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Purchase
of Fox Family worldwide will raise media
group’s debt lever to almost $15b
Moody’s
puts Disney on debt review over Fox |
Walt Disney’s debt
was placed on review for possible downgrade by
Moody’s Investors Service after the media
group confirmed yesterday that it was acquiring
Fox Family Worldwide, the joint venture founded
by News Corporation and Saban Entertainment, for
a total of $5.3bn, including debt.
The Fox Family acquisition, its first since the
purchase of Capital Cities / ABC five years ago,
raised Disney’s total debt level to almost
$15bn from $9.5bn amid a “ difficult
operating environment”, Moody’s said.
However, Tom Staggs, Disney chief financial
officer, described Fox Family as a “diamond
in the rough” that would sparkle with in two
years under Disney. By then, he expects cash flow
to have doubled, and administration and sales
costs to be 50 per cent lower than today. Disney
also expects a 50 per cent boost to advertising
revenues at its media networks division, which
includes the ABC broadcast network and cable
properties such as ESPN sports, the Disney
Channel and the newly introduced Soap Net.
Michael Eisner, Disney chairman and chief
executive, stressed the deal was both
“strategically and financially
compelling”. The addition of the 20-year-old
Fox Family Channel, with 80m cable subscribers in
the US, and soon to be renamed ABC Family,
represents a further step in the group’s
brand-extension drive and a substantial leap in
the trend among television companies to
“re-purpose” their programmes. A large
part of the material on ABC Family cable channel
will include news, sports and entertainment shown
previously on the ABC over-the air network. Much
the same policy will be applied to overseas
children’s services, which will complement
the group’s existing clutch of 14 foreign -
language Disney channels and include blocks of
Disney brand programmes.
Not only does this reduce programming costs, it
allows media groups to capture audiences, such as
commuters, unable to watch the original
broadcast. SoapNet, a fledgling cable service
launched by Disney less than a year ago, is
dedicated entirely to this concept and shows
reruns of both current and old daytime soap
operas. While Eisner proclaimed SoapNet a great
success, its modest growth rate reflects
increasing clutter in the US television market.
As he said of Fox
Family : “It is
nearly impossible to build or buy a network with
this reach nowadays”---- Business Standard
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| Zee English to
showcase successful ad campaigns |
Zee Telefilms is coming
up with its first indigenous programme,
‘Brand Champs’, for Zee English, from
August end. ‘Brand Champs’ is a
programme on advertising, showcasing case studies
on the most successful advertising campaigns in
India.
Partha Pratim Sinha, senior vice-president
(marketing), said : “Brand Champs” will
showcase some of the most successful advertising
campaigns in India. The programme will highlight
the thinking that went into the campaigns, and
relate how they became successful.”
“Brand Champs” is going to be an
entertaining version of advertising works. Our
objective is to generate interest and curiosity
among general English channel viewers in the
histories behind great ad campaigns” he
added. The programme will be anchored by Sunil
Gupta, executive vice-president and general
manager, HTA. It will be telecast once a week.
Each episode will last 30 minutes and feature one
case study among the campaigns that have made
their respective brands successful.
A presentation will be made by the agency and the
client behind a successful campaign. The last
segment will have industry experts giving their
opinions and analyses of the particular case
study. “While the programme has been
conceived and will be presented by Zee Telefilms,
the production aspects will be handled by TV
18,” added Sinha. Zee Telefilms has
shortlisted 15-17 brands for case studies. In the
initial episodes, campaigns such as Frooti
Everest Integrated, Fevicol-O & M, Raymonds
Enterprise Nexus, Colgate Rediffusion DY & R,
Rasna Mudra, Britannia - Lowe Lintas, Lakme
Ambience, etc will be showcased.
Zee English has so far been outsourcing
international programmes but is now looking at
producing and conceiving some in-house content.-----
Business Standard
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| Zee chalks out
plan for movie production |
Flying high on the
success of ‘Gadar’, Zee Telefilms has
chalked out a three tier extensive plan for film
production. The media conglomerate will produce
two movies in as many years with a budget of Rs
15-25 crore per film.
The company’s big budget movies will be
complemented by three movies made on a budget
range of Rs 6-8 crore and 12-18 small budget
movies with an investment of Rs 50-100 lakh
annually. Sandeep Goyal, Zee group’s
broadcasting chief executive officer told
Business Standard. “Film production is going
to be a major growth area for us. We see it as a
backward integration process with the movies and
music creating content for at least 12 of our 15
channels”.
Zee will have an added advantage with its E-Citi
multiplexes showcasing movies along with
boutiques, sports bars etc. “We will have at
least 100 screens with in a year. Film production
will just put all our activities right on track.
Added to that are the remuneration from theatre
release, channel release and music sales,”
Goyal said. At present the company has two
movies, “Tere Liye” and “Bhagmati”
(animation) in the pipeline.
Sector analysts said
: “We are
extremely bullish on the prospects of films in
India, if managed well and Zee can built on this
success to produce multiple movies in a given
year”.
Analysts have estimated that Gadar would
contribute Rs 17crore in net profit for Zee for
the fiscal ending 2002TOP
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