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  NDTV, Astro to form JV for channels in South East Asia  
Indiantelevision.com Team
(30 August 2005 4:49 pm)
 
     
  MUMBAI: After getting into a joint venture deal with Sun Network, Malaysia's Astro All Asia Network has worked out a similar arrangement with Prannoy Roy-promoted New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV).

NDTV will hold up to 20 per cent in the proposed joint venture with Astro Broadcast Corp Ltd, a wholly owned company of Astro All AsiaNetwork, to set up and broadcast 24-hour channels in South East Asia.
  
     
  The venture will initially launch television channels in Indonesia and Malaysia, NDTV said in a notice to the National Stock Exchange.

The two companies have signed a term sheet. This, however, is subject to a long form joint venture shareholders agreement and legal, regulatory and licensing requirements as applicable.

No details on the amount of investment and the launch date of the channels were given.

Last year, Astro and Sun TV had entered into a $25 million agreement for the establishment of a joint venture to originate, aggregate and distribute television programming and channels for a global audience. The content creation would be for filmed and other entertainment products in Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali for distribution to international markets. The agreement also proposed to launch a Bengali channel for distribution in India, South East Asia and other markets within the Bengali diaspora. The channel, Surjo, will launch next year.

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