Viacom18 to add five ETV GEC by year-end

By  year end Viacom18 will add five regional GECs from ETV. These include ETV Marathi, ETV Kannada, ETV Gujarati and ETV.

Viacom 18 is a 50:50 joint venture between  US-leased Viacom and India’s Network 18 Group. Its acquisition in Eenadu TV’s regional GEC channels  will add to regional news channels already acquired.

Viacom18 said since the acquisition is underway, information on stake-holding cannot be provided.

The regional news channels already acquired  namely ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya Pradesh, ,ETV Rajasthan, ETV Bihar and ETV Urdu.  Channels have 50:50 ownership of both partners TV 18 and Viacom where as news channels will be only with TV 18 as foreign entities cannot hold more than 26% in news operations in India.

Viacom 18  has plans to concentrate on the “high-growth” regional general entertainment market. According to a source general entertainment markets are growing at approximately 50 per cent a year.

With this acquisition Viacom 18 joins other big players in the field who are acquiring  all kinds of channels to make an attractive collection of all genres for the upcoming digital transition in the country. Digitalisation  is for big and more big networks and more content 

According to Kumar, the company will spend around Rs 70-100 crore annually on developing region-specific content. Content will include regionalising hit reality shows as well as other “original” fiction and non-fiction shows. Accordingly, three new Bengali shows are being planned by ETV which include a Bengali version of Big Boss.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2591-viacom18-to-add-five-etv-gec-by-year-end.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2591-viacom18-to-add-five-etv-gec-by-year-end.html