Times Group signs distribution deal for TV channels with MSM Discovery

Yogesh Radhakrishnan moves Delhi High Court

Times Television Network (TTV), the company, which operates all the television channels of the Bennett & Coleman Company Limited (BCCL), has signed a multi year strategic alliance with MSM Discovery (MSMD), popularly known as TheOneAlliance for distributing its channels.

In January 2011, BCCL, the publishers of The Times of India and The Economic Times, had entered into a joint venture with Yogesh Radhakrishnan, a cable & satellite industry veteran, to form a television channel distribution company Media Network and Distribution (India) Ltd (MNDIL), which launched independent distribution platform Prime Connect.

When contacted, Radhakrishnan said that he has filed a case against the Times Group in the Delhi High Court and refused to comment as the matter is sub judice.

Meanwhile. as per the new deal, MSMD, which is a joint venture between Multi Screen Media and Discovery Communications, will handle the distribution of all four channels of TTN– Times Now, Movies Now, ET Now and Zoom -- effective today.

As per the deal, while MSMD has paid a undisclosed minimum guarantee to the TTN, it will get to exclusively distribute the TTN channel in India for collection of subscription revenue over the cable (analogue and digital), DTH, IPTV and HITS platforms as a part of TheOneAlliance bouquet. Incidentally, TTN will take care of the marketing and channel penetration on its own.

In a statement, Times Group said that it shares a long standing business relationship with MSM that spans mega properties such as the Filmfare Awards, a movie licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and an international advertising sales partnership for the US territory.

Sunil Lulla, MD and CEO of TTN said, “The Times Group and Multi Screen Media share a similar perspective on the broadcast industry and together we are poised to help grow the industry by ushering in transparency, value creation across the chain and by building strong brands."

"As part of TheOneAlliance bouquet our channels will benefit from penetration in more homes and availability on a wider choice of packages. TTN and MSMD will together be able to effect realisation of a fair share of subscription revenue as well as grow average revenue per user (ARPUs) of our premium content offerings,” he added.

MSMD was already distributing 24 channels including Sony channels, Discovery Channels, TV Today channels, and Neo channel. With the addition, it will improve its strength further.

Rajesh Kaul, president of MSMD said, “The addition of TTN channels has further strengthened our already strong bouquet, moving from 24 to 28 premium channels. I am proud that most of the channels in our bouquet are leaders in their respective genres. We have always emphasised on quality rather than quantity and this move reiterates the same.”

The distribution space is seeing a lot of action and consolidation in the recent past, fuelled by the government mandated digitisation programme that has made a phase wise switchover from analogue cable to the digital addressable systems (DAS) compulsory. Experts believe that with DAS in place, there will be more transparency in the whole distribution system, which will allow the channels to significantly improve their pay-TV revenues. Thus, to have more bargaining power, the standalone channels or small groups are aligning with the larger distribution bouquets.

Right now Media Pro Enterprise India is the biggest distribution bouquet with 74 channels of STAR, ZEE and Turner groups. It was formed last year after merging two distribution JV's - Star Den and Zee Turner.

TV18 Groups' IndiaCast is the second biggest bouquet, which has Network18, TV18, Viacom18, and now Disney UTV channels too.