MUMBAI: The Indian government has approved The Walt Disney Company South East Asia?s foreign direct investment (FDI) proposal to induct Rs 10 billion in The Walt Disney Company India.

The company wanted to induct foreign equity for business expansion and making downstream investment in other companies and subsidiaries of the company, including broadcasting companies.

Besides Disney?s proposal, the government also approved nine other FDI proposals amounting to Rs 2.59 billion approximately.

UK-based Packt Publishing has also received government approval to induct foreign equity amounting Rs 700,000 to carry out the business of publication books.

In February, The Walt Disney Company had increased its ownership stake in UTV Software Communications to 93 per cent from 50 per cent by buying out promoters stake for $377 million in line with the company?s strategic priority of increasing its brand presence and reach in key international markets.

The company had also assumed approximately $300 million of UTV?s borrowings.

Additionally, the company has paid $63 million to acquire an incremental six per cent stake for Rs 1,100 per share bringing its ownership percentage to 99 per cent.

Upon consolidation, the company recognised a non-cash gain of $184 million ($116 million after tax) as a result of adjusting the carrying value of the company?s 50 per cent equity investment to its estimated fair value of $405 million.

Subsequently, UTV was delisted from the Bombay Stock Exchange and its promoter Ronnie Screwvala was appointed as the managing director of The Walt Disney Company India.

Meanwhile, the FDI proposal of leading television network Multi Screen Media (MSM) was among the 16 proposals that were deferred.

MSM wanted to induct foreign equity to carry out the business of production of television programmes in India languages primarily for export, sale and distribution of Indian language audio visual production besides downlinking certain TV channels.

Hyderabad-based Scribble Media & Entertainment?s proposal to induct foreign equity for carrying out the business of its evening news publication Post Noon was also deferred.

MUMBAI: Star India has elevated Nachiket Pantvaidya to head its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel Star Plus as its general manager.

Prior to this, Pantvaidya was heading Star India?s Marathi GEC Star Pravah.

Star India spokesperson has confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com.

Pantvaidya is replacing Nitin Vaidya, who had quit following his 14 months stint at Star India.

Pantvaidya had joined Star Group in November 2009 as MD of Fox Television Studios India. Later he was moved to Star Pravah as EVP and GM.

Prior to that, Pantvaidya has worked with Balaji Telefilms, BBC Worldwide, Disney and Sony Entertainment (now Multi Screen Media).

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Nitin Vaidya quits Star India

MUMBAI: US cable major Comcast is selling its 15.8 per cent stake in A&E Television Networks to joint venture partners Disney and Hearst for $3.03 billion in cash.

A&E is majority owned by Disney?s ABC Television Group and Hearst. It runs channels including the History Channel and Lifetime.

In India, AETN has a JV with TV18 and has runs the infotainment channel History.

MUMBAI: For a year that has lighter load of marquee cricket and ad revenue forecast lower than 2011, the first six months have been unusually hectic and dramatic. Star took independent charge of sports broadcasting after News Corp bought out Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports, ending a 16-year-old joint venture company in Asia where both the media conglomerates held equal stake. Multi Screen Media (MSM) launched its maiden sports channel ?Six? while Zee introduced India?s first golf channel at a monthly price of Rs 200 a subscriber. Neo walked out of cricket and rebranded Neo Cricket as Neo Prime.

Beyond cricket, broadcasters have tapped into other sports with Neo debuting its hockey league in partnership with Indian Hockey Federation. The first six months, however, have not been easy for sporting leagues.

Cricket?s hottest property got its first reality check after the initial years of hype. The Indian Premier League (IPL) scored lower ratings and earned less advertising revenues than last year, though they are significantly higher than any other cricketing property in the Indian marketplace. Market estimates peg the sports broadcasting ad revenue at Rs 8.5-9 billion in the first six months of the year. With comparatively weaker ad revenue potential for the remaining six months, the early year forecast of ad revenue touching Rs 17 billion in 2012 is highly unlikely.

Star, left free from Disney, will start its aggressive play in sports broadcasting in India. It has already bagged the six-year BCCI rights till 2018 for a whopping Rs 38.51 billion, translating into Rs 401.154 million per match, much higher than what Nimbus had to pay (Rs 312.50 million a match). This squeezed out MSM who had bid Rs 37 billion.

MSM?s ?Six? will fight in the sports broadcasting arena with Ultimate Fighting Championship as its prime property till it telecasts the IPL next year.

With four sports broadcasting companies in the fray, Zee-controlled Ten Sports has renewed the rights for two cricket boards. Cricket South Africa (CSA) rights has come for $180 million and Zimbabwe for $20 million (both for eight years). The task will be to get the other three cricket boards ? Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies.

Zee is also looking at a varied sports channel offering. Ten Golf, positioned premium, is looking at mopping up 500,000 subscribers in three years. Says Zee business head Sports Atul Pande, "There will be a move towards segmentation. We want to be the number one channel in Golf in South Asia."

The exit of cricket has meant that Neo would put its focus on sports like soccer, hockey and tennis. Neo had to also rework on its three-year distribution deal (from 1 September 2010) with TheOneAlliance aborting it and opting for a fresh pact valid for one year.

 LodestarUN COO Anamika Mehta believes that it will be difficult for Neo, whicht was built on the back of India cricket, to scale up. "India is dominated by cricket. While acquisition costs of other sports are low, the revenue is also low as there is only so much attention that other sports will get from advertisers. The channels will also be event centric. There are a limited number of non cricket sporting events that get traction. The Indian cricket team on the other hand plays for around 200 days in the year," she says.

Nimbus kick-started the World Series Hockey (WSH) while Hockey India has announced another league, the first edition of which will take place next year.

According to Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra, the FIH has given clearance for one month next year during which no international event will be held. "This has been done so that top players like Jamie Dwyer and Teun de Nooijer are free from any international engagements."

Mehta believes the existence of two hockey league tournaments will result in fragmentation. "Even one league will find the going difficult. This is a long term play but the start has not been encouraging. For hockey to be brought back, efforts have to be made at the grassroots level. Then only can the interest levels grow. Leagues in different sports are obviously buoyed by the success of the IPL. But it will not be easy for them as it was for the IPL as there is a lack of familiarity in India for some of these sports," she says.

The leagues in other sports is yet to make an impact. In soccer, the i-League clubs are not happy with the way IMG Reliance, the AIFF?s commercial partner, is managing it as it has yet to come out with a blueprint for its development. The different clubs have, thus, formed the ?i-League Professional Football Clubs Association?.

"Every good league in the world is a separate entity in which the clubs are the stakeholders. We want to improve the standard of football in India and we are ready to do everything from our end as well", says the organisation?s general secretary Chirag Tanna.

The ambitious motorsports league that was planned by Machdar Motrosports has been postponed till next year. The i1 Super Series league has been rescheduled to 2013 as the venue in Delhi was not available.

The Elite Football League of India (EFLI), which aims to bring American football to India, has been preponed and will take place this month in Sri Lanka. It has teams from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

So which other sport outside cricket is growing in India? ?Soccer is growing among the youth. The Euro 2012 did well this year,? points out Mehta.

The Olympics is expected to fare better this year compared to its earlier edition of 2008. "It will fare better this year. There are two reasons for this. The first is that unlike Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports will be airing it. So there will be a concerted marketing push and the broadcast will be more professionally managed. The other reason is that there are more sports where India can win medals in. You have sports like boxing, wrestling, shooting and badminton, although tennis could be a disaster. It is not like the old days where the only medal hope was in hockey. I expect a big spike in ratings on those days when India wins a medal," says Mehta.

How big the impact of economic slowdown be on the sports genre? Says Mehta, ?There is a mood of caution but it is not a doomsday scenario. Some sectors like financial services and auto will cut back. If you look at the IPL, consumer durables did not come back in a big way.?