Showing posts with label Paramount Pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paramount Pictures. Show all posts
Paramount Global exited Reliance's Viacom18 with attractive returns-Top executive
7:33 AM
Javed Farooqui (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; May 1, 2024)
Paramount Global’s sale of its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance Industries (RIL) has provided the company with an opportunity to exit the Indian joint venture (JV) with an attractive return on investment, a top company executive said.
13.01% stake to RIL for Rs. 4,286 crore ($517 million). The company will continue to licence its content to Viacom18.
Its Paramount+ streaming service is available on Viacom18’s Jio Cinema as a content block under the premium subscription tier. Viacom18 will continue to operate TV channels under Paramount-owned brands like MTV, Vh1 and Nickelodeon.
“Selling our stake in Viacom18 provided an opportunity to exit our ownership position with an attractive financial return on our investment while preserving our ability to monetize our content in India through ongoing licensing arrangements,” Paramount Global CFO Naveen Chopra told analysts during the company’s Q1 earnings call.
He also said that the after-tax proceeds will further benefit leverage when the transaction closes at the end of 2024 or early 2025, subject to regulatory approval.
The RIL-Paramount transaction is subject to the closure of the merger agreement between RIL, Walt Disney’s Star India and Viacom18.
Last year, Paramount saw its stake in Viacom18 get diluted to 13.01% following a Rs. 15,145 crore fund infusion by RIL and Bodhi Tree Systems. Subsequently, Viacom18 became a subsidiary of RIL with Bodhi Tree also holding a16% stake.
The company’s stake got diluted since it didn’t want to infuse growth capital into Viacom18 for investments in sports and digital businesses. Before the fund infusion, the American entertainment company held a 49% stake in Viacom18.
Paramount realised a non-cash gain of $168 million from the dilution of a 36% stake in Viacom18.
In February, RIL, Disney and Viacom18 decided to merge Viacom18 into Star India to create a $8.5 billion media giant. RIL and its subsidiary Viacom18 will own a 63% stake in the proposed merged entity, while Disney will hold the rest.
Paramount to sell its remaining stake in Viacom18 to RIL
2:33 PM
THE ECONOMIC TIMES (March 15, 2024)
Paramount Global will exit Viacom18 by selling its remaining 13.01% stake to Reliance Industries for Rs. 4,286 crore, a deal that will value the Indian media company at about Rs. 33,000 crore.
In separate regulatory filings, the US media and entertainment major and the Mukesh Ambani-led Indian conglomerate have said the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain customary conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals.
The transaction is also subject to the completion of the proposed joint venture (JV) involving RIL, Viacom18, and The Walt Disney Company's Star India.
RIL's stake in Viacom18 will increase to 70.49% after the completion of the deal. It currently holds compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS), representing a 57.48% equity stake in Viacom18.
Former Star India chairman and CEO Uday Shankar's Bodhi Tree Systems holds around 16% stake in the company while the remaining stake of about 13.5% is held by TV18.
Paramount, which owns media brands like MTV, Vh1, and Nickelodeon, will continue to license its content to Viacom18. It has launched its streaming platform Paramount+ as a bundled service on Viacom18's streaming platform Jio Cinema.
Viacom18 is a subsidiary of TV18 Broadcast, which is in the process of merging with Network18.
Paramount Global (formerly Viacom), which had formed Viacom18 as an equal joint venture (JV) with TV18 in 2007, has been ceding control of the company to RIL after the latter's acquisition of Network18 from Raghav Bahl.
In 2018, RIL took control of Viacom18 by acquiring an additional 1% stake from Paramount for a cash consideration of $20 million to take its stake to 51%.
Paramount's stake in Viacom18 declined to 13.01% from 49% last year following a ₹15,145-crore fund infusion by RIL and Bodhi Tree Systems.
The fund infusion gave RIL-owned entities a 60.37% shareholding in Viacom 18, with Bodhi Tree Systems receiving 13.08%. Subsequently, Bodhi Tree hiked its stake in Viacom18 by purchasing an additional 2.89% stake from RIL for Rs. 953.23 crore.
Paramount Global had realised a non-cash gain of $168 million for the quarter ended June from the dilution of its stake in Viacom18, the company's regulatory filings show.
The stake acquisition by RIL comes close on the heels of the joint venture (JV) deal between RIL and Disney to merge Viacom18 into Star India, a company owned by the American media conglomerate.
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Buyout Follows Reliance’s Merger Deal With Disney India
Reeba Zachariah (THE TIMES OF INDIA; March 15, 2024)
Mumbai: Reliance Industries will buy out Nasdaqlisted Paramount Global’s stake in its Indian TV channel and streaming business for $517 million (Rs 4,286 crore), strengthening its play in the $28-billion media and entertainment sector.
The move comes a fortnight after Reliance decided to merge the business of Viacom18 with the India unit of Walt Disney. Reliance will buy Paramount’s entire 13% share in Viacom 18, increasing its stake to nearly 70.5% from about 57.5%.
The development highlights Reliance’s strategy of going beyond its mainstay business of refining and petrochemicals and upping its play in consumer-facing businesses. Towards this, it has been buying assets in retail, fashion and digital.
The deal will scale back the presence of Paramount, best known for owning entertainment assets like the eponymous Paramount Studios, CBS television net work, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, in India, which it had entered more than two decades ago. It will, however, continue to license its content to Viacom18 after the deal is closed.
The transaction is subject to the completion of the Viacom18-Walt Disney India merger deal. The share-sale will help Paramount improve its balance sheet even though international media reports have deemed it as a potential takeover target.
In 2007, Viacom Inc (now part of Paramount) formed a 50:50 joint venture with TV18 India, a company then owned by Raghav Bahl, to establish Viacom18. This company launched Hindi entertainment channel Colors and managed Viacom’s TV channels like MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon.
In 2014, TV18 India was taken over by Reliance and in 2023, Viacom 18 was combined with one of the entities of Reliance, making Paramount a smaller shareholder of the broadcaster. The 2023 transaction also saw Bodhi Tree Systems, an investment venture of James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and former Walt Disney India head Uday Shankar, acquiring a 13.1% stake in Viacom18.
Once the businesses of Viacom18 and Walt Disney India are combined, Reliance will hold just over 16% in the merged entity, Viacom18 will own about 47% and Disney close to 37%. Like Paramount, Disney too will see its presence scaled back in India, one of largest economies in the world.
The Reliance-Disney combination will make the business environment difficult for smaller players like Zee and Sony as they will have to individually compete with a dominant player. Analysts expect the Reliance-Disney consolidation to benefit the unified entity as its bargaining power will increase, helping it to command better advertising rates. It could also see rationalization in content costs, leading to margin improvement, they said.
Zee and Sony had attempted to merge their local operations but the deal collapsed after Sony walked away from it. Had the merger happened, Zee-Sony would have been the largest player in the sector after Reliance-Disney.
Aamir Khan plans to release Laal Singh Chaddha worldwide with subtitles in corresponding languages
8:54 AM
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; July 16, 2022)
Even if one does not comprehend the Hindi language and wish to watch Laal Singh Chaddha, fret not, for Aamir Khan has thought ahead. The actor has decided to release the film worldwide to cater every Bollywood fan. To tackle the language barrier across the globe, producers Aamir Khan Productions, Viacom18 Studios and Paramount Pictures will showcase the film in corresponding languages.
A trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha, an adaptation of Forrest Gump (1994) starring Tom Hanks, in French, has already released in France. A trade source informed, “In France, they released the two-minute-48-seconds trailer this week with French subtitles. Apart from France, Middle-East, and South-East Asia, Paramount is exploring other European countries, including Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. The movie will reach out to a wider audience and connect on an emotional level.”
Hoping that people around the globe will witness Indian culture, Mark Weinstock, Paramount Pictures, president of worldwide marketing and distribution says, “Like the original, this movie is full of heart and hope and universally relatable themes. We can’t wait for audiences everywhere to meet Laal and see India’s culture and history through his unique lens.”
Directed by Advait Chandan, Laal Singh Chaddha also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Mona Singh and Naga Chiatanya.
In Soviet-era flashback, Russia theatres turn to pirate screenings
8:32 AM
THE TIMES OF INDIA (May 3, 2022)
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood’s biggest studios have stopped releasing movies in Russia, and Netflix has ceased service there. But recently, some of the companies’ films have started appearing in Russian movie theatres — illegally. The screenings are reminiscent of the Soviet era, when the only way to see most Western films was to get access to a pirated version. Whereas those movies made their way to Russians in the form of smuggled VHS tapes, today, cinemas in the country have a simpler, faster method: the internet. Numerous websites offer bootleg copies of movies that take minutes to download.
Some theatres in Russia are now openly screening pirated movies; others are being more careful, allowing private individuals to rent out spaces to show films, free or for a fee. One group, for example, rented out several screening rooms at a theatre in Yekaterinburg, then used social media to invite people to buy tickets to watch “The Batman.”
In Makhachkala, capital of the Dagestan region, a movie theatre is screening “Don't Look Up”; and in Chita, a city near the border with Mongolia, people can watch “Turning Red,” the animated film from Disney and Pixar.
These surreptitious screenings are the latest attempt by theatres in Russia to survive after US studios like Disney, Warner Bros and Paramount left the country in protest. Before the war in Ukraine, movies produced in the US made up about 70% of the Russian film market, according to state media.
But despite the attempts to draw viewers, Russians are barely going to the movies. Theatres saw ticket sales fall by about half in March, compared with the same period last year, according to the country’s Association of Theatre Owners.
Artem Komolyatov, 31, a video game producer in Moscow, noticed the shift when he and his wife went on a Friday date to the movies a few weeks ago. They chose “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a film from American studio A24, which stopped releasing films in Russia in mid-April. “But, there were only three other people there besides us,” he said. “We went at 8pm (local time) on a weekend. Usually the theatre is full.”
Given the dearth of viewers and of content, the Association of Theatre Owners predicted that at least half the theaters in Russia would go out of business in the next two months.
Even if that prognosis is true, history has shown that films will reach audiences with or without legal channels. Decades ago, Soviet citizens gathered in empty office spaces, living rooms and cultural centers to view pirated copies of Western classics like “Rocky,” “The Terminator,” and “9 ½ Weeks” that had made their way behind the Iron Curtain.
Kareena Kapoor bags Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha
8:51 AM
BOMBAY TIMES (June 22, 2019)
One of India’s premiere content studios, Viacom18 Studios, in association with Aamir Khan Productions, has announced their upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha, which is inspired by the Oscar-winning movie, Forrest Gump (1994). The Hollywood film was headlined by Tom Hanks, who bagged the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal as Gump. While Aamir Khan will essay the titular role in the Indian adaptation of the film, Kareena Kapoor Khan will star opposite him for the third time. The hit duo has previously shared screen space in 3 Idiots and Talaash.
Laal Singh Chaddha will be directed by Advait Chandan of Secret Superstar fame and is being written by actor-writer Atul Kulkarni. The film releases on Christmas 2020. Ajit Andhare, COO, Viacom18 Studios, says, “It gives me immense pleasure to announce our upcoming venture with Aamir Khan. For every cinephile out there, their must-watch list of films would be incomplete without Forrest Gump. To be able to adapt the classic for Indian audiences is a long-cherished dream for many of us. Knowing Aamir’s burning passion for this subject for many years, he is the perfect partner to bring to life this dream. I also want to thank Jim Gianopulos and Andrew Gumpert (from Paramount Pictures) and their team for believing in our vision and continuously supporting all endeavours to bring some of their best content to the Indian markets.”
“We’re thrilled to see them bring this timeless story to a whole new generation of audiences,” said Andrew Gumpert, Chief Operating Officer of Paramount Pictures.
For those who came in late, Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name authored by Winston Groom. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump (Hanks), a slow-witted but kind-hearted man from Alabama, who unwittingly influences several defining historical events in the 20th century in the United States. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali to release his magnum opus Padmavati in 3D?
8:04 AM
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; October 26, 2017)
You may find yourself negotiating Ranveer Singh's mighty sword when you turn up to watch Padmavati in theatres, given that the period drama is set to release in 3D. The buzz is that the suggestion came from Hollywood's Paramount Pictures, which is backing Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus. A source tells mid-day, "The executives were excited after watching the trailer. They told producers Viacom18 that the film must be seen in 3D for viewers to enjoy the filmmaker's vision. Bhansali was on board too. In Padmavati, the audiences will experience the battles fought in 3D."
Being mounted on an approximate budget of Rs 170 crore, this decision would make the film a bigger draw and increase its prospects at the box-office, the source suggests.
According to the source, the unit will announce the news with an extensive marketing campaign on October 30. "Until then, everything is being kept under wraps. Given that time is a constraint, ahead of the film's December 1 release, a team of Hollywood technicians are working on making it suitable for a 3D outing, as the patchwork continues in Mumbai, simultaneously."
While Bhansali's movies boast of magnificence, Padmavati, also featuring Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, will be the first to enjoy a 3D release, along with a 2D screening. Paramount will release the film in 100 countries. It will also be dubbed in Tamil and Telegu to appeal to a pan-India audience.
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