MUMBAI: MGM Studios has entered into a five-year distribution deal with Star Den Media Services to launch The MGM Channel on Indian cable television, the world’s third largest cable TV market.
Pricing the channel at Rs 6 a month per subscriber, The MGM Channel will tap into the estimated 83 million cable and satellite (C&S) homes across the country.
Star Den, a joint venture between News Corp.'s Star India and Digital [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Entertainment[/COLOR][/COLOR] Network, will also be responsible for distributing the channel on DTH (direct-to-home) and IPTV platforms except Dish TV where MGM is already available under a deal it stitched directly with the Zee Group company. For DTH, The MGM Channel is priced at Rs 3 a month per subscriber.
"We have a fast roll out target and are eyeing a reach across 30 million homes for the channel over the next four months," says Star Den CEO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor while refusing to elaborate on the commercial terms of the deal with MGM Studios. Sources, however, confirm that MGM and Star Den have entered into a revenue share arrangement. "Star Den has not committed a minimum guaranteed payout to MGM for distributing the English movie channel. The deal is for five years," an industry source says.
MGM will depend on subscription revenues, having decided to be advertising-free to gain popularity among Indian audiences with its branded [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Hollywood[/COLOR][/COLOR] content. "By working with Star Den, MGM will now have a compelling opportunity to extend and accelerate our channel’s reach throughout the widest possible audience in the large and burgeoning Indian television market. We are already available on Dish TV, India's largest DTH platform,” says MGM Networks executive vice president Bruce Tuchman.
With MGM, Star Den will be having 23 channels in its bouquet across multiple genres. The MGM Channel will complement Star Movies to grab English [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]movie[/COLOR][/COLOR]-viewing audiences. Rival distribution company Zee Turner distributes HBO and Zee Studio while SET Discovery has to contend with Pix.
“MGM with its huge library of compelling Hollywood movies will bring a great value addition to the Star Den bouquet of channels and will indeed complement the best of English Programming it offers to viewers in the country,” says Kapoor.
The MGM Channel has access to the studio's 4,000 title library. Highlights among the channel’s planned movie offerings in the coming year are Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Network, Carrie, A Passage to India, Midnight Cowboy, The [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Pink [COLOR=blue! important]Panther[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] Strikes Again, Mystic Pizza, Desperately Seeking Susan, and many others.
Pricing the channel at Rs 6 a month per subscriber, The MGM Channel will tap into the estimated 83 million cable and satellite (C&S) homes across the country.
Star Den, a joint venture between News Corp.'s Star India and Digital [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Entertainment[/COLOR][/COLOR] Network, will also be responsible for distributing the channel on DTH (direct-to-home) and IPTV platforms except Dish TV where MGM is already available under a deal it stitched directly with the Zee Group company. For DTH, The MGM Channel is priced at Rs 3 a month per subscriber.
"We have a fast roll out target and are eyeing a reach across 30 million homes for the channel over the next four months," says Star Den CEO Gurjeev Singh Kapoor while refusing to elaborate on the commercial terms of the deal with MGM Studios. Sources, however, confirm that MGM and Star Den have entered into a revenue share arrangement. "Star Den has not committed a minimum guaranteed payout to MGM for distributing the English movie channel. The deal is for five years," an industry source says.
MGM will depend on subscription revenues, having decided to be advertising-free to gain popularity among Indian audiences with its branded [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Hollywood[/COLOR][/COLOR] content. "By working with Star Den, MGM will now have a compelling opportunity to extend and accelerate our channel’s reach throughout the widest possible audience in the large and burgeoning Indian television market. We are already available on Dish TV, India's largest DTH platform,” says MGM Networks executive vice president Bruce Tuchman.
With MGM, Star Den will be having 23 channels in its bouquet across multiple genres. The MGM Channel will complement Star Movies to grab English [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]movie[/COLOR][/COLOR]-viewing audiences. Rival distribution company Zee Turner distributes HBO and Zee Studio while SET Discovery has to contend with Pix.
“MGM with its huge library of compelling Hollywood movies will bring a great value addition to the Star Den bouquet of channels and will indeed complement the best of English Programming it offers to viewers in the country,” says Kapoor.
The MGM Channel has access to the studio's 4,000 title library. Highlights among the channel’s planned movie offerings in the coming year are Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Network, Carrie, A Passage to India, Midnight Cowboy, The [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]Pink [COLOR=blue! important]Panther[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] Strikes Again, Mystic Pizza, Desperately Seeking Susan, and many others.