Today News

 

• Viacom has formalized its joint venture with Network 18 - Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd. The 50:50 joint venture will receive around $90.5 million in investment from Network18 over the next three years, which will be through Network18 group company Global Broadcasting News ($40 Million), and wholly owned subsidiary BK Holdings Mauritius ($50.5 million). GBN has acquired warrants convertible into equity shares of Viacom 18, and has the option to acquire the entire shareholding from BK Holding Mauritius.

 

• Six long-distance telephony operators, including Sify, Rail Tel Corporation, Power Grid Corporation, Tulip IT, HCL Infinet and Dishnet Wireless, have deposited outstanding payment as access deficit charges (ADC) to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd following orders from the telecom regulator.

 

• The acquisition of leading animation company Anirights Infomedia - Reliance Entertainment has decided to focus on regional language films for film production.

 

• Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt Ltd, one of India's largest aggregators of movies for broadcast, has entered into a 10-movie deal with Zee TV worth Rs 260 million ($6.6 million) for satellite broadcast. Zee TV will telecast these movies on its satellite channel over a period of five years from 2008.

 

 

New Year Wishes....

Hi Karthik,

Wishing you and all your near and dear ones a very Happy New Year 2008 !!!

Today News

 

 

• Spice Communications is planning to sell 875 telecom towers of the company to a tower operating company and to avail the borrowing facilities of up to $400 millions from Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and also to avail borrowing facility of up to $410 millions from China Development Bank (CDB) for growth and network expansion in the existing telecom circles.

 

• Japan's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo will join with Internet search engine Google to provide Internet search and e-mail services on the company's handsets .

Today News

 

• Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Wednesday said it is constructing a $250 million (about Rs 988 crore) worth cable system for linking Mumbai directly to Paris, London and Madrid via Egypt.

 

• 9.9 Mediaworx has acquired Jasubhai Digital Media, the media arm of the Jasubhai group. The company will now be called 9.9 Digital Media. Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, founder and Managing Director of 9.9 Media has taken over as the Managing Director of 9.9 Digital Media.

 

• ACK Media, which had bought rights to popular childrens magazines Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle Magazine with the agenda of monetizing the content across platforms has now acquired a Bangalore based animation studio - Quietmen Studios, which will now be called Katha Studios. Samir Patil, CEO of ACK Media has said

 

• Venture Fund ComVentures, which has investments in NDTV Networks Plc ($20 Million), the UK based subsidiary of BSE listed NDTV, and Rajat Sharma’s India TV ($11.5 million through Fuse+Media), has merged with the Velocity Investment Group to form Velocity Interactive Group. The Velocity Investment Group was formed just four months ago by former FIM (NYSE: NWS) president Ross Levinsohn and former AOL (NYSE: TWX) chairman Jon Miller. VIG intends to raise another round of funding in 2008, and is looking to invest “as little as $100,000, as much as $30 million.”.

 

• Venture Fund ComVentures, which has investments in NDTV Networks Plc ($20 Million), the UK based subsidiary of BSE listed NDTV, and Rajat Sharma’s India TV ($11.5 million through Fuse+Media), has merged with the Velocity Investment Group to form Velocity Interactive Group. The Velocity Investment Group was formed just four months ago by former FIM (NYSE: NWS) president Ross Levinsohn and former AOL (NYSE: TWX) chairman Jon Miller. VIG intends to raise another round of funding in 2008, and is looking to invest “as little as $100,000, as much as $30 million.

 

• US-based venture capital firm Com Ventures will invest $20 million in NDTV Networks Plc, the UK subsidiary of NDTV Ltd. The company had recently received approval from Foreign Investment Promotion Board for an investment of Rs 5.85 billion or $133 million. Com Ventures’ is the first of a series of investments the company plans to rake in. NDTV announced that it has signed definitive agreements with Com Ventures for investing $20 million in the new company.
  NDTV Networks has wholly owned subsidiary companies NDTV Imagine and NDTV Lifestyle which would launch Hindi general entertainment and lifestyle channels.

 

• The latest company to get foreign investment is Hindi news network India TV (promoted by Rajat Sharma). The company received foreign investment of $11.5 million (Rs 50.96 crore) from FUSE+Media, an affiliate of venture fund ComVentures, according to a report in Exchange4Media.com. FUSE+Media will get 19.17 per cent for the investment. The CEO and MD of Fuse+Media is Keyur Patel, who is also a partner at ComVentures.

 

 

Today News

 

 

• TV18 will be launching a business magazine in India in partnership with Forbes..the partnership will include a content licensing arrangement and could also mean the introduction of other Forbes products, TV18’s biz properties include CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz, besides Newswire18 and online properties like Moneycontrol.com.

 

• Ministry of Communications & IT, Department of Telecommunications on Friday has granted the PAN India GSM licence to Anil Ambani backed Reliance Communication to begin its GSM technology based service in the remaining 14 circle.

 

• Airtel, has launch of eight Mbps broadband service, becoming the first service provider in the country to offer such high speed broadband service to open multiple windows at the same time, download heavy files, view streaming video, enjoy online gaming, chat, email and other applications.

 

 

Today News.

 

 

• Nokia has announced that it intends to invest around $75 million in 2008, in its manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur in Chennai.

 

• Inventus Capital, an Indo-US VC firm set up by Kanwal Rekhi, founder of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is in the process of raising $125 million for investments in tech startups that operate cross-border - in both the Indian and US markets. Inventus is targeting embedded software, mobile services, knowledge process outsourcing startups, as well as those creating Intellectual Property.

 

 

Today News!

 

 

• Buongiorno (BIT: BNG) (Hong Kong) which provides mobile value added services in India has appointment Satish Kejriwal as Chief Operating Officer for India. Kejriwal joins from Air2Web India, where he was COO. As per the he has around 19 years of experience in telecom, and in the past has been associated with BPL, Alcatel, Airtel and Data Access.

 

• Venture Capitalists invested over $777 million in 57 deals in India during the first three quarters of 2007.

 

 

Today News.

 

• Smile Interactive plans to set up 97,000 assisted e-commerce kiosks across India in the next three years. Through these internet kiosks, the company will offer music downloads, airline and railway tickets and other products available on the Net.

 

• Times Financial Services (TFS) has tied up with Reliance Communications International (RCI), the US based subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM) to offer mobile remittance services.

 

• Hyderabad-based digital marketing company Ybrant Technologies is acquiring Israel-based online advertising company, Oridian, for $13 million (approximately Rs 52 crore).

 

• US-based digital marketing agency Zeta Interactive has launched its operations in India. The Indian office, led by Pradeep Vegunta (managing director), is located in Hyderabad and has a staff strength of 140 employees. The company offers a wide range of services including email and search marketing, website development, creative, and business intelligence services.

 

• SureWaves a new generation media convergence company, has appointed Sanchit Sanga as AVP - Business Solutions. Sanga was earlier national director at GroupM Interactions, the digital media planning and buying arm of GroupM India.

 

 

 

 

 

Today News.

 

 

• Apnaloan.com (ALC India), a Sequoia Capital funded personal finance site is in talks with Chrys Capital, Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital and Sequoia Capital to raise up to $15 million.

 

• UTV Software has informed the BSE that they have called off their “discussion” with Malaysian DTH and Pay TV co Astro for a TV joint venture in India; that venture was supposed to be UTVs youth focused business Bindass, which was launched earlier this year.

 

• The number of internet users in India in the ever user or claimed user category has increased by 40 per cent at 46 million in September 2007 as compared to 32.2 million in September 2006.

 

• Nitin Desai's ND Studio, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment has sealed yet another 50:50 joint venture — with London-based Great Wheel Corporation (GWC), the IPR holders of iconic viewing and observation structures such as the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer.

 

• Filmy, the Hindi movie channel from the Sahara stable, has elevated Nilesh Bhanushali to national ad sales head.Bhanushali was regional ad sales head for the western and southern region.

Today News.

 

• Sun TV Network's FM station 93.5 SFM is all set to launch in Pondicherry on 4 December through its subsidiary Kal Radio.

 

• The Bloomberg television service has been named the 2007 International Television Channel of the Year by The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB).

 

• Dell, the personal computer makers, has awarded its worldwide marketing, advertising and communication operations to WPP Group PLC, a holding company that owns almost 250 smaller agencies. The account is worth $4.5 billion and will last for three years.

 

• Nazara Technologies a company focused on creating mobile content around cricket, is reported to have received around $7 million (around Rs. 28 crores) in its second round of funding.

 

• Radio One 94.3 FM, a BBC and Mid Day Joint Venture has set up a voice portal for Bangalore, reports exchange4media. The portal gives access to comedy programs like Rajni Sir, K T Kunjumon and Chamrajpet Charles, answer a quiz, and also leave messages that will be aired on the radio station.