Zee to invest Rs 300 cr in cable TV arm

Mumbai-based media house, the Zee group, has lined up an investment of Rs 300 crore in its cable television services arm, Wire & Wireless India, earlier known as Siticable Network.

In the cable business, the group is connecting directly with subscribers by taking control of the last-mile connections and the investments are going into setting up and acquiring infrastructure.

It is looking to acquire cable operators as well as multi-system operators.

The company's grouse is that it gets paid for only about a third of its over 7 million cable subscribers.

"WWIL is a high-investment operation. We have already invested Rs 150 crore in it during the restructuring. We will invest Rs 300 crore more in it," group Chairman Subhash Chandra told Business Standard.

Both WWIL and Zee News, two of the four companies that have emerged out of Zee group's restructuring last month, will get listed for trading at the stock exchanges early next week, most likely on Tuesday.

Of the other two, Zee Entertainment & Enterprise began trading on the bourses on December 18, while the fourth, Dish TV will be listed a little later, once the statutory approvals have been obtained from the Bombay High Court.

The new companies are being listed at both the main bourses "� Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange.

Chandra said WWIL, perceived as trailing the pack in Mumbai, had actually accounted for 75,000 set-top boxes in Mumbai out of the 150,000 installed in the new conditional access system environment being ushered into the city.

WWIL's annual turnover is pegged at Rs 250-300 crore while that of Zee News is estimated at close to Rs 200 crore.

"Zee News, including the regional channels, is comfortably bigger than its rivals on the basis of the top line," said Chandra.

Zee News, which has incorporated all of the group's news broadcast businesses, competes with NDTV and TV18.

The paid-up equity capital of WWIL is Rs 23.97 crore while that of Zee News is Rs 21.72 crore.

The promoter group holds 44 per cent of the equity in WWIL, while 31 per cent is with foreign institutional investors, 9.5 per cent with domestic mutual funds and the rest with the public. In Zee News, the promoter group holds 54 per cent of the equity.

Of the rest, 25 per cent is with FIIs, 8 per cent with domestic mutual funds and the rest with the public.