ITV

Tag: TV Asia

  • Sahara in talks to acquire TV Asia

    Sahara in talks to acquire TV Asia

    MUMBAI: The Sahara Group is in talks with Asia Star Broadcasting Inc. to acquire TV Asia, an entertainment and information channel for South Asian audiences in the United States.

    TV Asia founder HR Shah met Sahara officials, including founder-promoter Subrato Roy and son Sushanto Roy, in Lucknow a week ago in this regard. “We are in discussions. Shah was here. We are likely to do a due diligence on TV Asia,” Sushanto Roy, who heads Sahara’s media and entertainment business, told indiantelevision.com.

    Acquisition of a controlling stake or a total buyout are two of the options being considered. Sahara will conduct a valuation exercise only after a formal offer from Shah is received however.

    “Shah is expected to make a formal offer soon. We will then give the mandate for due diligence,” says Sahara India Entertainment Management chief operating officer Peter Isaac. Sahara India Entertainment is a 50:50 management joint venture with Percept Finserve to manage all Sahara’s media and entertainment businesses. Sahara recently brought all its media and entertainment businesses – television, motion pictures, radio and special identity – under a single entity called SaharaOne.

    Sahara is planning to launch its channel overseas, including in the US and UK markets. “We could use TV Asia to enter the US market. But we haven’t finalised our plans yet. We could also enter the overseas markets on our own,” says Roy.

    TV Asia, which started in April 1993, airs programming in Hindi, English, Gujarati and other regional languages. The content ranges from news to educational programmes, dramas, music and movies.

    News is in Hindi, English and Gujarati. The channel airs not only Hindi movies but also in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. Asia Star Broadcasting is backed by an international consortium of media professionals and businessmen.

  • Sony strikes deal with Echostar for US return next month

    Sony strikes deal with Echostar for US return next month

    After being off for close to a month in the US, Hindi entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television is looking at making a comeback by next month. The channel inked an agreement with Echostar on 22 May in the US under which the DBS service will distribute it to Dish Network subscribers. Dish has close to 6 million subs in the US. 

    Echostar has made a minimum guarantee (MG) commitment to Sony team to bring it on to its platform. If subscribers cross a particular level, says SET COO Rajesh Pant, “we will get the MG plus a percentage of the subscriber fee. Now if these two put together cross a certain threshhold, we will get a higher percentage of the subscription fee.”

    The SET management is working out a plan to enable earlier subscribers on the EABC platform on DirectTV to migrate to the Echostar service. They have already invested in dishes and boxes for Direct TV. “We will give them incentives to migrate like free dishes and boxes or price-offs on both,” says Pant.

    SET, along with an EABC-produced channel Network Asia had close to 7,000 subscribers before it went off the air. Pant says packages are being worked out with $14.99 for a single channel; $24.99 for two channels. The other channels on the ethnic Dish platform are: B4U, Zee TV, Zee Gold, TV Asia.

    Pant points out that SET is set to expand the US team so that it can push better in the US market. “We are looking at distribution and marketing and advertising professionals,” he says. But the service will first have to get going and pacify Indian denizens who have been quite irritated by its untimely shutoff from the DirectTV platform.