Zee Entertainment acquires Odia GEC Sarthak TV for Rs 115 crore : economic Times

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZELL) is all set to acquire Odia general

entertainment channel Sarthak TV which is owned by Sarthak Entertainment. The

acquisition will be from current shareholders of Sarthak Entertainment Private Limited,

subject to requisite regulatory approvals, as an all­cash deal at a consideration of maximum

of Rs 115 Crores.

With this acquisition, ZEEL strengthens its regional offering with the objective of growing

rapidly in Odisha. Sarthak TV airs highly a mix of reality and non­fiction shows besides

fiction programming.

The other regional channels from the ZEEL bouquet are Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee

Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Tamizh.

Commenting on the acquisition, MD & CEO of ZEEL, Punit Goenka said, "The acquisition of

an already profitable, market­leading venture is going to be a value accretive investment in

line with our philosophy of enhancing shareholder value. Sarthak will further add to our

formidable bouquet of 33 channels in the domestic market".

Sitaram Agrawalla, Founder & Managing Director of the Sarthak Group and Raj Thourani, Director, Sarthak TV, further added, "Sarthak will now be a part of India's leading entertainment network. Being the oldest and market leading network in India, ZEEL would provide the perfect platform for Sarthak to grow further in the future. With a history of successful operations, we are sure Sarthak will be a great value add for ZEEL

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Eros to invest $25 million to develop original content for online channel : Economic Times

MUMBAI: Eros International is investing $25 million, or about Rs 160 crore, in developing

original content for its fully­owned online channel ErosNow, said Jyoti Deshpande, group

CEO and managing director at the Mumbaibased film production house. "Original content is

the way forward," she said.

In India for the official marketing launch of ErosNow, Deshpande refused to comment on

recent media reports that two of Eros International's top shareholders, Temasek and

Fullerton Fund Management, were in talks to acquire up to 10 per cent stake in ErosNow. A

couple of people close to the NYSE­listed company is ready to dilute up to 10 per cent stake

in the online channel and, according to media analysts, it could fetch up to Rs 500 crore.

Deshpande said, "We are poised to take advantage of the brisklygrowing broadband

penetration and the imminent launch of 4G technology to reach out to the potential audience

offered by close to a billion mobile connections."

Also, a huge upsurge is expected in advertising spend on the digital platform. A Goldman

Sachs report predicted it to touch $2.7 billion by 2020.

"As consumption patterns change globally, Internet entertainment networks have begun to replace traditional, linear television,"

Deshpande said. "With the strength of our vast content library, Eros will reinvent itself from a film studio to a more consumer facing content and digital company in the next phase of growth," she said.

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Eros International, Pakistan's HUM TV ink content pact : Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Film entertainment firm Eros International today announced a content acquisition deal with Pakistan's on­air and digital content firm HUM TV for an undisclosed amount.

The deal is signed between company's online entertainment portal, ErosNow and HUM TV,

Eros International said in a filing to the BSE.

"The deal entails the registered users of ErosNow across the world access to HUM TV's entire library, including the current shows at no extra subscription cost," it added.

Besides, ErosNow subscribers in India will also get an exclusive opportunity to view the content 48 hours prior to its telecast on any other platform, it added.

ErosNow CEO Rishika Lulla Singh said the partnership would give the company's subscribers an opportunity "to view the much sought after and varied Pakistani content".

Hum Network President Sultana Siddiqui said: "The association enables us in reaching out and providing some of our best Pakistani contents to millions of keen internet users across the globe."

ErosNow is an on­demand entertainment portal offering Bollywood movies and a large section of television content syndicated from major TV studios besides music and audio tracks.

Shares of Eros International were treading at Rs 490.20 per scrip in the mid­day trade, down 1.83 per cent from the previous close on BSE.

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India to have 1.4 Billion mobile subscriptions by 2020-Ericsson Report : AnimationXpress.com

Ericsson today for the first time released the India appendix of the Ericsson Mobility Report, which shows key trends and forecasts on mobile traffic, subscriptions, consumer behavior and technology uptake specific to India. As per the report, the total number of mobile subscriptions in India is expected to increase to approximately 1.4 billion by 2020, resulting in a population penetration of 100 per cent. This growth will primarily be driven by the increasing affordability of devices and services.

The report reveals that the GSM/EDGE subscriber base is expected to peak in 2015 and expected to decline thereafter as subscribers migrate to 3G services. The WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions are expected to grow from over 120 million in 2014 to around 620 million by 2020, with the proportion of WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions in the total subscription base touching 45 per cent by that time. LTE subscriptions are likely to reach more than 230 million, forming around 17 per cent of the total subscription base by 2020.

GSM/EDGE technology currently has the widest reach in India, with 95 per cent population coverage. WCDMA/HSPA covered more than 35 per cent of the Indian population at the end of 2014, and is expected to cover approximately 90 per cent by the end of 2020. Additionally, around 40 per cent of the population will be covered by LTE networks by 2020.

In terms of demographics, the proportion of people aged over 50 who use smartphones quadrupled between 2013 and 2015, albeit from a small base. In the same period, there was a three-fold growth in the proportion of 31-40 year old mobile data users.

On average, Indian smartphone users spend over three hours a day on their smartphones and 25 per cent of them check their phones over 100 times a day. Around one third of the time spent on smartphones is used for apps, primarily chat, social media, and gaming. 65 per cent of mobile broadband smartphone users in India prefer video streaming to downloading videos on handsets.

Affordability of smartphones will drive the overall affordability of mobile broadband in India. The number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to reach over 750 million by 2020, up from 130 million in 2014. The continued growth in smartphone subscriptions will lead to an accelerated growth in data usage; monthly mobile data consumption is expected to increase 18-fold by the year 2020 over current levels.

Ericsson, head of region – India, Chris Houghton says: “Maintaining and improving quality of the user experience is likely to be at the top of Indian operators’ agenda over the coming years. A network with a mix of macro sites, micro sites and small cells will need to be established to manage coverage, capacity and network performance for the best user experience and to meet the growing demand for data services.”

Video streaming accounts for the most used mobile data service amongst Indians, followed by social networking. 70 per cent of mobile broadband smartphone users regularly stream videos on their smartphones, and 61 per cent use social networks. Indian smartphone users are also seeing great potential in mobile broadband when it comes to facilitating the way they handle their money and personal finances.

The global Ericsson Mobility Report released earlier this month stated that India grew the most in terms of mobile subscribers, with 26 million net additions in first quarter this year, followed by China (+8 million), Myanmar (+5 million), Indonesia (+4 million), and Japan (+4 million).

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Global M&E Industry: India leads digital drive: The Hindu

For a change, India is found leading the world in virtualisation of content in the Media and Entertainment (M&E) business thereby creating an edge in this domain.

India’s top M&E companies namely Star India, Zee Entertainment, Sony and Colors have already adopted the digital mode in key workflow processes across the supply chain, two years ahead their western counterparts thus sharply increasing the output of their executives engaged in content creation and saving 30 to 40 per cent on cost.

In this digital drive by moving their content to the cloud, these firms are now able to have real time collaboration in the areas of production and distribution, reach out to their overseas customers in a few hours of the local telecast, supply video on demand to customers and prevent piracy.

India went from paper to paperless in the 90s, the manufacturing sector embraced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) during the same time to transform its processes and the banking sector underwent drastic changes by adopting information technology in a big way but the M&E sector functioned the way it was.

Considering that M&E business never had a big craze for technology adoption, Indian M&E companies, which had skipped technology generations are now actually leading the revolution across the world, according experts.

While Star India adopted the digital process in all its workflow, the equivalent of ERP in manufacturing, in April 2011, others gradually followed and are now 18 to 24 months ahead of their global peers. To put things in prospective M&E companies from the U.K. and the U.S. are adopting media ERP only now.

With the change, M&E executives are now able to live in the physical world and work on several content forms in the virtual world available on digital devices without being actually present at every location, be it the place of shooting, studio or editing room. They are now able to access unedited or edited video anytime and place of their choice.

This has been made possible by an Indian company called Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), a part of the world’s largest integrated media services company Prime Focus Ltd., which has aggregated the diverse stakeholders of the TV/advertising industry on a single virtual platform shared by broadcasters, production houses, ad creative and media agencies.

“We had predicted long back that applications will soon become a utility. Generally, economic activity drives technology but ours is a classic case where technology drives economic activity in the M&E space. The Indian M&E sector was the first adopter of our Clear Media ERP, the specialised solution, which digitises the media supply chain for every media and entertainment professional in the world. Technology always tells the truth and utilisation of the Media ERP has resulted in savings of 30 to 40 per cent in terms of cost efficiencies,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Founder and CEO, PFT.

With the introduction of the digital media supply chain content creation, dissemination and distribution process has become more creatively enabled. Real time collaboration is helping in the creation of better content and instant interaction has enhanced the process of content creation.

This media ERP is driving efficiencies and is helping in reduction of cycle time. It has also enabled newer revenue streams apart from curbing piracy. It has led to contextual advertising and enabling internet platforms to intelligently engage users, said experts.

The benefits are so alluring that now 85 per cent of the scripted television in Hollywood is using PFT’s solutions.

In an era of the ‘death of appointment viewing’, Mr. Sankaranarayanan said, “The next phase of evolution is Digital Next Realities where content providers have to engage customers with a better experience anytime anyplace. The success of Hotstar app by Star India with 1.4 crore downloads shows that Indians are now ready to consume content whenever wherever they want so broadcasters will have to make it accessible in the relevant preferred devices.”

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Star India, Karan Johar ink three year production and distribution deal worth Rs 500 crore : The Economic Times

MUMBAI: In a landmark deal, Uday Shankar, chief executive officer of Star India, and film

director Karan Johar have inked a three­year production and distribution deal in which Fox

Star Studios, Star's studio vertical will join hands with Johar's Dharma Productions to coproduce and distribute nine films in a deal which is estimated to be worth Rs 500 crore.

The nine films, boast Dharma Productions' blockbuster directors like Karan Johar, Ayan

Mukherjee, Karan Malhotra and Abhishek Verman, among others, toplined with stars like

Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, among others. The Star TV

network will also be roping in Johar into a much larger creative role. "It was time to scale up for Fox Star Studios and deepen our presence and reset the dial, creatively and

commercially," said Star's Shankar, who has the nod of Newscorp chief James Murdoch on

this one.

With the industry reeling from huge losses, big budget films failing and negative growth,

closing a deal of this size has taken over six months, according to industry insiders, and has had other studios too vying for the deal. According to the deal, some films will be a coproduction between Fox Star and Dharma, while others will be pure distribution. Revenues are usually split equally on coproduction, while on distribution they are on commission, which varies between 10­12.5%. "I believe in relationships, bonds and vibes, and I connect with people. If I like them, I want to work with them which was the case here. For the rest, I left it to my CEO, Apoorva (Mehta) who is the business brain and backbone of this deal. Unlike what people believe, collaborations don't dilute brands, in fact this is a profile and power deal, which we hope will bring back the falling footfalls to cinema halls," said Johar, who feels the industry is going through a crisis and an infusion of good content, screenplays and scaling up new talent is what is the need of the hour.

Dharma's chief executive Mehta adds it is by far the biggest collaboration that the Indian film industry has ever seen, specially given the roster of talent that Dharma is bringing in. "With this strategic deal, Dharma has entered into a new phase of movie business which will provide a disruptive growth model for all the parties involved. It looks like the beginning of a game­changing era for the industry," said Mehta, speaking to ET from London.

While Fox Star Studios has not seen much box office success in their last few films, specially with their last release, Anurag Kashayp's Bombay Velvet, which failed, they bring in global distribution muscle which could add as much as a 25% incremental to a film's overseas collections. In fact, Fox Star Studios began their Bollywood journey six years ago, with Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan (MNIK), which was the first Indian film to open new markets in Europe and the Far East. It was in fact, released in 2010, across 60 countries and opened up many new markets and did a record Gross Box Office of $23 million

in 2010. "This strategic alliance envisages the stakeholders pooling in their collective strengths and thereby chalking a new path for Bollywood, specifically in the way in which films are marketed and distributed. Consolidation through strategic alliances is the way forward in the film industry," said Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios.

For Star chief Shankar it is a rare deal, as globally, he adds, the company does not get into such collaborations. It is the cross pollination between two creative forces which will see new horizons first on television, a prospect Shankar is excited about. Star broadcasts more than 40 channels in seven languages, reaching more than 720 million viewers every week across India and 100 countries. "It is the soft power around the deal which is the big deal," ends Shankar

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USIBC in talks to create $100 bn M&E industry in India by 2020:bestmediainfo.com

The US-India Business Council (USIBC) recently led a series of discussions and meetings between top executives of the media industry and senior Government of India officials to discuss how opportunities can support the recent initiatives of the Government, including Make in India, Digital India, and improving the country’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.

Led by Joe Welch, Senior Vice-President, 21st Century Fox, the delegation included senior representatives from The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, Viacom18, and the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

“Media and entertainment companies are celebrating over 20 years of Making in India, and as an industry we are eager to do more, given the appropriate policy environment. We are encouraged by the Government of India’s willingness to see the industry as a partner for growth,” said mission leader Joe Welch.

India is already home to more than 800 television channels with 140 million paid TV homes and a vibrant film industry that produces more than 1,000 movies in a year. The delegates expressed continued commitment to the market, which is expected to grow at 13.9 per cent annually – double that of the global media and entertainment industry. Film and television are significant employment generators for the Indian economy and enhance India’s image among external audiences from a socio-cultural perspective.

Talks between industry executives and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Finance, Department of Telecommunications, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and the Ministry of External Affairs focused on providing a further impetus to the already robust sector and taking appropriate policy measures to reach the $100 billion level by 2020.

Such policy measures include liberalisation of foreign direct investment caps, restrictions on vertical integration, single window permitting, digitisation implementation, and copyright enforcement.

Diane Farrell, Executive Vice-President, USIBC, said, “The two-day mission was conducted with the goal to raise the profile of the media and entertainment industry as a key contributor to India’s growth. The media sector in India is promising for the Council’s member companies, but is also a real opportunity for the Government of India to create jobs and showcase itself as a global leader in content creation.”

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Arun Jaitley hails global popularity of Indian cinema

Lauding the reach of Indian cinema across the globe, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Arun Jaitley called the Indian film industry “its soft power abroad” and announced the government’s intention to set up a film and television Institute in the north eastern region, “for the benefit of the young creative minds”.

Speaking at the 62nd National Film Awards ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan on Sunday, Jaitley said, “We lead the world average in terms of number of movies produced each year. Indian movies have found increasing acceptance in the international forum.”

“[The] government is committed to take all possible measures towards the overall growth of the film industry — towards its even spread across the country and not restricted to certain pockets,” He said the number one priority of the government is to take the entertainment industry to every nook and corner of India, which includes setting up of a film and television institute in the northeast.

Jaitley appreciated award-winning films such as Mary Kom and Queen for bringing women into the spotlight. “We witness the triumph of the spirit of liberation and empowerment of women-centric themes on the silver screen. The success of movies such as Queen and Mary Kom are testimony to this.

Social values have influenced our cinema and similarly our cinema has also had a great impact on our social values,” he said.

The minister, dressed in a light-coloured Kurta Pajama with a Nehru jacket, said: “Spread over the fruitful 100 years of Indian cinema, the saga has been that of a spirit of entrepreneurship,” he said, adding that experimentation and innovation with new themes in form, content and technology have always been employed by filmmakers in India.

He also congratulated young singer Uttara Unnikrishanan, who won the Best Playback Female Singer award for the song Azhagu from Tamil movie Saivam. “I would like to congratulate her on her achievement at an early age.

We wait for the time when she will captivate the world with her melodious voice,” Jaitley said.

What Modi can offer to China

Five sectors where India has potential to significantly increase exports and pack a punch in trade.

In less than one year, the heads of state of the world's two most populous countries have reciprocated visits. President Xi Jinping visited Ahmedabad and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Xian, the hometown of Xi. That speaks of their personal touch to these official visits. The bilateral economic relationship between India and China is one of the most dynamic and significant ones in the world.

Our bilateral trade has grown exponentially, soon to touch $100 billion, even though we don't speak the same language. The trade is unfortunately getting increasingly skewed in favour of China. India's deficit with China will be $40 billion and that's not good. How then to increase our exports to China? This is one of the major items on Modi's agenda. Here are five sectors where we need an aggressive push. The first is pharmaceuticals. India produces generic and bulk drugs at probably the lowest cost in the world. We also produce some molecules and non-generic drugs. In AIDS and cancer drugs, our costs are 70 per cent to 90 per cent cheaper than those in the West. Hence India's pharma exports can easily help China reduce its overall healthcare costs. But there are barriers. The Chinese drug regulator, FDA, is supposedly even more strict than the US FDA, causing huge delays in getting approvals for our drugs.

The second area is IT and software. Here too we are the world's leader in offshore and outsourcing. But we are unable to penetrate the huge Chinese IT services market. The blame lies partly with our own software industry, which has largely ignored the non-English speaking world market, such as Japan, Korea or even Germany. (There may be exceptions.) On their part, too, the Chinese need to be open about letting in Indian IT service providers.

The third sector where India can make a dent is cinema and entertainment. China has severe restrictions on importing cinema. Thankfully, there are some signs of opening up. Aamir Khan is India's most popular actor in China, and his 3 Idiots was a super hit. So, this week, ahead of Modi's visit, he will be in China, at the release of PK (dubbed) across 3,000 theatres. This trickle needs to be converted to a flood. Look how Hollywood rules the world entertainment industry. Can Indian cinema not get a small chunk of the Chinese pie?

The fourth sector is tourism. Chinese are the world's largest group of tourists, with more than 100 million outbound tourists every year. Guess how many of them came to India? Less than 100,000, which is less than 0.1 per cent. Surely, we can double or triple that easily? For that we need to make the visa procedure easier. It is likely that Modi will announce e-visa facility for Chinese tourists. We also need to market Indian tourism aggressively in China. How about if Aamir Khan or Eros International made a Chinese movie, set in Sikkim or Kerala? That would promote both tourism and cinema!

A fifth area for increasing India's exports is industrial goods, including auto ancillaries, small-scale engineering, metal works, etc. In the past couple of years, wages in China have gone up by more than 50 per cent and India's currency has gone down by 20 per cent against Chinese currency. Resultantly, India's manufacturing sector (at least some parts) have a 70 to 80 per cent advantage, which cannot be negated even with higher Chinese productivity and efficiency.

Apart from these five examples, Modi can make a grand offer to China. Since we owe $40 billion to them (our net trade deficit), ask them to invest that money annually into India's infrastructure (like roads, ports, airports, dams, power projects). We can guarantee them a better return than what they get from investing in the US bonds. They anyway have a stock of close to $4 trillion foreign exchange, so 40 bn is barely 1 per cent.

China-India economic embrace is imperative and inevitable. Hence the Modi-Xi engagement is historic.

Growth in digital media to help M&E industry in near term - livemint.com

The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is a sunrise sector for the economy and is growing with a rapid pace. Proving its resilience to the world, the Indian M&E sector is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer payments and advertising revenues across all sectors. The industry has been mainly driven by growing digitization and increasing internet usage over the last decade. Internet has almost become a mainstream media for entertainment for most of the people.

Its various segments like- film, television, advertising, prints media and music among others - have witnessed tremendous growth in the last few years. The entertainment industry continues to be dominated by the television segment, accounting for around 50 per cent of market share in terms of revenues, which is expected to grow further to 55 per cent by 2017.

Industry market size

India’s M&E sector is likely to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent between 2013 and 2018 and this will help the industry to surpass Rs 227,000 crore ($36.49 billion) by 2018. In 2013, the overall entertainment and media industry was estimated at Rs 112,044 crore ($18.01 billion) and grew by 19 percent over the previous year. The largest segment, television industry, continued its strong growth momentum led by subscription revenues, representing a year-on-year growth of about 15 percent. Internet access and internet advertising have been the fastest growing segments with annual growth rates of 47 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Additionally, video games industry grew at a record 16 per cent in 2014 over 2013; wherein its net worth rose to $277 million. Meanwhile, the Indian animation industry was valued at $247 million in 2013 and is forecasted to grow at 15-20 percent per annum.

Acceleration in DTH, digital cable penetration to drive television sector growth

Television is the leading medium for media delivery in India in terms of revenue, representing around 50 per cent of the total media industry. The Indian television industry is on the path of continued growth, with increased digitization and the rollout of the mandatory DAS almost complete in Phase I (the four metropolitan cities) and Phase II cities (38 cities in India with a population of over one million).

As of 2014, India has 139 million TV-owning households, of which 55 million are analogue cable TV subscribers and 45 million have digital cable. DTH subscribers are 39 million. This number is expected to register higher growth in five years. Moreover, DTH is expected to grow to 64 million in 2018 from 56 million in 2017 while digital cable subscribers’ pie would go up to 90 million from 85 million in 2017. Hence, a gradual acceleration in pay TV (television) penetration will drive major growth for the television sector in five years, aided by the digitisation of cable TV in India. Pay TV refers to direct to home (DTH) and digital cable.

Meanwhile, Analogue cable subscribers’ base is expected to crash down to about 5 million by 2018, primarily led by cable TV digitisation plans of the government of India. Driven by digitisation, the number of digital cable subscribers is expected to rise, resulting into steep fall in the analogue cable households. The digital cable subscribers are expected to grow at CAGR of 25 per cent to reach about 90 million in 2018 while, DTH subscription pie is expected to witness growth of 13 per cent during 2014-2018. 

The cable TV digitization is on track and the third phase would begin from early FY16. Moreover, the third phase would be finished by December 2015 and then after a gap of a month or two the government will start the fourth phase of digitization in India. Meanwhile, the government is also planning to digitize the archives of Doordarshan and All India Radio and six companies have already filed expression of interest regarding the same.

Growth of Indian Print Media

In calendar year 2014, the Print industry grows by around 8.64 per cent to Rs 264 billion from Rs 243 billion in 2013. The long-term growth in the sector looks promising with industry players witnessing strong growth and a possible future demand in the regional market. Even though Print media has shown steady growth in the last calendar year, the macroeconomic environment continues to be challenging.

Contrary to the prevailing trends in the global print media, where there is intense competition from digital media, the print sector in India is showing a strong upsurge. The print industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9 per cent for 2013-18.

Much of this growth can be attributed to print media’s advertising revenues and the faith shown by advertisers in this medium. Most advertisers have shunned their cautious approach, backing the extensive reach and localisation benefits that print offers. Some of the big spending sectors such as FMCG, Retail and Real Estate have increased their media spend on print this year. Print has also witnessed a boost in advertising revenues due to the elections in several states last year. Advertising spends by political parties are expected to benefit the print media this calendar year as well

The print industry continued to derive most (94.4 per cent) of its revenues from the newspaper category. The Rs 14 billion magazine segment had a roller coaster ride this year. Some prominent publishing houses discontinued their magazines this year. On the other hand, specific niche magazines witnessed high growth with their well-defined readership and advertiser base. However, the magazine space in India continues to face growth challenges. The growth in the magazine industry is expected to decline over the next 5 years and may constitute 3.6 per cent of the total print industry.

Indian mobile entertainment grows with tremendous pace

The mobile entertainment industry in India is witnessing significant growth and expected to reach $4.9 billion in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 26% in the period 2009-2015. The mobile entertainment has a huge potential in India and the current localization of mobile entertainment content is driving the industry in the right direction, bringing in greater usability of content. In the coming years mobile entertainment landscape will see several changes with respect to greater integration of mobile entertainment services with social networking, increased significance of user generated content, which will be a major focus area for telecom operators, and the growth of infotainment services. Moreover, a rise in mobile advertising programs is also expected focused on providing credits to users for watching advertisements. Mobile music will, however, continue to dominate the mobile entertainment services landscape with significant growth potential presented by mobile video and TV.

With the launch of 3G services, the mobile TV and video landscape in India is also witnessing rapid changes. Moreover, India has good future potential for mobile video streaming services, especially for videos focused on cricket highlights and updates, in addition to film based content. However, as many subscribers are not accustomed to paid subscription-based services, the monetization of video content will be primarily through advertisements. It is also expected that greater adoption of mobile TV with users preferring to watch television on mobile while being on the move.

Government clears Phase III auction of FM radio

The proposal for auctioning for phase III of FM channels was given a go ahead by the government recently. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved migration (renewal) of private FM Radio licenses from Phase-II to Phase-III in 69 existing cities for 135 channels on payment of migration fee according to TRAI recommendations. As of now, with the implementation of two phases of private FM Radio -- Phase I (1999-2000) and Phase II (2005-06) -- there are 243 private FM channels in operation in 86 cities of the country, spanning 26 states and three Union Territories.

Meanwhile, twenty-eight companies have submitted applications for the first batch of e-auction of 135 channels in 69 cities as part of Phase-III of the expansion of private FM radio. The 28 applicants have cumulatively submitted Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of about Rs 316.91 crore. Moreover, 15 of the companies which have applied already hold licences for private FM channels under Phase-II.

Proposals of the 2014-2015 Union Budget:

Indian government has allocated Rs 100 crore to encourage the growth of community radio stations. Moreover, Rs 500 crore has been allocated for launching a pan-India programme named Digital India and a national rural internet and technology mission for services in villages and schools, training in IT skills and e-kranti for government service delivery and governance scheme. Meanwhile, the government has also allocated Rs 100 crore for launching a programme to promoting good governance.

FDI Policies

Broadcasting carriage services:

FDI in Teleports, direct-to-home (DTH), cable networks, mobile TV, Headend-in-the-Sky Broadcasting Services are allowed up to 74% with FDI, up to 49% under the Automatic route. FDI beyond 49% (up to 74%) is permitted under the government route.

FDI in cable networks is allowed up to 49% under the Automatic route.

Broadcasting content services:

FDI in FM radio is allowed up to 26% under the government route.

FDI uplinking of ‘News and Current Affairs’ TV channels are allowed up to 26% under the government route.

FDI uplinking of ‘Non-News and Current Affairs’ TV channels/downlinking of TV channels is allowed upto 100% under the government route.

Print media:

26% FDI under the government approval route is allowed in the publishing of newspapers and periodicals dealing with news and current affairs.

26% FDI under the government approval route is allowed in the publication of Indian editions of foreign magazines dealing with news and current affairs.

100% FDI under the government approval route is allowed in publishing/printing of scientific and technical magazines/ speciality journals/ periodicals, publication of facsimile editions of foreign newspapers.

Outlook

Indian M&E sector will continue depending on the digital area in future. With a growing internet user base of over 200 million, the industry’s potential to generate revenue is enormous. Television and print are expected to remain the largest contributors to the advertising pie in 2018 as well. Internet advertising will emerge as the third-largest segment, with a share of about 16 per cent in the total M&E advertising pie. Within TV, subscription revenues are expected to be three times more than advertising revenues, by 2018. Growth in the regional reach of print and radio shall provide opportunities to further improve the advertisement revenue and simultaneously help in growing Media and entertainment sector.

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Fast & Furious 7 becomes the highest Hollywood weekend grosser in India : The Economic Times

MUMBAI: Fast & Furious 7 has become the highest Hollywood weekend grosser in India, earning Rs 70 crore (gross box office).The Universal Pictures' franchise, has been estimated to have generated over $ 2.5 billion worldwide.

The film, starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker ­who died while the film was being made ­was released in India with around 1,651 prints at about 2,600 screens. Of them, at least 1,500 screens were e­cinemas (digital) and not 2K compliant which ensured the film a wider reach in B and C centres. This was a first for any of the six big Hollywood studios that had agreed not to release films in screens which were not 2K compliant. In what could be a one­off case, Universal Pictures International India got permission to release the movie at such screens. 

"The Indian gross box office is close to $1.5 billion. Hollywood, which is at a tipping point in terms of getting on par with large Indian releases, is using all its might to further increase its share. The success of Hollywood movies like Fast & Furious 7 shows that we will increasingly see action movies with strong story lines doing well in India," said Farokh Balsara, partner and media & entertainment industry leader ­Europe, Middle East, India and Africa ­Ernst & Young. Until a few years ago, Hollywood was considered an urban phenomenon and it released movies only for English­speaking audience.

 However, much has changed over the last few years as wider distribution network, growth in multiplexes and robust marketing have aided the growth of Hollywood content in India. The share of Hollywood may still be small (8­9%) in the overall domestic market, however, players are not complaining as its films continue to draw footfalls. In fact, dubbed versions in languages such as Hindi, Tamil and Telugu contribute about 35% of the total revenues. 

What could change things around is the e­cinema or digital non­DCI compliant release of Fast & Furious 7. Exhibitors, who had invested heavily in converting their screens to 2K, are not very happy . "It's disappointing that Universal chose to make Fast & Furious 7 available in non­DCI compliant cinemas, as well. That said, the impact of Hollywood films releasing in e­cinemas, on Hindi and other Indian language films, would be minimal at best. Indian films remain the most­preferred choice of content for cinemas in B and C centres," said Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures. 

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PVR denies talks with SPI Cinemas:the businessline

Movie exhibition company PVR Ltd has denied news reports that it is likely to acquire the Chennai-headquartered SPI Group that runs Sathyam Cinemas. In a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges today, PVR said, “as part of its continuing business strategy to look for growth opportunities, the company is constantly on the look-out for, and in discussions with, potential partners in various capacities to further its business.” The company is not aware of any negotiations or transactions with SPI Cinemas.

According to industry sources, PVR is close to acquiring SPI Cinemas that runs more than 40 screens in Chennai and Coimbatore. SPI Cinemas plans to add another 40-50 screens to its portfolio, and was weighing various options, including PE, to fund its expansion. 

Swaroop Reddy, Director, SPI Cinemas, said, “I do not want to comment on this now.” Another leading player in the movie exhibition business said PVR is an asset-light company, and since Sathyam owns some of its screens, particularly the close to two-acre, six-screen property near Anna Salai in Chennai, PVR may not be in a position to fund the buy on its own.

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Amagi Media Labs announces expansion to Middle East and Brazil : the economic times

BENGALURU:Media technology company, Amagi Media Labs, has announced expansion of its international operations to the Middle East and Brazil through partnerships with general news channel, NDTV 24x7 and Sundance Global Channel. 

Launched in 2008, Bengaluru­based Amagi's cloud technology platform, STORM, allows advertisers to deploy targeted advertisements and region specific content, across both traditional and OTT (over­the­top) TV platforms, thereby making it a cost effective proposition. "We are in the process of expanding our presence in international markets through our managed service," said KA Srinivasan, co­founder of Amagi. 

The managed service vertical designed specifically for international markets works on the same technology platform as the one for domestic market and allows television networks to go directly to advertisers provide different targeted advertisements in different countries to increase revenue. In India, Amagi buys advertisement inventory from television channels and then splits it using its platform, so advertisers can relay ads in specific regions.

 The company has more than 10 international clients and has deployed its technology across 18 countries including the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Bangladesh, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and several countries in Africa. It set up an office in London in December and in Japan in September last year. "Amagi is a pioneer in geotargeted advertising. They have clearly demonstrated value to both advertisers and TV networks through their technologically advanced adinsertion platforms. 

We had evaluated a few other solutions, but chose Amagi platforms for its simplicity, reliability, scalability and technical superiority," said Dinesh Singh, chief technological officer of NDTV 24x7. This partnership will allow the channel to insert region specific ads in Middle East, which is home to a large expatriate population from India, as well as generate a new revenue stream. "Amagi can help us monetise a potential market by offering advertisers a direct access to their target audience segment," said Singh.

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Non­tent pole Hollywood movies gain popularity : the economic times

MUMBAI: Six years ago, 20th Century Fox pulled out all the stops when it was distributing James Cameron's Avatar, making it the first Hollywood blockbuster to cross the Rs 100 crore mark at the Indian box office. 

When it comes to big­budget releases, studios make the most of the opportunity by showing them on as many screens as they can by dubbing the films in Hindi and regional languages, offering the lure of 3D and raising ticket prices 10­15% besides making sure that debuts coincides with the global opening. Films like The Amazing Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, XMen and Transformers: Age of Extinction are released with over 700­800 prints, for instance. 

But of late, less­populist Hollywood movies­—titles that wouldn't have got a theatrical release a few years ago­— have also found a ready audience. Films like The Imitation Game, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and even Cinderella (albeit subtitled in Hindi for 14 markets) were only released in English with 200 prints or less. But they've been successful nevertheless. "Hollywood films had a good year in 2014 and grew by 16%. Importantly, we are seeing greater audience acceptance for high­concept, non­tent pole films," said Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios. 

"The Fault in Our Stars, Gone Girl are great examples which reflect the maturing of audiences who are seeking differentiated content. Even say one­two years ago, such films would not have released in India." Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, with 289 prints, had a 19­week run and a gross box office (GBO) of Rs 48 crore, which is regarded as highly creditable.

To be sure, movies such as Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman and The Imitation Game all had star casts and were fuelled by Oscar hype. 

But they also had narratives that didn't easily fit the formula. Ben Affleck­starrer Gone Girl was an edgy thriller with adult certification. It had a collection of Rs 12 crore, which far exceeds anything it would have made even two years ago. Likewise with the Benedict Cumberbatch­starrer about Alan Turing.

 "PVR Pictures released The Imitation Game, which has done approximately a GBO of Rs 6­6.5 crore. The same film would have done less than Rs 2 crore about three years ago, an indication of rapid growth in discerning audience numbers," said Kamal Gianchandani, president of PVR Pictures, the largest exhibition chain in the country, which contributes 35­40% of the total Indian Hollywood market— Rs 905 crore in 2014.

 According to KPMG, the gross box office collections of the top 10 Hollywood films increased from Rs 320 crore in 2013 to Rs 420 crore in 2014. The lure of non­mainstream films has grown thanks to greater audience awareness through the Internet. As a result, more cinema halls are playing foreign language films in the top 10 cities. Mumbai may have seen three­five halls releasing a move like 

The Imitation Game five years ago — that's gone up to 12­15 cinemas, experts said. Cinepolis, the Mexican chain that entered India five years ago and has 193 screens following the acquisition of Fun Cinemas, said 10% of its total revenue comes from such fare. 

"Hollywood is something we consciously push specially in our megaplexes. A film like Gravity ran for straight two years in Bangalore. Also, 3D content contributes a 10% higher ticket price and a 15% higher food and beverage ratio," said Devang Sampat, chief strategy officer at Cinepolis. 

None of the above films crossed the 200 print mark, the number going down to 61 for The Imitation Game, yet each exceeded the Rs 2.5 crore collection mark, an indicator of the evolving audience profile. "Hollywood films such as these are definitely huge competition, though not a threat," said Sharat Katariya, director and writer of one of this year's surprise Bollywood hits, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, produced by Yash Raj Films.

 "The audience that is going to see films like Dum Laga Ke Haisha are the ones watching Little Miss Sunshine, which are also movies without big star casts but close to life." Katariya's film struck a chord with audiences with its down­toearth story about a young couple. "While these (Hollywood movies) may not be a threat, one has to be aware of such good films which are competition because it's the content that works," Katariya said. 

"I saw Foxcatcher at Cannes and loved it­­great performances, very relatable and a clean story... We have to raise our own standards or for sure movies like Interstellar will get more screens in the future." Audiences can't be taken for granted, said Vikas Bahl of Phantom Films and director of Queen, another surprise hit that had a strong female central character. "Our audience was always evolved and have been used to watching some great cinema over the years," he said. "It is we as an industry who must evolve to meet up with our audience. Over the years, they have lost trust in our content, they are tired of our gimmicks like item songs. We consciously manipulate them and so those people will eventually move to better cinema."

 Movies need to get better technically as well. "Look at (Colin Firth starrer) Kingsman­­it is a completely Bollywood film, made 100 times better," Bahl said. "Their drama is our drama but it is their execution which makes the difference. "Director and writer Rohan Sippy agrees. Growing exposure to western cinema thanks to social media and torrent downloads is shaping the audience. "Tickets are expensive and at Rs 300 and above, people want to see good cinema," he said.

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Rentrak partners with Cinepolis India for box office analytics: business line

NEW DELHI, MARCH 23: 

Rentrak has launched its box office service to report daily theatre-level information for Cinepolis in India. This new agreement will help Rentrak to expand box office measurement services in India.

In a statement, Ron Giambra, President of Rentrak’s worldwide movie measurement business said, “India is one of the fastest-growing theatrical markets and our measurement is vital to helping serve their clients. We look forward to our partnership with Cinepolis and expanding as they continue to add more screens.”

Cinepolis India has recently acquired Fun Cinemas and now has 200 screens across 31 cities.

“India is a very exciting market with tremendous passion for cinema. When this passion can be measured accurately in real time and understood in terms of box-office analytics, it will pave way for greater growth in the industry and better movie products for the country as a whole," Javier Sotomayor, Managing Director, Cinepolis.

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Government working out modalities for setting Film Facilitation Unit: Rajyavardhan Rathore - economic times

NEW DELHI: With a view to facilitating film shooting by foreign film makers, the government is working out details for setting up a Film Facilitation Unit. 

"Government proposes to set up a Film Facilitation Unit towards facilitation of film shooting by foreign film makers in India,"

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. The minister said the proposal includes development of a web portal. Necessary details are being worked out towards the implementation of the proposal. 

Replying to another question, Rathore said a meeting of members of Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament attached to the ministry was held in February where measures towards projecting India as a destination for film shooting by foreign producers was discussed.

In reply to another question, Rathore said Doordarshan has telecast 17 films with patriotic theme on 'DD National Channel' during the last three years including the current year.

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Indian media and entertainment industry's size to double at Rs 2 lakh crore by 2019: KPMG - economic times

MUMBAI: Driven by digital players, the media and entertainment industry is on course to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13.9 per cent by FY19 to Rs 1,96,400 crore from Rs 1,02,600 crore this fiscal, according to a KPMG report. The growth of the digital media will be the fastest, while at the same the traditional media will be growing at a healthy pace. 

The television sector will continue to grow, thanks to digitisation. The advertising market will be driven by the emergence of e­commerce players as a significant new category, the report said. 

"The media and entertainment sector is set to grow at a CAGR of 13.9 per cent by 2019 to touch Rs 1,96,400 crore from Rs 1,02,600 crore in 2014. This higher growth will be driven by the digital players," the report on the industry released at the Ficci­Frames here today said. 

The number of TV households rose to 168 million in 2014, implying a penetration of 61 per cent, making it the world's largest television market after China but remains highly unstructured, the report noted.

Television advertising bounced back significantly, and the sector is estimated to grow at Rs 47,500 crore in 2014, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.6 per cent to reach Rs 97,500 crore by 2019. 

Subscription revenue growth at an annualised growth rate of 16 per cent is expected to outpace advertising revenue which is projected to have an annualized revenue growth of 14 per cent, on account of improving monetisation due to digitisation.

However, the report noted that though digitasation has touched more than 50 per cent households, implementation challenges remain in improving addressability and monetisation. As a result, there was no real impact from digitisation on sharing of subscription revenues among the different participants or carriage fees in 2014, the report noted

The growth in popularity of digital media exhibited the sharpest growth in 2014 with digital advertising growing at 44.5 per cent over 2013. However, digital ad spends are still a long way from global average, said the report. 

Overall advertising revenues in 2014 grew at a growth rate of 14.2 per cent over 2013 to Rs 41,400 crore of which print at 43 per cent and television at 37 per cent captured the lion's share," the report noted. 

It was also an important year for the radio industry as the government started proceedings on phase III auctions. The government has given a nod to the partial auctions for 135 channels in 69 cities, and the final auctions are anticipated in the latter half of 2015, the report s

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Graphic India raises $2.8 million seed round : economic times

BENGALURU: Character entertainment company Graphic India has raised a $2.8 million

seed financing round from CA Media, the Asian investment arm of The Chernin Group, and

New York­based media investment group Start Media, along with other angel investors.

"This new financing will expand our content offering and allow us to create India's premier

mobile platform for comics and animation ­ engaging and building a passionate community

of superhero, sci­fi and mythology fans through Graphic's content and characters," said

Sharad Devarajan, CEO and co­founder of Graphic India, who had previously co­founded

Liquid Comics (formerly Virgin Comics) with Sir Richard Branson.

Graphic India, a two­year­old startup, produces digital comics and animations based on

Indian mythological characters. So far, it has paired up with acclaimed cartoonists and

filmmakers such as Stan Lee, Shekhar Kapur, and Grant Morrison to create homegrown

superheroes such as "Chakra the Invincible," which is currently under development as a

Bollywood movie.

It has also signed licensing deals and content partnerships with Cartoon Network, Rovio, and YouTube, and is currently developing three Hollywood films. The company had previously raised $2.5 million seed funding from CA Media.

Over the next few months, the Bengaluru­based company expects to unveil a number of digital products and apps in India to directly engage with comic and animation fans in the under­25 demographic. The free offerings will be available in six languages, including English, Hindi, and Tamil.

"The characters, heroes and stories from Graphic India tap into the unique ingenuity and culture of India, but appeal to audiences worldwide," commented Rajesh Kamat, COO Chernin Asia Media Group. 

"With smart phones increasingly becoming the preferred medium of entertainment for the youth and the ever increasing consumer reach of mobiles in India, the move towards expanding their offering and creating content for smart phones & tablets will give them with a significant boost and enthuse the next generation of comic buffs." 

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Bahubali part-I on May 15

HYDERABAD : 

The much awaited multilingual flick Bahubali is slated for release on May 15. Film buffs are eagerly waiting for the film, which is reportedly made with a budget of Rs. 150 crore, is being shot for over three years.

Claimed to be the costliest movie ever made in India, the film is simultaneously made in Telugu and Tamil, which will be dubbed into Malayalam, Hindi and a few other languages. The film stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka and Tamannah Bhatia.

S S Rajamouli, one of the most successful directors in the South, has announced the release date in a clip in his Twitter account that has over 10 lakh ‘followers’.

“We are releasing the part 1 of Bahubali on May 15. Entire team is very happy to share the news that the ‘talkie’ part of the production has just been completed but for one song,” he said in the clip.

The film generated huge expectations ever since the project was announced by Rajamouli, who never tasted a commercial failure so far. That a Twitter account opened exclusively on the film (@BahubaliMovie) has over 53,000 ‘followers’, shows the interest it generated among the film buffs.

The crew filed a police case last month after some feed from the film was put on Youtube. It held a former employee of a multimedia firm that has been assigned with post-production work.

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Pune ­based visual effects co Montura opens unit in kerala cyberpark : economic times

Kochi: The Pune­based leading visual effects company Montura VFX, which has associated

with Hollywood blockbusters like Harry Potter series, Spiderman, Transformers, Pirates of

Caribbean, The Smurfs, I Am Legend, Hancock, Percy Jackson, Watchmen, Valkyrie,

Invictus, Sex and the City and Walking with Dinosaurs, has opened its second production

unit in India at the Cyberpark, Kerala government's IT park in Kozhikode.

"We are really happy to set up a unit in Cyberpark that has all the features of a worldclass IT park. This is our second production unit in India and first in Kerala. We will be setting up a state­of­the­art unit to provide an international working culture for the qualified young crowd in Kerala," Montura VFX CEO Nirshid PP said in a statement.

He said that the company would scale up its operations at the park in the first year and

double the intake to provide more employment to talented youth in the state."There is a

growing demand for visual effects professionals across the globe, with the film industry

opting for more experimentation.

Kerala is a perfect destination for us considering the huge talent pool," he added. Cyberpark

officials are hopeful of bringing in more similar companies when its IT building becomes

operational next year.

According to Cyberpark CEO Ajith Kumar R, other multimedia and visual effects companies have also shown interest in setting up base by next year at the park which offers top quality workspace and world­class infrastructure."The entertainment industry is going to be a major employment generator in the coming years and we want to leverage the opportunitiesin this booming sector. The opening of the production unit of Montura is just a beginning and we will be able to bring in more firms to the

park by next year," he said.

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Carnival Cinemas plans Rs 500-cr investment in Madhya Pradesh: Business Standard

Angamaly, a Tier-III town in Kerala, is known for its alcohol consumption. The liquor outlet that is among the top contributors to the Rs 8,800-crore revenue of Kerala State Beverages Corporation. Besides, Angamaly has to its credit the setting up of the first multiplex theatre in Kerala.

Carnival Cinemas, the multiplex business born in this town, has now broken into the big league of cinema theatres in India, threatening the likes of PVR and INOX in the span of one year.

Carnival started with three screens in 2010 and is closing in on INOX as the second largest multiplex chain through serial acquisitions.

After its latest acquisition of Stargaze Entertainment from Network18 Media, the Shrikant Bhasi-owned Carnival now owns 330 screens, close to the 361 screens of INOX. Carnival has also 75 ready-to-operate screens that will be launched in a month.

Stargaze operates multiplexes in various cities under the brand name Glitz Cinemas.

The buyout gave Carnival a presence in cities like Ajmer, Raipur, Ranchi, BIlaspur, Dehradun, Jodhpur and Muzaffarnagar.

The PVR Group owns India's largest multiplex chain with 454 screens.

ALSO READ: Carnival Group in talks to buy L&T Realty's Elante Mall

"Stargaze is in the process of setting up screens at various malls across the country. Once these are operational, we will add 28-30 screens," Shrikant Bhasi, chairman of the Carnival Group, said. Carnival is also in discussions to buy two multiplex chains in north and south India. Once the deals materialise, it will have added 80 screens.

Last month, Carnival acquired Anil Ambani's Big Cinemas, which runs 252 screens, for Rs 700 crore. In January 2014, Carnival added 30 screens with its first acquisition of HDIL Broadway for Rs 110 crore.

The funding for the Big Cinemas buy was provided partly by a Singapore-based private equity fund that will own about 21 of the business. Besides private equity, agri-trading company Advantage Overseas has also funded Bhasi's acquisitions.

Carnival is looking at organic growth in states where buyout targets are few. "We don not want to play a numbers game. We are implementing innovative models by setting up screens, food courts as well as community centres in various north Indian states," Bhasi added.

Carnival will invest Rs 500 crore for setting up about 200 screens in Madhya Pradesh. "We are exploring both lease-outs as well as franchises in towns like Harda, Mandsaur, Rewa and Vidisha," Bhasi added.

Madhya Pradesh has 70 multiplex screens, shared among PVR, Fun Cinemas, Carnival and Big Cinemas. "Families travel to Bhopal during the weekend to watch movies, shop and eat out. Once we set up multiplexes with screens and food courts, we hope to attract a good crowd," Bhasi, born in Angamaly and brought up in Bhopal, said.

"The multiplex industry is moving towards three or four pan-India players with a few regional players.This should enable the national players to drive better bargains," said Ajay Shah, partner for transaction advisory services at EY.

Last year, INOX had acquired Satyam Cineplexes, while PVR is reportedly in talks to buy the Chennai-based Satyam Cinemas. Last month, Mexican major Cinepolis bought Fun Cinemas.

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