News: Viacom eyes film co-production in India
(RTR 22/03/2006) Mumbai - Cable network and movie studio owner Viacom Inc. is keen to tap India's digital media business and explore co-producing films to address its large base of young people, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
Viacom, which owns MTV and the Nickelodeon channels, is aggressively expanding its presence in fast-growing markets like India and China, and tapping emerging segments like social networking on the Internet to retain its cool cachet.
"When the world sees India, they see its fast-growing economy, its large middle class, its smart and well-educated young people, and its big movie and television audience," said Tom Freston at an entertainment conclave.
"Anyone would consider it a promised land," said Freston, who lived in India for several years in the '70's, when he set up an apparel export business here and in Kabul for western buyers.
India's filmed entertainment business, valued at about 68 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) in 2005, is forecast to more than double to 153 billion rupees by 2010, according to estimates by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Its home video market, estimated at 4 billion rupees in 2005, is forecast to more than quintuple to 21 billion by 2010.
Emerging segments like mobile gaming and Internet advertising based on entertainment are forecast to grow by eight times to more than 10 billion rupees ($225 million) by 2010.
"We don't just want to distribute movies here: We're looking at co-producing films here with Indian partners," said Freston, who claimed Hindi films of the '70's made "a huge impact" on him.
"We're also keen to explore the home video market: 80 percent of film revenues in India comes from ticket sales, whereas 60 percent of revenues in the West comes from home video," he said.
India, home to the world's most prolific film industry and the world's third-largest cable television market, is set to become Asia's leading cable market by 2010. Viacom launched MTV Desi in the United States last summer with south Asian content.
But Hollywood studios have largely stuck to distributing films or dubbing them in regional languages for wider viewership. Sony Pictures, owned by Sony Corp., last year signed its first local co-production deal for a Hindi film.
MTV began airing in India in the early '90's, but the channel only became popular a few years later after it localised its content and hired local executives and veejays who, like most young urban Indians, spoke a mix of Hindi and English.
"We didn't get it right the first time," admitted Freston. "It turns out that young Indians didn't want to listen to Pearl Jam and Run DMC all the time."
Viacom, which owns MTV and the Nickelodeon channels, is aggressively expanding its presence in fast-growing markets like India and China, and tapping emerging segments like social networking on the Internet to retain its cool cachet.
"When the world sees India, they see its fast-growing economy, its large middle class, its smart and well-educated young people, and its big movie and television audience," said Tom Freston at an entertainment conclave.
"Anyone would consider it a promised land," said Freston, who lived in India for several years in the '70's, when he set up an apparel export business here and in Kabul for western buyers.
India's filmed entertainment business, valued at about 68 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) in 2005, is forecast to more than double to 153 billion rupees by 2010, according to estimates by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Its home video market, estimated at 4 billion rupees in 2005, is forecast to more than quintuple to 21 billion by 2010.
Emerging segments like mobile gaming and Internet advertising based on entertainment are forecast to grow by eight times to more than 10 billion rupees ($225 million) by 2010.
"We don't just want to distribute movies here: We're looking at co-producing films here with Indian partners," said Freston, who claimed Hindi films of the '70's made "a huge impact" on him.
"We're also keen to explore the home video market: 80 percent of film revenues in India comes from ticket sales, whereas 60 percent of revenues in the West comes from home video," he said.
India, home to the world's most prolific film industry and the world's third-largest cable television market, is set to become Asia's leading cable market by 2010. Viacom launched MTV Desi in the United States last summer with south Asian content.
But Hollywood studios have largely stuck to distributing films or dubbing them in regional languages for wider viewership. Sony Pictures, owned by Sony Corp., last year signed its first local co-production deal for a Hindi film.
MTV began airing in India in the early '90's, but the channel only became popular a few years later after it localised its content and hired local executives and veejays who, like most young urban Indians, spoke a mix of Hindi and English.
"We didn't get it right the first time," admitted Freston. "It turns out that young Indians didn't want to listen to Pearl Jam and Run DMC all the time."
posted by InCar Group Press Room at 14:23
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