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Sony Entertainment
Television India will have majority control with a likely 74 per
cent stake in the distribution joint venture company with Discovery
Communications formed to offer the television channels of the two
companies as a bundle to cable operators. When contacted, SET India
CEO, Kunal Dasgupta said he would not like to comment at this stage
on the equity holding of the joint venture company for distribution.
Sources said Shantonu Aditya from Sony will head the joint venture
company while Anuj Gandhi of Discovery Communications will be next
in the hierarchy. Gurjeev Singh, also from Discovery, will be below
Gandhi.
The pricing
of the Sony-Discovery bouquet will be Rs 40 a subscriber per month.
“The market is being sent a signal to price the channels at
around Rs 40 a subscriber per month,” the source said.
The combined channels are currently priced just below Rs 30, depending
on the multi system operator who has signed for the service. While
Star is priced at Rs 40.50 a subscriber per month, the Zee-Turner
bouquet costs around Rs 42. The new pricing for the Sony-Discovery
channels is likely to come into effect from April. An announcement
on the pricing will be made soon.
The joint venture,
which will be based in Mumbai, is currently working out ways on
how to restructure the operations which will involve cutting down
on distributors. “As Sony and Discovery have their own network
of distributors, some of them will be made redundant,” the
source said.
The distribution partnership is expected to benefit Sony in the
southern region while Discovery may gain in other market places.
Sony will have access to Discovery’s quality non-fiction brands,
Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, in addition to its own bouquet
of Sony Entertainment Television, SET MAX, AXN and CNBC. Multi system
operators view the upward revision in pricing as an additional burden
and will be meeting soon to decide on what future course of action
they can take jointly to fight against the steep hike in pay-TV
rates.
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