Inx Media to launch 12 channels

With an eye on establishing a strong regional presence, ex-Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea's Inx Media Pvt will launch nine regional language channels out of the 12 channel being planned in next two years.

The other three channels will include an English news channel, a music channel and a general entertainment channel - all of which will be launched within this year.

The regional languages being contemplated includes Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bhojpuri amongst others. The focus of the regional channels sources say would be on the city viewers.

The project will be spearheaded by Indrani Mukerjea as its chairperson and is estimated to attract investments to the tune of $100 million to begin with, industry sources said.

The news company, Inx News Pvt, will be 26 per cent owned by the entertainment company whose CEO will be Vir Sanghvi.

The role of Peter Mukerjea in the company was, however, not clear due to a non-compete clause with Star TV India which holds him from joining a rival channel for six months. Sources however say Mukerjea will be the key player who will join in.

The entertainment company, Inx Media has been financed by Temasek Holdings via Dunearn Investments, New Silk Route, New Vernon, Kotak and SREI Group. "None of our investors will hold more than 25 per cent stake in our company but I can not get into the specific details of who owns how much," Mukerjea said.

Altogether, Inx media will also hire 600-700 people for running these 12 channels. "we will hire 500 people within this year before we launch our news, entertainment and music channels," Indrani Mukerjea, the promoter of the Inx Group said.

These three channel will use the C-band transponders on Insat-4A for which neccessary tie-ups have been done.

A portion of the equity will also be kept aside as sweat equity for key employees both in the entertainment and the news companies.

The company today filed for the uplinking and downlinking licence in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It also filed its application in the Foreign Investments Promotion Board (FIPB) for foreign investments in the channel.

Initially, the three channels will be free to air and the company, according to Mukerjea, is already in talks with Tata Sky and Dish TV, the two direct to home (DTH)) players.