| "FIIs had shown keen interest to invest in TV
Today and NDTV in the past, but were not permitted. Aaj Tak and the
two NDTV channels are performing well. The stock price will see a
boost," says an analyst in a leading foreign institutional firm.
TV18, on the other hand, may not gain substantially with the permission
to allow FII investments, a market analyst says. The company has
15.39 per cent FII holding.
What is not clear at this point is whether the easing of foreign
investment norms will help clear a regulatory logjam that business
news channel CNBC-TV18 has been confronting since late last year
that over CNBC's attempt to increase its holding.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had in December last
year turned down a proposal from Television Eighteen Ltd. to offload
15 per cent equity stake in its uplinking subsidiary to CNBC Asia.
The FIPB did this on the recommendation of the I&B ministry.
Television Eighteen's uplinking subsidiary that uplinks the CNBC-TV18
channel from India is iNews.com. CNBC Asia holds a 10 per cent stake
in iNews.com.
A question mark remains however, over the Zee Group's Hindi news
channel. Zee Telefilms already has an FII holding of 36.75 per cent.
The company has already applied for the restructuring of its Zee
News channel and is awaiting clearance. "Zee Telefilms can't
hold the news channel as it has a substantial foreign holding,"
says an analyst.
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