Times Group has a problem: its movie channels

Times Group has a bouquet of English-language movie channels. It now faces the challenge of raising more money to invest in them, or sell them. With online video streaming platforms taking over, are these channels doomed?

Times Group faces a quandary with its seven English movie channels

After a lack of interest from potential acquirers, Times has decided to proceed with an internal restructuring to raise capital

With video streaming platforms gaining ground, English entertainment and movie TV channels are suffering

All this comes even as the Times Group gears up for a second attempt at online video streaming

Happy endings are for movies. Not movie channels.

At least not for movie channels owned by Bennett Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL), otherwise known as the Times Group.

Times, one of the largest media houses in India, has come to terms with this. For at least 6 months, it has been working hard to find a buyer for its English movie portfolio, according to three people directly aware of the matter. It even engaged an outside firm to conduct an exercise on how best to structure a potential sale, so as it minimize its tax outflow on the gains. On offer were all seven of its English movie channels—MN+ HD, Movies Now and Movies Now HD, Romedy Now and Romedy Now HD, and MNX as well as MNX HD. “The idea was to raise money by exiting this portfolio and use it for a different purpose,” said one of the three people, asking not to be named.

But, after months of unsuccessfully searching for a buyer, Times is going in a different direction. A source aware of the matter said that Times has begun a process of internal restructuring in recent months to raise the capital it requires. But if a property owned by the country’s leading media house couldn’t be sold after months of trying, the most obvious assumption is that there’s a problem with the portfolio. In this case, that assumption is accurate.

The Ken reached out to the Times Group to confirm these developments. In an e-mailed response, Times Group stated that the company had “neither initiated any sale process of our TV businesses nor appointed anyone for the same. We are not engaged in any discussion to sell any of our channels. BCCL is committed to its TV business.”

English-language entertainment, industry-wide, is a loss-making business according to industry executives. This explains the lack of interest from buyers. Now, Times is at a crossroads. While it has chosen to undergo an internal restructuring, should Times exit the business altogether to cut its losses instead?

Times, then. Times, now

Prior to 2011, the only channel Times had in its entertainment bouquet was Zoom, a Bollywood music and entertainment channel. Back then, only a few broadcasters like Star India and Sony Pictures offered English content through channels such as Star World and Sony Pix. Other media companies such as UTV Network, Fox Entertainment and CBS Studios were also getting into the sector and were beginning to build their English entertainment and movie portfolio. Times joined the party by launching Movies Now in 2011.

12

Number of channels operated by Times Group at present.

Movies Now proved to be the first in a string of English movie properties launched by Times through its TV subsidiary Times Television Network.

AUTHOR

Harveen Ahluwalia

In her last assignment, Harveen was at Mint, the business daily published by HT Media. At Mint, where she spent about two years, she wrote stories on retail, food and the media business. Harveen is a B.Com (H) graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi. She has a diploma in journalism from the Times School of Journalism. Like many folks at The Ken, Harveen talks and tweets a lot. When she isn’t writing or reading, she likes to sketch and doodle. She can be reached at harveen at the-ken dot com.

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AUTHOR

Pooja Sarkar

Pooja has been a journalist for about a decade now. She has worked at DNA Money, Business Standard and Mint. In her last assignment, Pooja was a chief correspondent at ET Now. At The Ken, she will write on private equity and the venture capital ecosystem. This, in the context of company strategy. Along with work, she is picking up important life skills these days, like the art of knitting a muffler.

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