Dinesh jain
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MUMBAI: Sony and Discovery Communications
are axing the joint venture company that they
ran for over 12 years in India. Caught in the
midst of a TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India) regulation that outlawed the bundling of
television channels across broadcast companies,
both have consented to divorce and build their
own pay TV models.
MSM Discovery, the TV channel distribution
company in which Sony has 74 per cent stake
and Discovery the rest, is set to disband. Multi
Screen Media (MSM) and Discovery will have
their independent affiliate teams and stitch their
own deals with distribution platform operators.
Signalling the end, Discovery has already started
doing its distribution deals with direct-to-home
(DTH) companies. Dish TV is the first negotiated
contract.
“For contracts that have expired with DTH
platforms, Discovery is directly negotiating. In
case of other DTH operators where MSM
Discovery has a running deal, Discovery has
started informing that it will independently cut its
deal,” said a source familiar with the
development.
MSM and Discovery are deciding on the divorce
date. “The only debate left now is when they
should separate. Should it be effective from 1
January or 1 April 2015? The decision on the
date will most probably be taken within a week,”
the source confided.
MSM, however, will continue to distribute the
channels of TV Today Network. “MSM has a deal
to distribute TV Today channels,” the source
said.
The break-up of MSM Discovery, to be formally
announced soon, brings to an end the old era of
marriages in the television distribution space.
MediaPro Enterprises, the giant of all such
couplings, was the first to end, with Rupert
Murdoch’s Star India and Subhash Chandra’s Zee
parting ways in April this year.
Sony and Discovery to end their distribution JV in India | TelevisionPost.com
are axing the joint venture company that they
ran for over 12 years in India. Caught in the
midst of a TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India) regulation that outlawed the bundling of
television channels across broadcast companies,
both have consented to divorce and build their
own pay TV models.
MSM Discovery, the TV channel distribution
company in which Sony has 74 per cent stake
and Discovery the rest, is set to disband. Multi
Screen Media (MSM) and Discovery will have
their independent affiliate teams and stitch their
own deals with distribution platform operators.
Signalling the end, Discovery has already started
doing its distribution deals with direct-to-home
(DTH) companies. Dish TV is the first negotiated
contract.
“For contracts that have expired with DTH
platforms, Discovery is directly negotiating. In
case of other DTH operators where MSM
Discovery has a running deal, Discovery has
started informing that it will independently cut its
deal,” said a source familiar with the
development.
MSM and Discovery are deciding on the divorce
date. “The only debate left now is when they
should separate. Should it be effective from 1
January or 1 April 2015? The decision on the
date will most probably be taken within a week,”
the source confided.
MSM, however, will continue to distribute the
channels of TV Today Network. “MSM has a deal
to distribute TV Today channels,” the source
said.
The break-up of MSM Discovery, to be formally
announced soon, brings to an end the old era of
marriages in the television distribution space.
MediaPro Enterprises, the giant of all such
couplings, was the first to end, with Rupert
Murdoch’s Star India and Subhash Chandra’s Zee
parting ways in April this year.
Sony and Discovery to end their distribution JV in India | TelevisionPost.com
