The promise of bigger screen presence

UFO Moviez and Qube, two of India's largest digital cinema firms, join hands to carve out a bigger slice of the ad pie

How many cinema screens with one company make for enough advertising heft? That is the question the proposed merger of the Rs 595-crore UFO Moviez India with the Rs 360-crore Qube Cinema Technologies raises. The decision, announced earlier in November, was greeted by a 10 per cent spike in UFO’s share price. “It is a great transaction. The bargaining power of the combined entities is better,” says Rohit Dokania, vice-president (research), IDFC. 

UFO has digitised more than 5,100 screens in India. Of these, it owns the advertising rights to about 4,000. Qube, which is more focused on south India, has the