Hinduja TMT to buy up 100% of CVIL

Hinduja TMT to buy up 100% of CVIL

HTMT

MUMBAI: As a first step towards consolidating the businesses of its media content companies, Hinduja TMT Ltd (HTMT) is acquiring 100 per cent equity control over its movie channel subsidiary Cable Video India Ltd (CVIL) by buying out the 49 per cent stake of private shareholders.

HTMT and 'InNetwork Entertainment Ltd' (InNetwork), its media holding subsidiary, jointly hold 51 per cent stake in CVIL. Asia Vision Entertainment Private Ltd (AVEPL) and its associates presently hold the balance 49 per cent. In the proposed move, InNetwork would acquire the 49 per cent of equity from AVEPL and its associates. HTMT and its subsidiary InNetwork will thus own CVIL's entire equity, a company release says.

CVIL owns and operates CVO, a Hindi movie cable channel. CVO, which was launched in 1996, has a library of over 1,600 Hindi films and is today one of the most widely viewed cable channels in India with a coverage of over 6 million households in 104 centres across the country, the release says.

The release further says that CVIL proposes to start an interactive music channel and digitize its content in order to deliver value added services like pay per view, video on demand etc under Conditional Access System regime, which is in the process of being legislated by the Indian government.