MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company (India) has announced a direct to retail model for its home entertainment business in India as a step up plan after terminating its licensing relationship with Excel Home Videos.

The company said it has formed a home entertainment team, which will handle sales and marketing of its DVD business in the country. Launching today, the team will distribute Tinkerbell, from Disney’s Fairies franchise, as the first DVD released under the new model.

Earlier, Indiantelevision.com had reported that Walt Disney (I) had ended its home video licensing relationship with Excel Home Videos and got the FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) nod to run the businesses of home entertainment and printing and publishing in India.

“The identification of effective distribution strategies will help us to best meet customer needs and continue to build our brand in India,” said Walt Disney (India) SVP and MD Mahesh Samat. “Disney has a firm stake in developing the family entertainment sector in this country and we continue to strengthen our market presence by extending our franchises across multiple lines of businesses.”

Disney’s home entertainment team will focus on providing content, stories and characters from across Disney’s content library. The team will also look for local content development opportunities while making sure international content is made available in local languages, it said in a release.

Some of the upcoming releases in local languages include - Bolt, Mickey Mouse Club House, My friends Tigger and Pooh. The Walt Disney Studios local productions will be some of the titles that the home entertainment team will additionally build on.

Earlier this year, Disney India appointed a specialised retail support team to focus on driving greater integration across company products and services. It works with internal creative and brand teams and transfers this knowledge to the retail environment. “We spend a lot of time listening to consumers to understand what they want, and how they want to interact with us. With the Tinker Bell release on 13 May we hope to show our fans a fully integrated and all encompassing experience,” said Samat.

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