MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms has reported an eight per cent fall in its net profit for the quarter ended 31 December compared to the earlier year.

The production company, which currently has three shows on top Hindi general entertainment channels, has posted a net profit of Rs 11.2 million for the third quarter, as against a net profit of Rs 12.1 million in the earlier year.

However, the performance is much better when compared to a net loss of Rs 7 million the company had registered in the trailing quarter.

The production major witnessed a 15 per cent dip in income from operations to Rs 330.2 million in the quarter under review compared to Rs 390.4 million a year ago.

Balaji Telefilms has shows like Bade Acche Lagte Hain (Sony Entertainment), Parichay (Colors) and Pavitra Rishta (Zee TV).

The company reported an Ebitda loss of Rs 18.8 million for the quarter under review, compared to an operating loss of Rs 4.3 million a year ago. The other income of Rs 51.2 million helped the company to be in black.

Balaji Telefilms? realisation per hour from commissioned programming increased to Rs 2 million in the quarter, compared to Rs 1.85 million a year ago. However, in the trailing quarter, it was at Rs 2.1 million. The realisation per hour from sponsored programming was at Rs 330,000 in the quarter, compared to Rs 480,000 in the Q2 FY?11.

Commissioned programming remained flat at 120 hours in Q3, compared to Q2 FY?11, while sponsored programmes reduced to 94.5 hours in Q3, compared to 99 hours in Q2.

The company?s total investments as of 31 December stood at Rs 2.57 billion, including Rs 300 million in wholly owned subsidiary Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd (BMPL).

MUMBAI: Colors is gearing up to launch another international format show for the weekend slot.

Ring ka King? Wrestling ka Mahayudh, a sports entertainment reality show, is produced by Endemol India in association with Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, a privately held professional wrestling promotion company founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett.

The show combines elements of reality and fiction and is about TNA wrestlers and the Indian wrestlers who will fight for the title of "Ring Ka King".

Interestingly, in 2009, Colors had aired an Argentinian format show 100% - De Dhana Dhan, also produced by the same production house. However, it could not manage to get eyeballs and the channel never launched another season of the show.

When asked about the similarities with 100%, Endemol India MD Deepak Dhar said, "It is similar but very different. Our partners are different, wrestlers are different. It is a completely new format. And we have put in a lot of time and efforts to groom Indian wrestlers."

Colors has roped in Tata Prima Trucks as the title sponsor of the show, while Harbhajan Singh is the goodwill ambassador.

The show will run for 13 weeks and will go on air on 28 January at 8 pm, on Saturdays and Sundays. At present, the channel airs movies during that time.

The show will feature 14 Indian and 16 international wrestlers including Jeff Jarrett, Matt Morgan, Scott Steiner and Monster Abyss. Indian wrestlers to participate in the show are Jwala, Mahabali Veera, Romeo Rapta, Zoravar and Deadly Danda amongst others.

Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, "India, for the first time will witness the excitement of a sport and the intensity of a drama, both rolled into one. We believe that the show will appeal to our viewers and advertisers who are constantly looking for new and innovative platforms to reach out to their audiences."

Colors is also looking to regain its lost glory. The channel, which has fallen to number third position, is eyeing to fix its weekend with the launch of this show, post which it will look at resurrecting its afternoon slot.

"Once we fix our weekends, we will eventually lift our afternoon programming and then try to improve ratings. We want to be No. 1 but not at the cost of profitability. We are trying to get the right balance and make sound investments so that we first consolidate our position as No. 2 and then climb to No. 1," said Nayak.

Dhar added, ??It?s an exciting format for us to work with. While the focus of course will be on the wrestling matches, it is the entertainment and the drama aspect of the show that will put the matches in perspective making them a lot more interesting. Endemol has entered into a partnership with TNA Entertainment, to popularise professional wrestling."

For selecting the participants from India, Endemol?s team went to 13-14 cities except Mumbai and Delhi. "We went to the smaller cities of Haryana, Punjab and UP," Dhar said.

According to Nayak, the core target group for the show is males in the age group of 16-35 years. "The show will also attract kids and lot of young women audiences."

The channel is going to heavily promote the show. Colors AVP-marketing Rajesh Iyer said, "We will be having cross channel promotion for five weeks. We will be rolling out outdoor communication in more than 70 cities. In print, there will be more than 100 ads on the day of launch. We will also be having radio innovations by putting up disruptive advertising between content. For the same, we have tied up with few stations. We are creating two characters on radio, who will be talking about Ring Ka King."

The channel will be active on the digital media as well. "On digital we have applications that we are creating. We are associating with Agneepath for promotion in Cinema. For on ground activities, we are going to 25 cities, where we will be doing road shows. There will be innovations on outdoor and on print with Mid-Day on its 28 January edition," said Iyer.
 

MUMBAI: As the fifth season of Colors? big-ticket reality show Bigg Boss is coming to an end on 8 January, the channel has unveiled a new fiction property for the weekday 10.30 pm band.

Colors will launch Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha as its primetime property starting from 9 January. Meanwhile, the 11 pm slot will be taken over by the repeat telecast of Na Aana Is Des Laado.

Na Bole Tum? is being produced by Sunshine Productions.

Colors fiction head Prashaant Bhatt said, "After the success of Balika Vadhu, Uttaran, Sasural Simar Ka, Parichay and Veer Shivaji, we are kick-starting the New Year with a slice of the life, light hearted show. As strained marital relationships and frequent heartbreaks become the norm in this age of ?fast forward love?, Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha focuses on an unusual story of two unlikely people in unlikely circumstances. Life is what happens when you are busy planning other things. Sometimes the best communication between two people is silence."

The show stars Kunal Karan kapoor and Aakanksha Singh in the lead. It is the story of the emergence of a complicated relationship between a single mother who has no intention of being a bride again and a self centered bachelor who runs miles away from marriage or commitment.

MUMBAI: In a move that is bound to add muscle to its movie library, Star India has entered into a movie syndication deal with rival Viacom18.

As per the deal, Viacom18, which runs Hindi general entertainment channel Colors, has offloaded 500 of its Hindi movie titles to Star India for an estimated Rs 4.5 billion.

Viacom18 was aggressively building up its movie library as it was planning to launch its own Hindi movie channel. However, with competition, rising acquisition costs and a mounting internal debt, the company decided to defer the launch plans.

Star India is already a major player in the Hindi film space with over 700 titles in its library. Moreover, the company has started to premiere big-ticket movies on Star Gold, the movie channel. It has also taken some bold steps like reducing the ad breaks and airing 6 movies daily, which has forced other players to change their business models.

Talking about the deal, Star Gold general manager Hemal Zaveri said, ?This is the first of its kind deal that we have entered into.?

Colors spokesperson said, ?As part of our overall strategic plans, we have off loaded part of our film library. We still have a large library and have also kept enough runs to take care of our main channel needs.?

The most pressing need for the group companies, TV18 and Network18, is to reduce their debt load. ?For Viacom18, the deal makes sense as its launch plan has deferred and it allows the company to monetise a part of the library. Also, the amount directly reaches to the bottomline,? a media observer said.

To a query on Viacom 18?s strategy for acquiring films for Colors in future, the spokesperson said that they would look at acquiring new movies on syndication if and when the need arises. However, the company is still holding on to the plan of launching the movie channel. ?The movie channel is an integral part of Colors? growth
strategy and we will revisit our plans at an appropriate time,? the spokesperson said.