Four More Star Channels Go HD

Star India Pvt. Ltd. has made available four more channels in high definition (HD) format in India. National Geographic was already available in HD, and now Star Plus (Hindi GEC), Star Gold (Hindi Movies), Star Movies (English Movies), and Star World (English GEC) are available to subscribers in HD. The channels are currently available to subscribers on Tata Sky for no extra cost, and the pricing of the HD channels for subscribers has not been announced yet. Star India is in negotiations with other DTH service providers to carry the HD channels, and hopes to get the deals done in the next few weeks. Of the 33 channels that are part of the Star India bouquet, five are now available in HD. Branded Asli HD, all the content on these channels is shot, recorded, and edited in HD, and mixed for 5.1 Dolby surround sound.

The five channels will be available in both HD and secure digital (SD) formats. The feeds for both the formats are different, and for now, the HD content will remain advertising free.

In the meantime, Star India has already increased its ad rates with immediate effect by 20 percent across all its 33 channels. Advertisers on an average will now shell out Rs. 1,80,000-Rs. 2,05,000 for a 10-seconds spot, for a top-rated show on Star Plus, as compared to Rs. 1,50,000-Rs. 1,75,000 charged previously.

Typically, the ad rates are bought by the advertisers, on the basis of cost per rating point (CPRP), which indicates the percentage of viewers watching the program. Every new deal with the advertisers has a higher CPRP than the earlier year. According to a KPMG report, most broadcasters see 80 percent of their revenue coming from advertising. In 2010, advertising spends across television was Rs. 10,300 crore and is expected to grow at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 percent to Rs. 21,400 crore.

Discovery Appoints Arun Thapar

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP) has announced the appointment of Arun Thapar as Vice President, Programming - India. Thapar will be responsible for the overall planning, developing, and execution of programming strategies for DNAP's six brands in India - Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, and Discovery HD World. He will be based in New Delhi, reporting to Rahul Johri, DNAP's Senior Vice President and General Manager - India.

Sameer Nair Quits Imagine TV

Imagine TV CEO Sameer Nair has quit. Post his exit, the operations of Imagine will be fully integrated into Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific (TBSAP). For now, Imagine will be placed under the interim management of TBSAP SVP and GM for the entertainment networks Sunny Saha, and the Turner India management team with transitional support from Nair in the coming months. Nair had spearheaded the channel as its CEO since its inception. Prior to Imagine TV, Nair was CEO of Star India.

Raj Nayak Joins Colors as CEO

Viacom18 has appointed Aidem Ventures founder Raj Nayak as the CEO of its general entertainment channel, Colors. Nayak replaces Rajesh Kamat, who was responsible for the channel's success. Kamat quit Viacom18 as COO to join the Chernin Group's CA Media as India CEO.

C Shyam Sunder Takes Over as CEO

C Shyam Sundar has been promoted as the Chief Executive Officer Asianet News Pvt. Ltd. (ANPL). Prior to this development Shyam Sundar was shouldering the responsibility of Jupiter Media Ventures (the holding company of ANPL) as CFO.

Asianet Communications Appoints John Brittas

Asianet Communications Ltd. (ACL) has appointed senior journalist John Brittas as its Business Head. ACL runs two entertainment channels - Asianet and Asianet Plus.

US Christian Evangelistic Network Gets FIPB Nod

US-based Christian evangelistic group, Word of God Fellowship Inc, has got the approval from Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to launch a non-news channel in India. The group owns the Daystar Television Network, a global TV empire spreading Christianity. It has got approval to set up a WOS to undertake the business of broadcasting - downlinking and distributing to cable operators a non-news and non-current affairs channel. The government has approved a foreign direct investment of Rs. 1.6 crore.

NDTV Beats Market Forecast

NDTV has beaten market expectations as it posted a 25-percent jump in its fourth-quarter income over the earlier year and has forecast a turnaround in the full-fiscal ended March 31, 2012.

Though the news business has posted a four-fold rise in net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, this is due to a one-time expense of Rs. 29.38 crore incurred on account of NDTV Hindu, a news-cum-infotainment channel for Chennai.

The company, which runs news channels NDTV 24?ó7 and NDTV India, has posted a standalone net loss of Rs. 23.18 crore for the fourth quarter compared to a net loss of Rs. 4.63 crore in the prior year.

Income from operations for the quarter under review stood at Rs. 108 crore, as against Rs. 86.50 crore in the year-ago period.

The standalone profit from operations (before other income, interest, and exceptional items) increased to Rs. 9.71 crore, from Rs. 11,30,000 a year ago.

Expenses from news operations rose 18 percent to Rs. 102 crore, from Rs. 86.31 crore.

For the full fiscal, NDTV's standalone net loss jumped to Rs. 98.63 crore, from Rs. 20.52 crore in the earlier year. Income from operations stayed flat at Rs. 347 crore (from Rs. 349 crore).

Expenses jumped 11.57 percent in FY'11 and stood at Rs. 396 crore as against Rs. 355 crore in the prior fiscal.

On a consolidated basis, NDTV posted a net loss of Rs. 60.8 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, as against a net profit of Rs. 213 crore a year ago. However, in the previous year, the company had managed to post profit on the back of Rs. 337 crore which it received for selling its stake in NDTV Imagine. NDTV also clarified that the consolidated results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2011 are not comparable with the corresponding previous period.

Income form operations on a consolidated basis fell 6.52 percent to Rs. 132 crore, from Rs. 141 crore, while total expenses reduced from Rs. 254 crore to Rs. 149 crore.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, NDTV posted a consolidated net loss of Rs. 174 crore, as against a net profit of Rs. 118 crore in the earlier year. Income from operations fell to Rs. 419 crore, from Rs. 590 crore in the year-ago period, while expenses reduced from Rs. 8.94 crore to Rs. 525 crore.

Zeel has Capex Need of Rs. 80 Crore

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Zeel) has a capex requirement of Rs. 70-Rs. 80 crore and forecasts healthy growth trends in the current fiscal. The company also has plans to launch niche channels to expand its offerings as India is seeing rapid growth in digitization. In the sports arena, Zeel is awaiting regulatory approval to launch a golf channel.

Zeel forecasts a 12-14 percent growth in advertising revenues outside sports this fiscal. In FY'11, the company reported consolidated ad revenue of Rs. 1,709 crore.

Subscription income from direct-to-home (DTH), which stood at Rs. 330 crore in FY'11, is expected to jump by 25 percent in the current fiscal. The current paying subscriber base is at 1.7 crore.

Zeel's analog cable revenue for the fiscal ended March 31, 2011 stood at Rs. 321 crore.

Zeel is looking at acquisition opportunities as it sits on a cash pile of Rs. 1,250 crore. The company plans to use Rs. 700 crore in buying back its shares. It has fixed the buyback price cap at Rs. 126 per share.

The revenue from its sports broadcasting business, which stood at Rs. 511 crore (including a revenue gain of Rs. 70 crore as one-time fee for the pre-mature termination of rights for AIFF), is expected to see a fall as there is only one India-specific series in the calendar this year. While in FY'11 Zeel had live telecast rights for the India-Sri Lanka and India-South Africa series, in the current fiscal it has India touring West Indies.