January
14, 2008: Star India and DEN form joint venture
to create Channel Distribution Company in India
Mumbai, Hong Kong, January 14, 2008 - STAR India
and DEN Digital Entertainment Networks Pvt Ltd.
(DEN) today announced a joint venture to create
a platform for distributing television channels
in India via all fixed networks including cable,
DTH, IPTV, HITS and MMDS. The 50:50 joint venture
will be headquartered in Mumbai.
Under the agreement, the joint venture will act
as the exclusive distribution agent for all of
STAR's distributed channels in India. It will
also seek to expand its bouquet offerings by including
other third party channels for distribution.
"The rapid increase in the number of TV households
in the country along with increasing digitization
and addressability pose an important growth opportunity
in the distribution business. We believe it is
time to invest in making the distribution operation
a business category in its own right," said Uday
Shankar, CEO, STAR India. "We are pleased to tie
up with a group of professionals who we find are
strategically aligned to our vision of this business
and its growth prospects."
"DEN is excited to join forces with India's richest
content provider in building an independently-run
and robust channel distribution platform. Our
vision is to incorporate world's best practices
to create a platform of premium content which
adds value to the entire distribution chain. We
feel this joint venture presents a compelling
opportunity to all content providers," said Sameer
Manchanda, Promoter and Chairman of DEN. "It combines
professional management, domain knowledge and
compelling content to provide world class products
and services to the Indian consumers."
Both DEN and STAR India are pioneers in the media
industry in India.
DEN is a leading cable network company with a
pan-Indian footprint. Its vision is to drive digitization
in the cable distribution system. DEN has in its
management team a unique blend of personnel with
experience in managing multi broadcaster bouquets,
as well as distribution platforms. This enables
the company to drive "win-win" partnerships between
content providers and their distributors. DEN
is upgrading the last mile to deliver digital
entertainment to the consumers. This will go beyond
delivering channels, and include other value added
interactive services.
The company is promoted by Sameer Manchanda, an
industry veteran with over 20 years of experience
in media & channel distribution with Raghav Behl
(Promoter and Managing Director of Network18 Group)
being the founder member. DEN's leadership team
also includes CEO, Anuj Gandhi & President S.N.
Sharma who have been associated with the distribution
industry for more than 10 years.
STAR India is one of the country's top television
networks. It currently distributes one of the
most popular bouquets of channels in all genres.
The bouquet includes Star Plus, Star One, Star
Gold, Vijay, Star Utsav, Star News, Star Ananda,
Star Majha, Channel [V], National Geographic Channel,
National Geographic Adventure, The History Channel,
Disney, Toon Disney, Hungama, Zoom and Times Now.
About STAR
STAR is a leading media and entertainment company
in Asia. STAR broadcasts over 60 television services
in ten languages to more than 300 million viewers
across 53 Asian countries. STAR channels cover
all genres including general entertainment (Star
Plus, Xing Kong, Star Chinese Channel, Star One,
Star Utsav, Star World, Vijay, antv, Phoenix Chinese),
sports (ESPN, Star Sports), movies (Star Chinese
Movies, Star Gold, Star Movies), music (Channel
[V]), and news and current affairs (Star News,
Star Ananda, Star Majha, Phoenix InfoNews Channel).
STAR controls over 20,000 hours of Indian and
Chinese programming and also owns the world's
largest contemporary Chinese film library, with
more than 600 titles, featuring superstars including
Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat and Bruce Lee. In partnership
with leading companies in Asia, STAR businesses
extend to filmed entertainment, television production,
cable systems, direct-to-home services, terrestrial
TV broadcasting, wireless and digital services.
STAR is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation.
