Tv 18 To Offload 40% In New Tv Channel

Chief executive Haresh Chawla said, "A partner for the project has been identified and we are in advanced stages of finalising the price at which it will pick up the stake." Chawla declined to divulge the name of the partner "till the pricing issue is sealed." TV 18 holds the balance equity in the new company, which proposes an investment of Rs 120 crore project.

The new television channel will be officially launched by the first half of 2001, Chawla said, while the broadband portal could also be launched at the same time depending on whether bandwidth issues are sorted out. "Despite the plethora of entertainment channels, we feel that there are still some areas, which have not been not been properly developed. Both the channel and the portal will cater to this space," he said. The venture has been formed under the umbrage of its project broadband, which the comapny has touted as a "unique, integrated, informative television property with Internet companionship."

 

Chawla said, TV18 would be forming a separate company for this project in order to leverage its content production capabilities as well as its experience in television and Internet segments. He said that in future, TV 18 could even look at merging the new company with itself if there were enough synergies in the television and Internet space.

In the Internet space, TV18 already has a 100 per cent subsidiary called e-18. Chawla said, "We will launch 'moneycontrol.com', a brokerage site, in its new avataar in another three weeks." E-18 has tied up with 7 brokers for news content for its finance portal. The company has recently announced that it will acquire 26 per cent in indiabulls.com, an online trading site, at Rs 20 crore in cash over a year and Rs 15 crore as endorsements on CNBC India over 24 months at minimal opportunity cost. E-18 has diluted 10 per cent of its equity capital to ICICI Ventures at Rs 10 crore to part-fund the stake acquired in indiabulls.com.