Saregama, BBC partnership


BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, to enter the Indian home entertainment market.Thus Saregama will release the BBC series and TV films on VCDs and DVDs in India. The distribution and marketing contract is for three years but is renewable. This is a revenue sharing arrangement with BBC Worldwide," according to Saregama managing director Dilip R Mehta. Saregama has a plan to release five to seven titles per month. The VCDs will be priced at Rs 150 and Rs 199. Apart from BBC Worldwide, Saregama home video rights to distribute titles from Universal, Miramax and Warner. The company is not aggressively present in the Hindi movie segment of the home video market, but feels that content from international studios has a good growth prospect. The home video segment accounts for almost 10 per cent of Saregama's revenues. Mehta expects this to grow to 15 per cent of the company's total earnings next year on a projected turnover of Rs 120 crore. The English-language new film titles are priced at Rs 299 while catalogue products cost Rs 199. Many BBC titles such as Noddy and Teletubbies will also be available in Hindi and on DVD. "We are finalising our low price segment for Hindi. But it will still be premium pricing. We are not entering the low-end of the market where prices are witnessing huge drops," said Mehta.