The Hindu Business Line : NDTV Lumière offers world movies on a platter

The niche channel will be available through digital cable in 10-15 cities, including Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, Baroda and Bhopal. NDTV Lumière is also looking to tie up with DTH players. The channel should contribute 30-40 per cent to Lumière’s revenues in a year’s time, said Mr Dhruvank Vaidya, Senior Vice-President, NDTV Imagine.

NDTV Lumière promises that many of the films on air will be recent ones, released internationally as late as 2007-08.

About a dozen international movies have already been released across theatres in metros, including the Cannes winner Persepolis and the Lebanese movie Caramel. Its titles have also been available on DVDs.

Lumière has tied up with portals such as www.jaman.com and its movies will soon be available on www.bigflix.com too.

Available in metros and Class A cities, the channel is looking to win an audience belonging to Socio SEC AB, or “people with global exposure and outlook, and higher incomes who would be interested in luxury, high-end auto and financial services.”

NDTV Lumière will be promoted cross-platform, at theatres where their movies are screened and at DVD sale locations in markets, as well as book stores and galleries.

“The big benefit is that we are the only brand that has a multi-platform presence. We have regular theatre releases, DVDs, conduct regular screenings in places like Zenzi Lumière Film Club in Mumbai and Tabula Rasa in Delhi,” said Mr Vaidya. NDTV Lumière has released about a dozen films in theatres since March and has 10 movies that it has brought out in a tie-up with Excel Home Videos.

It plans to release 60-80 DVDs in a year’s time. It would not share investment details or acquisition costs, but Mr Vaidaya said NDTV Lumière was looking to recover costs over a period of 3-5 years.

Theatre releases

Theatre releases have happened in Mumbai, Bangolore, Kolkata, Delhi, Pune and Indore with once-a-day show of films that have run for a week. Caramel and Persepolis lasted three weeks, the company said. “We conducted a five-day film festival in Chennai which had 12-14,000 people attending. We are now going to explore the southern markets,” said Mr Vaidya.

Having launched its general entertainment channel in January this year, the entertainment business of NDTV has since launched Imagine Showbiz, a Bollywood business and entertainment channel, and now NDTV Lumiere.

It had in the past also mentioned its plans for the regional space and movie production.

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