The Hindu Business Line : Raj Television plans film production foray

Chennai, Oct. 18 Raj Television Network Ltd plans to start producing full-length feature films by the first quarter of fiscal 2008 for which the company has earmarked Rs 6 crore, according to Mr Lalit Kumar Mohanty, Company Secretary, Raj TV Network.

The company had originally planned to deploy the money to make tele-films of about 90 minutes duration. However, “soaring” film rights costs and market demand for films made the company look at film production, said Mr Mohanty.

Film production will give the company rights to broadcast parts as well as the entire film. At present, broadcast rights for clips, trailers and songs are sold separate for those who do not own the film rights. Raj has a database of about 3,000 films and holds film rights for over 1,380 films (valued at about Rs 375 crore).

The company has also approved plans to launch its own direct-to-home (DTH) platform. However, it would wait and watch the DTH market before making any investments, Mr Mohanty told Business Line. “We may float a separate company or enter into a joint venture for DTH operations,” he said.

Consequently, the promoter holding in the DTH business would not be more than 27 per cent, in line with the Government rules. At present, the promoters hold about 72.5 per cent in the company.

Currently, the network’s channels are available on Dish TV and negotiations are on with Tata Sky to host them on the latter’s DTH platform, he said.

Meanwhile, the company has obtained licenses to start a music channel, a 24X7 news channel and a kids channel each in the four South Indian languages. The Tamil channels would be launched first starting with the news and music channels, according to Mr S. Swaminathan, National Head-Distribution, Raj TV Network.

Transponder leasing

The company is likely to lease one transponder to beam all these channels. It has leased one transponder on INSAT 2E, capable of beaming 2-3 channels, Mr Swaminathan said.

The company recently got approvals to expand existing bandwidth capacity by 4-4.5 KB. The network has also finalised agreements for overseas broadcast of its channels to stations in Malaysia and the UK.

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