Pact with Paramount lifts Saregama

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Saregama India was frozen at the 20 per cent upper limit of the circuit breaker at Rs 73 Thursday on reports that the company had signed a deal with Paramount Studio to distribute their home videos in India.

More than 3.17 lakh shares were traded on the BSE. Saregama has also signed on to Microsoft's online music platform, MSN Music.

The company is betting big on home video segments which is growing by leaps and bounds. The market size is estimated to be Rs 100 crore and this could double this fiscal.

Goenka said Saregama has forged an alliance with Paramount for marketing its titles in India in the last fortnight. That apart, the company has tied up with four overseas studios "" Universal, BBC, Mira Max and Warner.

The company is also getting big time into film production with subsidiary Saregama Films. Its maiden venture Tumsa Nahi Dekha is going to be released soon.

It is also venturing into Bengali films as well. All these efforts will offset losses from audio and video piracy partially and lead to positive bottomline this fiscal.