GECs
Paramount Films revamps distribution network in India
MUMBAI: The going has not been easy for Hollywood studios in India. Faced with a stubborn loyal market that prefers local products, American studios are finding it difficult to sustain growth. Hollywood accounts for just five to eight per cent of the film revenue pie in India. Fox shut shop earlier this year. However, one way to penetrate the Indian market is to forge tie-ups with local distributors who understand its complexities.
Earlier this year, Miramax forged a tie up with UTV who will distribute its films in the country. Now Paramount Films of India (PFI) a subsidiary of United International Pictures (UIP), which distributes films of Paramount, Universal and Dreamworks, has tied up with four Indian film distributors.
PVR Pictures will distribute PFIs product in Delhi and Gurgaon. Eurasia Visuals will handle UP, Rajasthan and East Punjab. Shravan Shroff’s Shringar Films will handle Maharashtra, Gujarat and Central India. Hansa Pictures will handle the Southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
PFI will continue to distribute films directly in the metros. The first major product under the new deal is Steven Spielbergs War Of The Worlds. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com on this, Kurt Rider, UIP senior V-P sales and marketing Asia, while not divulging the revenue sharing arrangement details, said, We are very mindful of our costs. India can be perilous in that you can spend too much and not be profitable.”
“Over the years we have been able to carefully judge what films work and what dont. This way we have not spent too much on our overheads. Now that we have an alliance with these four players we feel that we can be a bit more aggressive and spend a bit more money. One factor that will help us grow the business is the multiplex boom. This will enable us to bring in a bigger variety of films.
Rider says that paramount is looking at building up long term relationships with its partners. Prior to us deciding on the partners, we had companies approaching us and offering attractive money for a few major titles. However, we do not want to focus too much on the short term profits. We did not do a bidding process. We made our choice based on their willingness to work with us for 52 weeks. These companies have a transparent network, great connections. They are trustworthy and are incredibly hardworking.
While conceding that India is small in terms of revenue, Rider expressed more confidence in India faring as a revenue source for Hollywood compared with China. Of course, nobody is going to be biting their nails about the revenue that comes from India compared to Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Those markets account for 7580 per cent per cent of our revenue in Asia.
Outside the US, our other key markets include Britain and France. However, what is promising about India is that Indians love movies. It is okay that we are not number one. We are not looking to conquer the whole world. However if the cinema outlets grow, then we will also benefit. In Korea, despite being pushed to number two by the local film industry, our revenues have still grown.
Shroff said that Shringar is looking to open an office in Kolkata to handle that market. When that happens
PFI may work with them there. Rider acknowledged the fact that the government has allowed Hollywood to have
a level playing field. There is no government interference and some of the problems that Hollywood is facing in India are also being faced by Bollywood. The biggest one is piracy. He noted the difficulty in checking piracy in Asia at a time when the counterfeit DVD is as good as the genuine product. What we need is more cooperation from the different governments.”
“They need to realise that they are also losing out on tax revenue. As far as India is concerned, I would like to see the government strengthen the optical disk law. Digital distribution is the way of the future. Right now though, we do not support E Cinema because the product is not as good as what you get on a 35mm screen. We support the D system.
As far as distribution in other countries in Asia are concerned UIP does it directly. In China it goes through China Film which is a government owned distribution entity. In Philippines, Hong Kong and Indonesia, UIP has agents to manage the business. As far as marketing and promotional activities are concerned Rider noted that the Internet is a key tool in Korea and Japan. It has a tie up with Hitachi in Singapore, China and Japan for “War of The Worlds”.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
