| MUMBAI:
Sun TV Network Ltd. has pumped in Rs 2 billion towards movies, upping its investments
at a time when many players are crowding the market in the southern region.
Movie acquisition
for telecast rights makes up the bulk of the investments for Sun TV Network which
runs a clutch of highly successful channels in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam
languages.
"We
have invested Rs 2 billion towards movies in FY'09. We have a library of 8500
films," says a source in the company. On
the film production front, Sun TV has an investment plan of Rs 700-800 million
for 10-12 movies a year. "We have a pipeline plan and the strategy is to
produce small and medium budget movies," adds the source. Sun
grossed a revenue of Rs 280 million from the few movies that it released last
fiscal. "We had a 15-20 per cent RoI (return on investments) from the movies
that we released in the fiscal," says the source. Sun
is producing Endhiran on a budget of Rs 700 million. "The movie will come
up by the end of this year or erly next year," says the source. Sun
TV, which has Rs 3.30 billion of cash on its books, has a capex requirement of
between Rs 750 million and Rs 1 billion in FY'10. | 
