When Adhikari brothers floated Sab TV, they had the vision of growing from a pure content to a broadcasting company. But facing competition from biggies like Star Plus and Sony TV, they quickly took the niche positioning of a comedy channel. But lacking resources to push growth, the Adhikaris initiated talks with Sony Group for a buy out.
Extensive negotiations over the last six months culminated in the announcement today that SET Satellite (Singapore) Pte Ltd was acquiring from Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Limited (SABTNL), the Sab TV brand as well as 1305 hours of library content (representing 20 per cent of Sab TV's library). The price: $ 13 million (approximately Rs 570 million).
Indiantelevision.com's Sibabrata Das caught up with SABTNL vice-chairman and managing director Markand Adhikari for a quick lowdown on the ramifications of the deal.
Why did you sell Sab TV when it had established its position as a niche comedy channel? |
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How will the Sony buy out of Sab TV affect SABTNL, the listed company? |
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Does this mean that for your future broadcasting projects, SABTNL will not have any equity ownership? |
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With SABTNL not having content on the Doordarshan network of channels, how much do you expect the company to gain from these captive contracts? |
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SABTNL will have a cash inflow of Rs 570 million to acquire the SAB TV brand and 20 per cent of the library. How much will be spent towards clearing the company's debt? What are the other areas SABTNL will invest in? |
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When will Sony take complete control of Sab TV? |
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Will the news and Marathi channels be under a single company? We are creating two different companies. Sab Samachar Ltd will handle the current affairs and news channel venture. We are likely to name it as Sri Adhikari Brothers Samachar Ltd. The Marathi channel will be under Sab Regional Network Ltd. That too will be renamed Sri Adhikari Brothers Regional Network Ltd. |
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What is the paid up capital for these two companies? |
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How much are you investing? |