NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Finally. The Sony Entertainment Television Indian account, after weeks of speculation, has moved from Roger Periera Associates to Genesis PR later this month.

While the account officially moved to Genesis from 1 January, the advertising fraternity, which had been abuzz with the news since beginning December, had said that the account would move by third week of December. The contract initially is for a year. Roger Periera Associates, which has recently divorced from Burston Marstellor, had the Sony account for just over one year, prior to which, Sony handled its PR inhouse.

Among the contenders who were vying for the Sony PR account were Genesis, RP and IPAN Public Relations, a division of the WPP group.

Genesis PR will be looking after the corporate and programming PR of Sony and SET Max channels. AXN does not fall within the ambit of the agreement and CNBC India is anyway slated to move out of the Sony bouquet to Zee Turner. HBO which has moved from Zee Turner bouquet to the Sony stable has its own PR company in CMCG India.

With SET India on board, the media account tally of Genesis PR goes up to three as the Prema Sagar-started company already has BBC World and National Geographic Channel accounts.

The SET India account was with the erstwhile BMRP till recently. Genesis PR bagging the SET account also coincides with the recent announced split between Roger Periera and BM earlier this year. Genesis PR now has an affiliation with BM, though the latter does not hold any equity stake in Genesis PR unlike the relationship it had with Roger Pereira where BM held about 49 per cent stake in BMRP.

With the cricket World Cup, to be held in South Africa, almost round the corner, at least SET Max will be needing some aggressive public and media relations activities.