• Eros International to dilute 15-20 %, raise $100 million in float on LSE

    MUMBAI: Eros International Plc, the company that owns, creates and globally distributes Bollywood content, plans to d

  • FDI will upgrade media from the local to the global:
    Leo Burnett's Arvind Sharma

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 25, 2002

    I fully endorse the entry of foreign direct investment in all sectors in the country, including that in print media. It will help shift the horizon of the sector from the local to the global, and will give greater, real independence to the media sector.

    The entry of FDI in print media will globalize and give greater real independence to the sector.
    Arvind Sharma

    Managing Director
    Leo Burnett India

    For the Indian advertisers, buyers and media planners, it will mean exposure to international practices and help them upgrade themselves accordingly

  • The FDI Decision fits in with our plans: Shekhar Gupta

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 25, 2002

    What has been done is logical. A lot of lobbying has prevented this from happening. Also the political class was not courageous enough. It‘s good this decision has been taken now. The momentum was too strong to allow FDI in print. They have allowed it in radio, TV, and several other sectors, so they could not hold it back any more. Once FDI in Indian print media progresses, they will know that there‘s no real problem.

    With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets.
    Shekhar Gupta

    Editor-in-chief
    Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd

    As far as our group is concerned, our ongoing restructuring will continue to fall into place. We have been planning for this. In the course of time, we will be studying an IPO, a foreign strategic partner. It fits into our plans and is fully in sync with what we wanted.

    I think the whole ball game is changing.With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets. Earlier on, certain groups had made investment by foreign institutions a problem. I think wth FDI being permitted the FII investment issue also should be sorted out.

  • Cabinet clears FDI in print media

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 25, 2002

    A holy cow has been laid to rest after almost half a century. This morning, the Indian government opened up the print media sector to foreign investment. The Union Cabinet has permitted 26 per cent foreign direct investment in the news and current affairs segment in the Indian print media and 74 per cent in the non-news, non-current affairs segment, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told journalists in Delhi.
    This has reversed a decision of the Union Cabinet in 1955 which disallowed foreign investment in print media and had had hitherto been considered as the defacto law.


    The government took the decision despite solid resistance from select media groups which have lobbied hard to blockade foreign investment in print. Additionally, there has been a lot of opposition within the current government too. One of the media groups probably had an inkling that something like this would happen for it carried a front page story in the leading Indian English newspaper saying that the NDA and the opposition were against any FDI in print media today and that the government should not go back on its earlier decision to disallow FDI in print media.

    Swaraj, while making the announcement, declared that certain riders had been laid for allowing FDI. For starters, the Indian shareholding should be significantly higher than the 26 per cent FDI. Second, if the the shareholding pattern was changed by the foreign investor, the I&B ministry had to be compulsorily informed. Third, editorial control will have to remain in Indian hands, and also three-fourths of the editorial posts will have to be filled by Indians. Additionally, the credentials of the foreign investor would necessarily have to be verified by the government before giving him the green signal.

    Talking about the decision to open up the sector, Swaraj posed a question to journalists: "Why should one sector be left closed? We started with manufacturing went on to services and now we have gone on to print."

  • Living Media's Red FM comes to town, finally

    Submitted by ITV Production on Jun 25, 2002

    Living Media‘s RED FM, the last of the five private FM channels in Mumbai will be launched tomorrow on 93.5 MHz.

    The channel is being touted as ‘bright, energetic and passionate?a radio station with attitude‘. For rivals, already settled into their respective grooves, who are closely monitoring what RED will offer, the station says it will cut across SEC and age barriers, although a majority of its listeners will be in the same 18 to 35 age group and fall in the SEC A and B categories.
    The 24 hour channel‘s programming structure also does not seem to be varying from the norm set by Radio Mirchi, Go, Win and Radio City - non stop music, melody and rhythm are the three pillars on which RED bases its content. "As added incentives Red FM provides crisp entertaining updates on traffic, weather, city specific events and the latest buzz on everything current," reads the radio station‘s promo.

    Technically, Red FM claims to be in step with the best in the business. Its song scheduling software is totally automated with the latest version of international radio software. Red FM will broadcast out of a 6 Bay antenna on a 135 mtr tower situated in the heart of Mumbai. Special reflectors have been added to optimize the signal based on the geographical contours of Mumbai and its surrounding districts. In Delhi and Kolkata, where RED will begin in next few months, the transmission facilities will be co-located on the AIR towers.

  • Speculation rife that Mahajan to replace Swaraj as I&B minister

    Speculation is rife in the Capital that in the impending reshuffle of the Union Cabinet which Prime Minister AB Vajpa

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