| The full bouquet of channels will include a Hindi entertainment channel, an English news channel, various entertainment channels in regional languages, a music channel and city-specific channels. |
| The Hindi general entertainment channel, the music channel and the English news channel will be launched by the last quarter of the year. The other channels will be rolled out over the next two years. |
| The entertainment company, INX Media Pvt. Ltd., has been financed by some of the world's leading investors including Asia investment firm Temasek Holdings via Dunearn Investments, New Silk Route, New Vernon, Kotak and SREI Group. The news company, INX News Pvt. Ltd., will be 26% (percent) owned by the entertainment company and, in accordance with the Government of India regulations, by a single Indian entity drawn from the INX Group. |
| Indrani Mukerjea, the promoter of the INX Group, will be the chairperson of this venture. |
| Vir Sanghvi will be Chief Executive Officer of INX News Pvt Ltd and Editorial Head of the news channel. For print purposes, his association with HT Media will continue and his columns will continue to appear in the Hindustan Times and Mint. |
| The two companies have applied to the Government of India for necessary permissions. |
| Kotak Investment Bank is the exclusive adviser to the INX Group on this transaction. Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co. are the legal advisers to the group. |
| Q&A with Indrani Mukerjea |
| Understand you've made an application for a broadcasting licence? |
| Yes, we have applied on behalf of three channels. The first will be Hindi general entertainment and the second will be a music channel. There will also be an English news channel. |
| Who are the investors in this venture? |
| Our investors are some of the world's most respected. The broad construct is that no single fund will own more than 25% (percent) of the entertainment channel. A portion of the equity will be kept aside as sweat equity for key employees both in the entertainment and the news companies. |
| The investors in INX Media Pvt. Ltd which will have the entertainment and the music channels include Dunearn Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, NSR PE, a fund advised by New Silk Route Partners, New Vernon Private Equity, SREI, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and Kotak Private Equity (part of the Kotak group) and IM Media Pvt Ltd. |
| The structure of INX News Pvt. Ltd, which will own the news channels, is in accordance with Government of India regulations which specify that a single Indian entity must own 51 per cent of the equity and that foreign shareholding cannot exceed 26 per cent. |
| The entertainment company will own 26 per cent of the news company. IM Media Pvt. Ltd. will own the majority shareholding as the Indian entity. IM Media Pvt Ltd is a company owned by Indrani Mukerjea and is part of the INX group. It will fund its investments in this venture through interest-bearing debt. |
| Indrani Mukerjea, a successful entrepreneur, founded the INX Group 10 years ago and has created one of India's leading executive search agencies nationally and globally. Mrs. Mukerjea was appointed Director on the global board of IMD International Search and Consulting in January 2007. |
| Are the Ambanis or Lachlan Murdoch investing in this venture as speculated earlier? |
| No. This is a complete misconception attributable to an inaccurate newspaper report that appeared some months ago. Neither the Ambanis nor any member of the Murdoch family or any of the companies in their group has any investment at all in the entertainment or the news companies in the form of either equity or debt. |
| Will Peter Mukerjea be part of this venture? |
| Peter Mukerjea is one of the most experienced television professionals in the country. He is currently bound by a non-compete agreement that does not allow him to be part of any broadcast business. In any event, it is premature to discuss this at this point. |
| Who will be the personnel involved in this venture? |
| It is premature to divulge names but we can confidently say that the company expects to hire some of India's best and most experienced TV professionals with a proven track record. |
| Who will head the news company? |
| Vir Sanghvi, one of India's best-known editors and anchors, will be CEO of the company. |
| How does this affect Mr. Sanghvi's long-standing relationship with Hindustan Times? |
| His primary responsibility will be as CEO of the TV news company but he will continue to be associated with the HT for print purposes and his popular columns in the Hindustan Times and Mint will continue. |
| Don't you think there is already too much clutter in the entertainment space? |
| We believe that India's entertainment industry is dynamic and fast growing, providing enough room for another quality entertainment channel. |
| How will your news channel differ from the existing channels? |
| Of course, we will be second to none in the quality of our news coverage but we will also provide analysis, colour, depth and new formats that are on par with international standards. |
| Will you be free-to-air or a pay channel? |
| We expect to be free-to-air for both channels in the foreseeable future. |
| Will CAS and DTH affect the fortunes of your channels? |
| Yes, most favourably. We believe that with new delivery systems, it will be easier to reach viewers than ever before. |
| Do your plans include more channels? |
| We aim to produce a full-fledged bouquet which will include regional entertainment channels, music channels and other news channels. The first two channels will be launched by the end of this year. And the other channels will follow over the next two years. |
| Are you tying up with any production house? |
| Given that innovation is central to our philosophy - this will clearly reflect in our content strategy as well. We will buy our entertainment software from some of the best producers in the business. |
| What will your channels be called? |
| We have worked out tentative names for both the news channel and the entertainment network. At this stage, however, we are not ready to divulge these names. |
| Do you have a launch date? |
| The launch date of any channel is a function of several factors and we will endeavour to launch our news and non news channels as quickly as is feasible. It is difficult at this point to predict a specific launch date. |
| What kind of budgets are you looking at? |
| We can't discuss details with regards to budgets. But, given that we would like to deliver quality news and entertainment to viewers in India and overseas, we will be as cost efficient as possible. |
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