionals to incubate these forays.

    The Star India of today is a very different beast from the one it was when he first stepped into its offices.

    Observers say that by elevating  himself  as chairman and CEO he has taken the load off his shoulders and is sharing the burden with his fellow professionals.  “He’s done the hard work with the various executive teams putting together all these verticals,” says a management consultant. “Now he’s empowering them allowing them to function like intrapreneurs. Which is the best thing he could do.”

    Thus Sanjay Gupta, the current COO has been elevated to managing director-Star India and K. Madhavan to managing director-South. Both Gupta and Madhavan will continue to report to Uday Shankar. Madhavan will have Kevin Vaz reporting to him as his CEO and looking after all of Star India’s southern interests.

    Sanjay on his part has a clutch of CEOs reporting into him responsible for key silos:

    empowered business units each with its own CEO reporting to Sanjay Gupta:

    · Amit Chopra, CEO of Entertainment, which spans drama and movie channels across national and regional channels in Hindi, English, Bengali and Marathi

    · Nitin Kukreja, CEO of Sports, which includes a leading portfolio of channels under the Star Sports banner

    · Ajit Mohan, CEO of Digital, which oversees Hotstar.  

    · Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox STAR Studios, which produces and distributes Bollywood and regional films

    * A Pan Indian content studio headed by Gaurav Banerjee to produce cutting edge innovation in programming.

    “This is a world class team that has powered Star  to the No. 1 position in the Media and Entertainment industry in India,” said Uday in a press release issued today on the reorganization. “We have set ourselves a bold growth agenda and these changes will deepen the leadership bench, unlock entrepreneurial energy and position Star better to deliver on its ambitions.”

    Top of that ambition heap is the target to attain an operating profit of $1 billion plus by  from 21st Century Fox’s Indian offshoot by 2020. With that rock solid team in place, Uday and James  will have more energetic legs to race to the finishing post.

  • The rationale behind Star India’s reorganization

    The rationale behind Star India’s reorganization

    MUMBAI: The buzz had been gathering pace since Ficci Frames in Mumbai at the beginning of this month. Change is  afoot at India’s leading media and entertainment major the 21st Century Fox owned Star India. But nobody was willing to say what. The company’s executives murmured that its businesses had developed octopus like and CEO Uday Shankar along with 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch was planning a managerial rejig.

    Management firm The Boston Consulting Group had been given the mandate of coming up with an organizational structure that would empower Star India’s senior executive team, unleash their expertise to execute and monetise the business strategy that Uday has put in place for the group to the fullest.

    The reorganization would allow Uday, who has been leading Star India at a frenetic pace over  the past few years to have some breathing space to further evolve the business plans that the Murdochs have for their Asian jewel and also get a helicopter view of the goings-on.

    And today’s announcement at a town hall within Star India seems to be a master stroke of sorts, according to several Star observers. A former Star India executive went as far as to say that it is a stroke of genius.  According to him, the entire burden of steering the company into the behemoth that it has become had fallen on Uday.

    When he was handpicked out of nowhere by the then News Corp COO Peter Chernin and Star group boss Paul Aiello to run Star India as its COO – a terrain he was not really familiar with – it was a market leader which had lost its way and was a much smaller operation: focused on simple general entertainment with a small interest in regional languages and sport. There was very little strength in senior management. Uday first went about tweaking the programming and took the network gradually to the No 1 spot. He simultaneously brought in senior professionals from the best companies to strengthen his core team. Over the years, he offloaded  investments Star India had made in other ventures, pumped in money into acquiring other regional networks,  made big bets on  sports and sports television, steered the media and entertainment major into the digital VOD ecosystem. And he roped in even more professionals to incubate these forays.

    The Star India of today is a very different beast from the one it was when he first stepped into its offices.

    Observers say that by elevating  himself  as chairman and CEO he has taken the load off his shoulders and is sharing the burden with his fellow professionals.  “He’s done the hard work with the various executive teams putting together all these verticals,” says a management consultant. “Now he’s empowering them allowing them to function like intrapreneurs. Which is the best thing he could do.”

    Thus Sanjay Gupta, the current COO has been elevated to managing director-Star India and K. Madhavan to managing director-South. Both Gupta and Madhavan will continue to report to Uday Shankar. Madhavan will have Kevin Vaz reporting to him as his CEO and looking after all of Star India’s southern interests.

    Sanjay on his part has a clutch of CEOs reporting into him responsible for key silos:

    empowered business units each with its own CEO reporting to Sanjay Gupta:

    · Amit Chopra, CEO of Entertainment, which spans drama and movie channels across national and regional channels in Hindi, English, Bengali and Marathi

    · Nitin Kukreja, CEO of Sports, which includes a leading portfolio of channels under the Star Sports banner

    · Ajit Mohan, CEO of Digital, which oversees Hotstar.  

    · Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox STAR Studios, which produces and distributes Bollywood and regional films

    * A Pan Indian content studio headed by Gaurav Banerjee to produce cutting edge innovation in programming.

    “This is a world class team that has powered Star  to the No. 1 position in the Media and Entertainment industry in India,” said Uday in a press release issued today on the reorganization. “We have set ourselves a bold growth agenda and these changes will deepen the leadership bench, unlock entrepreneurial energy and position Star better to deliver on its ambitions.”

    Top of that ambition heap is the target to attain an operating profit of $1 billion plus by  from 21st Century Fox’s Indian offshoot by 2020. With that rock solid team in place, Uday and James  will have more energetic legs to race to the finishing post.

  • KKR partners with CA Media; to invest $300 m in Asian M&E sector

    KKR partners with CA Media; to invest $300 m in Asian M&E sector

    MUMBAI:  Media and entertainment entrepreneurs in Asia can look forward to another potential investor in their initiatives, courtesy Emerald Media. Emerald is a new media investment vehicle which has been set up by global investment film KKR and the Chernin Group – promoted by former News Corp top boss Peter Chernin.  KKR has committed up to $300 million to the Emerald Media platform from its KKR Asian Fund II and The Chernin Group will join as a minority co-investor.

    KKR has also acquired a significant, minority stake in CA Media, the existing Asian media portfolio of The Chernin Group.

    Industry veterans Rajesh Kamat and Paul Aiello, who have so far been managing CA Media, will jointly head Emerald Media and will be joined by an experienced team of operating executives. Emerald Media will have offices in Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. CA Media, which has assets in India (Endemol Shine India, Graphic India, Fluence, and Only Much Louder) and in Indonesia in its portfolio, will continue to be headed by Kamat and Aiello.

     

    The duo together has more than 30 years of experience in the media and entertainment industries in Asia. They bring a unique blend of operational and investment acumen to their business approach. Mr. Aiello is the current Group CEO of CA Media, the former CEO of News Corp.’s Star TV Asia, and former Head of TMT investment banking at Morgan Stanley Asia. . Kamat is currently the Group COO of CA Media and was formerly COO of Viacom18 Group and CEO of Colors.

    Emerald Media will focus primarily on providing growth capital ranging from US$15 million-US$75 million for both control and significant minority positions to media, entertainment, and digital media businesses in Asia.

     

    Joseph Y. Bae, Member of KKR & Managing Partner of KKR Asia, said, “The growing middle class in the region is using its discretionary income on Internet connectivity, but the industry itself is fragmented. Investing behind proven leaders in industries with high growth potential and partnering with them to grow their business is a cornerstone of KKR’s Asia strategy. We look forward to working with experienced media leaders Rajesh and Paul in this dynamic sector.”

    Sanjay Nayar, Member of KKR & CEO of KKR India, added, “The media, entertainment and digital media segment across Asia especially in India enjoys attractive macro fundamentals, mirroring the trajectory of the region’s consumer sector. This is a fragmented industry, and we are excited to work with industry veterans to identify the next generation of media and entertainment companies we can partner with and support.”

     

    Peter Chernin, Chairman and CEO of The Chernin Group, noted: “This partnership provides TCG and its fellow investors in CA Media with a unique opportunity to continue to work with a best in class management team and leading global investors at KKR in Asia.”

    “The media and entertainment sector is on the cusp of a strong growth phase—driven by media convergence, an attractive investment environment, and rising discretionary spends. With the building blocks for growth in place, there is a significant opportunity to create a diversified portfolio of assets in this space, building on our accomplishments and ongoing work with CA Media and The Chernin Group,” said Rajesh Kamat.

     

    Paul Aiello further added, “With the Asia media industry experiencing rapid and transformational changes driven by digitization and growing internet and mobile penetration, Emerald Media will invest across mediums, demographics, and revenue models to continue driving such transformation.”