MUMBAI: ETV Network has signed a deal to buy 207 movies from Sony Entertainment Television for single telecast rights, strengthening the trend towards syndication of content.

ETV will receive a bulk of 20 movies each month, a source in the company said. The transaction is routed through Goldmines Media Ltd, a Mumbai-based listed company which is in the business of movie acquisitions.

ETV will telecast these movies on its four regional channels for the Hindi heartland - ETV Bihar, ETV Uttar Pradesh, ETV Madhya Pradesh and ETV Rajasthan. The acquisition price is estimated at Rs 13 million, according to market sources.

The movies from Sony include Rocky (Sanjay Dutt's debut film), Johnny Mera Naam (Dev Anand and Hema Malini), Sadma (Kamal Hasan and Sri Devi), Utsav (Rekha and Shekhar Suman), Majboor (Amitabh Bachchan), Khoon Pasina (Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rekha), Zamana Deewana (Shahrukh Khan), Zindagi Ek Jua, Dostana and Moksha.

ETV has earlier done bulk deals with Star India and Zee Telefilms for single telecast rights of Hindi movies. Broadcasters see syndication of movie content as another revenue stream which has opportunity to grow. "We do not buy rights for a longer period. All our movie purchases for these four channels are based on single telecast rights," the source said.

ETV's four regional channels for the Hindi heartland air's one movie a day. A major part of content on these channels is non- fiction. News-related content is the prime driver and no soaps are telecast on these channels. "We have soaps on our other regional language channels. But it makes no sense to air soaps on the four channels for the Hindi heartland as there are strong general entertainment channels like Star Plus, Sony and Zee TV catering to these audiences," the source said.