ITV

Tag: Pentamedia

  • Pentamedia set to launch its broadband portal

    Pentamedia set to launch its broadband portal

    Chennai-based Pentamedia Graphics Limited is slated to launch its Internet television venture called NumTV (New Millennium TV) in the US on 14 April 2000. www.numtv.com or NumTV is an entertainment portal catering to the Asian diaspora worldwide. Its objective initially is to bring India in all its colours to Asians across the globe.

    The company, which started its test run in December 1999, has so far invested close to $20 million in infrastructural facilities, which are spread across in three cities namely Los Angeles (US), Singapore and Chennai (India).

    Says Pentamedia Graphics director V Sundararjan: “NumTV.com is specially being developed for those who are away from home as well as for those who would love to see their favourite programmes live at home, at any hour of the day and in any part of the world. NumTV will be webcasting 40 Asian Channels (including 25 Indian channels), latest news events, sports, attractive programmes, movies, music (including live coverage).”

    He adds, “The demand for the programmes by the consumers could also increase and we are trying to give them complete entertainment on the net. The programmes are being made available to the viewers who wish to watch at their convenience and cater to the different time zones across the globe.”

    Unlike other dotcom companies, NumTV is looking at integrating newspaper dailies on the Internet. Says Sunderarjan: “We are looking at having newspapers and magazines and journals on NumTV.com and providing rich content to the news and feature stories. What we mean by rich content is that the stories and features would be accompanied with some good animation and graphics. The content would be changed to suit the stories. Num TV will be available in various languages and will evolve itself to be accessed through Radio, Print and also stage live shows shortly.”

    NumTV.com will cater to the Asian community but Indians will not be able to view the broadband content due to the non-availability of high-speed access. But once it kicks off in India, NumTV.com hopes to be a success there too. The broadband portal will face competition from the recently launched Homeland Networks’ tvofindia.com which too targets a similar community.

  • Indian contingent active at Asian TV Forum

    Indian contingent active at Asian TV Forum

    SINGAPORE: The Indian contingent came out in full force at the Asian Television Forum in Singapore’s Orange Grove located at the Shangri La Hotel. Four Indian suites marked Asia’s favourite programming market – Zee Telefilms, Pentamedia, Sony Entertainment, and Indian Television Dot Com.

    SET had a full contingent: Sunil Lulla, Lakshman, Sharada, Tarun Katial, who even spoke earlier in the day in a session entitled co-productions Marriages of convenience. SET Singapore boss Banu Velloo also made an appearance at the market.

    Says SET’s Lulla: “It has been a good market for us so far. It’s only going to get better by tomorrow. We have had several good meetings.”

    Zee was represented by Mallvika, Ajay Trigunayat and Singapore based Tripta Singh. While Mallvika was selling Zee’s huge library of programmes, Trigunayat was looking to source content.

    “We are looking for great shows for our huge bouquet of channels. Formats and what have you,” offers Trigunayat.

    Pentamedia, which has in recent times restructured itself into MayaJaal and Pentamedia, was having meetings with clients to broadcast partners for its Buddha and Sinbad animation series.

    Speaking of meetings, the ATF is certainly a place to exchange notes with industry colleagues. Which was what Natasha Malhotra, MTV vice-president & executive producer and Amit Malhotra, Buena Vista International Television – Asia Pacific, seemed to be doing.

    And Indian Television Dot Com – well it was offering the DVD licensing rights to its Sangini Indian Telly Awards show aired recently on Sony Entertainment Television.

  • Indian contingent active at Asian TV Forum

    Indian contingent active at Asian TV Forum

    SINGAPORE: The Indian contingent came out in full force at the Asian Television Forum in Singapore’s Orange Grove located at the Shangri La Hotel. Four Indian suites marked Asia’s favourite programming market – Zee Telefilms, Pentamedia, Sony Entertainment, and Indian Television Dot Com.

    SET had a full contingent: Sunil Lulla, Lakshman, Sharada, Tarun Katial, who even spoke earlier in the day in a session entitled co-productions Marriages of convenience. SET Singapore boss Banu Velloo also made an appearance at the market.

    Says SET’s Lulla: “It has been a good market for us so far. It’s only going to get better by tomorrow. We have had several good meetings.”

    Zee was represented by Mallvika, Ajay Trigunayat and Singapore based Tripta Singh. While Mallvika was selling Zee’s huge library of programmes, Trigunayat was looking to source content.

    “We are looking for great shows for our huge bouquet of channels. Formats and what have you,” offers Trigunayat.

    Pentamedia, which has in recent times restructured itself into MayaJaal and Pentamedia, was having meetings with clients to broadcast partners for its Buddha and Sinbad animation series.

    And Indian Television Dot Com – well it was offering the DVD licensing rights to its Sangini Indian Telly Awards show aired recently on Sony Entertainment Television.

  • Pentamedia arm gets license for earth station

    Pentamedia arm gets license for earth station

    MUMBAI: The wholly-owned subsidiary of Pentamedia Graphics, Intelivision Ltd has received a license from the information and broadcasting ministry to set up its own earth station.

    Pentamedia Graphics chairman Dr V Chandrasekaran has been quoted in The Hindu Business Line, saying that beside the earth station the company has also obtained a teleport license for uplinking five channels by hiring transponder space.

    According to the media report, Chandrasekhran volunteered the information at a press conference announcing a new line up of programming on the company’s channel Splash.

    The teleport will be up and running by the end of the year. The channel is currently being web cast on Numtv.com, a web casting portal.

  • Pentamedia board okays equity issue

    Pentamedia board okays equity issue

    MUMBAI: The Pentamedia Graphics board, in its meeting on 12 September 2003, has approved the issue and allotment of equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 1.36 per share.

    The board has agreed to convert the share warrants into equity share certificates within 18 months from the date of allotment on preferential basis.

    Pentamedia, which has been in the news since 2001 for a merger here and a de-merger there, recently approved the acquisition of Intelivision Ltd by stock swap method.

    The scrip has been moving in the Rs 10.30 to Rs 12.00 range in the past week and stripped three per cent on volumes of over 23.5 lakhs in yesterday’s plunging market.

  • Crest Comm approves delisting, GDR issue of $ 10 million

    Crest Comm approves delisting, GDR issue of $ 10 million

    MUMBAI: Mumbai-based Crest Communications Ltd is going the GDR way to raise funds for the company.

    In the annual general meeting (AGM) held on 8 September 2003, the members of Crest Communications Ltd have approved a GDR issue not exceeding $ 10 million. The shareholders have also approved the delisting of the company from the Ahmedabad and Chennai stock exchanges. Additionally, the borrowing limit for the board of directors has been set at Rs 1000 million.

    Earlier, at its meeting held on 31 July 2003, the board had already agreed to take the above issues to the members for approval.

    Crest Communications is primarily into animation software. It specialises in multi-format digital production and post-production editing. Its mainline business includes commercial television serials and packaging, ad films, 3D/2D animation and special effects.

    The company reportedly plans to ramp-up the number of computer graphic workstations from 120 to about 300 by the year-end, which is expected to cost the company about Rs 500-600 million.

    Earlier this year, Crest Communications had bagged three 3D animation television series worth over $6 million from the US-based Mike Productions. Its competitors in India include Pentamedia, UTV Toons, Colour Chips and the Padmalaya-Zee Telefilms combine.

  • Pentamedia to fine-tune Intelivision stock swap on 27 August 2003

    MUMBAI: Pentamedia Graphics, which has been in the news since 2001 for a merger here and a de-merger there, is having a board meeting tomorrow to work out the acquisition of Intelivision Ltd.
    Intelivison, which was started with a seed capital of Rs 30 lakhs by Pentamedia had been de-merged in 2001 after Pentamedia diluted its stake in Intelivison to less than 30 per cent.
    Now, the board is getting together to fine-tune the issue and allotment of 15,300,000 equity shares by stock swap method to merge back Intelivison with the erstwhile parent company Pentamedia. The members have already approved the stock swap at the AGM held on 22 August 2003.

  • Animation producers form association

    Animation producers form association

    NEW DELHI: The Animation Producers’ Association Of India (APAI) is being formally inaugurated in New Delhi today.

    Twenty animation production houses, including UTV Toons, Pentamedia, Padmalaya, Crest and Maya Entertainment have decided to join forces to market India as an important centre for outsourcing content, according to media reports. The association will create a common website, produce CD-ROM’s and participate in international festivals like MIPCOM 2002 at Cannes.

    ” If India desires to garner five to seven per cent of the outsourcing market in the next two to three years, it will need to lobby together as a body and get industry status from the government. The government has to take several initiatives,” UTV Toons’ chief operating officer Biren Ghose has been quoted as saying.

  • Nickelodeon gets set for May action

    Nickelodeon gets set for May action

    Even as the Disney threat continues to loom large on the horizon, children’s channel Nickelodeon is finally making a serious play for the viewer’s attention.

    After nearly 18 months of being around, Nick is seeing better carriage in Mumbai, at least. Says Sanjeev Hiremath, vice-president, network development, South Asia, licensing and merchandising, MTV India, “This kind of favourable positioning by the cable fraternity is being achieved without resorting to paying carriage fees.” Hiremath claims the channel’s reach touched 9.8 million by March and would reach 11 million this month.

    Beginning this month, Nick is also going all out with some serious promotional activity in the form of movie screenings, direct contact campaigns aimed at kids, banners in various localities and contests. The channel is also trying to shed the myth that it is trying to woo viewers away from chief rival Cartoon Network. Hiremath says it would be wrong to assume that Nick’s growth depended solely on how much it could grab from Cartoon Network’s viewer base. Nick’s target audience is eight to 14-year-olds while Cartoon Network’s audience was mainly kids who were eight and under, he maintains.

    Nick may well have its work cut out, considering that Pentamedia promoted Splash, another kids’ channel, is also aggressively trying to expand its presence. Splash’s current target is to fan out with telecasts to 23 of what are normally classified as the TRP metros and cities. This will comprise places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Goa and towns of Punjab among others.

  • Pentamedia to get 49.9% Film Roman stock for $10 m in reworked deal

    Pentamedia to get 49.9% Film Roman stock for $10 m in reworked deal

    After a series of modifications, Indian multimedia production firm Pentamedia Graphics Ltd and US-based animation producer Film Roman Inc. have reached agreement on a deal that gives Pentamedia a 49.9 per cent stake in Film Roman valued at $10,000,000.

    Under the new terms, Pentamedia will be issued one new share of Film Roman’s common stock for each $1.17 in value it receives from Pentamedia. Upon completion of the transaction, Pentamedia will own up to 49.946% of Film Roman’s common stock, with an overall valuation of up to $10,000,000. The specifics of the restructured transaction are being finalised by the two companies and any necessary approvals will be sought in the near future, the release states.

    In a joint statement, V Chandrasekaran, CEO of Pentamedia and John Hyde, CEO of Film Roman said: “We have restructured the agreement between us and look forward to finalising the transaction so that we can start building on the strengths of our respective companies.”

    Early last month the whole deal seemed threatened with Film Roman filing a complaint with the US Securities & Exchange Commission claiming Pentamedia was unable to close the transaction on terms earlier agreed by both the firms and approved by Film Roman’s shareholders.

    As per the earlier agreement, Pentamedia was to acquire a fully diluted 60 per cent stake of Film Roman in the form of newly issued common stock for $15 million in cash.

    It was in October last year that Pentamedia last year announced a deal with Film Roman which it said would help it get better access to the US markets.