(30 January 2013 8:00 am) 

MUMBAI: India is witnessing a consolidation in the distribution
business for television channels. In the latest round, TV18 Group and The Walt Disney Company are floating a joint venture company to distribute their television channels across analogue and digital platforms, including cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH), in India.

IndiaCast, TV18 and Viacom18's multi-platform, global distribution company, will have 74 per cent stake in the JV while UGBL, a Disney UTV firm, will hold the remaining 26 per cent.

The new entity will distribute 35 channels from the TV18, Viacom18, Disney UTV and A+E Networks, making it the second largest distribution company in terms of bouquet of channels after Media Pro Enterprise India.

Anuj Gandhi (IndiaCast CEO) will be the chief executive officer of the joint venture company.

The yet-to-be-named company will be responsible only for
distributing the channels in India while international operations will be handled independently by the two companies.

IndiaCast will move its domestic distribution business into this new venture, while continuing to manage its other content monetisation businesses which include international distribution, ad sales & content sales as well as the new media distribution for TV18, Viacom18, A+E Networks | TV18 and Eenadu channels.

Disney UTV will also move its domestic distribution activities for its bouquet of all nine channels (Disney, Hungama, Disney XD, UTV Stars, Bindass, UTV Movies, UTV Action and the newly launched preschool channel Disney Junior) to the new entity.

The joint venture will become operational post the necessary
regulatory approvals and will provide the channels to cable, DTH and Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS) platforms in India.

Says Gandhi, “This partnership will build a strong distribution
company that will offer a broader and more diversified range to platforms giving us a foothold across genres - including in general entertainment, general and business news, movies, youth and kids genres. We have had a great first year for IndiaCast and this JV will give our domestic distribution business scale and wider reach.”

The combined entity will particularly be strong in the youth (MTV, UTV Stars and Bindass) and kids genres (with the Disney and Nick channels). IndiaCast will also get a presence in the movie genre with UTV Movies and UTV Action.

Says MK Anand, managing director – Media Networks, Disney UTV, "There are some clear and unique synergies in this partnership. The new bouquet is a more comprehensive offering from the viewer’s perspective that gives the combined entity an edge in the marketplace."

In the news businesss, the JV will have the TV18 group of channels including CNBC TV18, CNN IBN, IBN7 and CNBC Awaaz. The Hindi general entertainment channel Colors will continue to remain as a big driver while the niche channels will give the bouquet a wider presence. It will also have regional-language channels with ETV a part of the pack.

"IndiaCast fills up the gap of a Hindi movie channel in its bouquet while Disney gets the support of a stronger platform. The Disney UTV movie channels, however, have to gather more steam to match the other two main distribution companies (Media Pro and TheOne Alliance) in this space. The strength of the new JV will be more obvious in the youth and kids space," says a media analyst.

Sports will be a gap in the bouquet. Only MSM Discovery (which operates through TheOne Alliance brand) has sports in its bouquet with Sony Six and the Neo channels. Media Pro, the JV between Star Den and Zee Turner, does not get to distribute Star's (Star Cricket, Star Sports, etc) and Zee's sports channels (Ten Sports, etc).

The fate of the Sun TV group of channels, which are distributed by IndiaCast in the Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM), is uncertain at this stage. If Sun TV agrees, then it will be the first set of external channels distributed by the JV.