Bad times are in for India’s broadcasting industry. Ronnie Screwvala-promoted UTV Software Communications, an integrated media and entertainment company with interests in television, films, gaming and digital media, is shutting down its Delhi operations to cut costs.
Industry sources said that about 60 employees at UTV’s Delhi office may have to quit. The Delhi team was operating its World Movies and UTV Movies channels. Screwvala, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, did not respond to Business Standard queries.
However, in an internal e-mail to his employees, Screwvala said, “World Movies and UTV Movies, which are run entirely out of the Delhi/Noida office, will be consolidated within the Mumbai Broadcasting operations, which run Bindass & Bindass Movies. Of course, sales will continue to have a national presence, but this will result in the operations for World Movies and UTV Movies being moved out of our Noida office to operate from Mumbai within the next 3 months. Whilst some Delhi/Noida employees will be given the opportunity to relocate to Mumbai if they wish, this will unfortunately mean that several will exit our business at this stage, and we will be working closely with all of them to make their transition as smooth as possible."
The letter to the employees stated that the company was committed to serious investments in its broadcasting vertical, which includes four entertainment channels — Bindass, Bindass Movies, World Movies and UTV Movies. “Our Business News Channel UTVi, of course, remains an important part of our portfolio, but UTV is projected to own 20 per cent in UTVi,” it said.
A listed company, UTV Software also informed the BSE of its move to shift its movie channel operations to Mumbai. “In broadcasting, in which we are in a serious “investment mode”, we have done a very sharp review over the last 60 days and have… consolidated our operations for our four channels from our Mumbai office only.”
In the email, the CEO said that the company had looked very sharply at all its costs, including capex, new channel launches, carriage fees and other operational costs, and taken measures to reduce the expenditure.
“In financial terms, the original plan had earmarked an investment of Rs 660-700 crore in broadcasting over the next two-to-three years and our present actions... would result in an overall investment saving of Rs 200-240 crore,” the e-mail said. The CEO also said that he regretted the initiatives the company needed to take at this juncture.