Film Production
Channel aimed at urban women targets June launch
Delhi based software provider Digital Broadcasting, has joined hands with Delany Productions, a software production house in Las Vegas with plans to launch “World of Women” channel in India on June 18. The WOW channel aims to provide a variety of programmes targeting urban women having varying interests and ages.
Estimated to cost Rs 120 crore, Digital Broadcasting has 31 per cent stake in the project while Dealny Productions holds 20 per cent of the equity. In coming three years the channel plans to invest RS 60 crore in the first year and expects to break even in the next three years, the Indian Express reported on Monday.
Indian Express quoted Rajiv Mishra, managing director of Digital Broadcasting, as saying the 24-hour free-to-air channel would penetrate 46 million cable households within six month of its launch. Eighty per cent of the programmes would be produced in India while the rest will be sourced from the US.
The channel’s target audience also includes NRI households and the bilingual channel will also be aired in United States and United Kingdom. The company has tied up with DirecTV in Europe and the UK-based BskyB as their DTH operators, informs Mishra. In the initial period, viewing in the US will be delayed by 24 hours.
Film Production
Priyanka Kaur Dhillon joins SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution
A seasoned content dealmaker with 16 years in digital and satellite media joins the Bengali entertainment powerhouse as it pushes into the pan-India music market
Mumbai: Priyanka Kaur Dhillon has made her move. The content acquisitions and commercials veteran, most recently commercial manager at Sony Pictures Networks India, has joined SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution, stepping into one of the more interesting briefs in regional entertainment right now.
SVF is no ordinary regional label. Over 30 years it has built a formidable legacy in Bengali cinema and music, driven by culturally resonant storytelling and a catalogue that consistently punches above its weight. Its recent success with Chiraiya underlines the point. But the Kolkata-based powerhouse now has its sights firmly set beyond Bengal, most visibly through Legacy, a rap reality series produced in collaboration with hip-hop label Kalamkaar that signals a deliberate push into the pan-India music ecosystem.
Dhillon brings precisely the kind of muscle SVF needs for that expansion. At Sony Pictures Networks India, she led film acquisition and commercials and handled music licensing across the entire satellite network. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years at Hungama, rising to assistant general manager and leading strategic content licensing for the platform’s digital entertainment business, with a particular focus on international markets. Her label relationships span the full roster: Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, Believe International, Tunecore, The Orchard and a clutch of smaller aggregators. She has negotiated and closed deals with Hollywood studios, Bollywood production houses and regional content players alike, building pricing models and deal structures off data analysis rather than instinct.
Announcing the appointment, Dhillon said she was “thrilled to begin this journey with an iconic Bengali music label and content powerhouse,” adding that SVF’s “constant drive to push boundaries” was what drew her to the role.
SVF has spent three decades proving that regional does not mean limited. With a sharp commercial operator now steering its music distribution, its bid to go national just got a good deal more serious.
