NDTV to sell entire stake to Time Warner arm

NDTV Ltd is all set to wash its hands off NDTV Imagine,the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) it launched with much fanfare around a year ago.

Two people close to the development said the broadcaster has sealed the deal to sell its entire stake,which amounts to around 75-80 per cent in the channel,to Turner Broadcasting,part of global media conglomerate Time Warner,for a consideration of about $70 million. The rest will be retained by some employees,including NDTV Imagines CEO Sameer Nair and other stakeholders such as film producer and director Karan Johar. They (Turner) may decide on buying that stake as well at a later stage, one of the two individuals said.

Both NDTV and Turner refused to comment on the development. We do not comment on speculation, an NDTV spokesperson said in an email,whereas Anshuman Misra,managing director,Turner International India,said: It is Turner Broadcastings policy not to comment on speculation. He,however,added that India is a critical market for Turner and we are continually exploring business opportunities in the media and entertainment space.

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Turner is already present in the Indian broadcasting space through childrens channels Cartoon Network and Pogo and English movies channels HBO and WB.

This will be,however,the companys second effort to get a foothold in the Hindi GEC space,which is the largest genre on television with more than 25 per cent share in the overall advertising pie of around Rs8,000-8500 crore and over 30 per cent share in viewership.

In March this year,the company entered the Hindi GEC space in an equal partnership with Alva Brothers,the holding company of well known television content producer Miditech. Real,the channel launched by the two partners,however,failed in getting any significant viewership or advertising and it stopped fresh programming a few weeks ago.

In the week ended 21 November,Real recorded a gross rating point,or GRP,of 1 in comparison with 330 GRPs recorded by market leader Colors. The number two and three players,Zee TV and Star Plus 265 and 255 GRPs. GRPs represent the total viewership share of particular channel over a period of time.

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Incidentally,NDTV Imagines performance has also been quite dismal so far. The channels GRPs in the week in question were 115. It is,however,the fifth largest channel in the space that has 11 players in all and media observers feel the channel still has some potential to grow. Imagines debut was not too unimpressive,if you remember, points out a media analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage. Running a Hindi GEC is an extremely expensive business. Given its internal financial constraints,NDTV was not able to support Imagine with the kind of investments that are required to produce top quality clutter breaking content, he added.

The deal,which is likely to be announced soon,will be the third in less than two months for NDTV. The broadcaster sold off 69 per cent stake in NDTV Lifestyle Ltd,the company that housed its fashion and lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times to the US-based media company Scripps Network Interactive for $55 million around a week ago. NDTV Imagine and NDTV Lifestyle were both part of NDTV Networks,a UK-based company that houses all of NDTVs non-news business.

Before the deal with Scripps,the broadcaster had bought back its 26 per cent stake in NDTV Networks from US-based NBC Universal for a reported sum of $25 million. NBC had bought the stake for $150 million last year.