India Entertainment

Reliance Entertainment, the largest player in the Indian film industry, is making an ambitious play in the US entertainment market by quietly buying up cinemas across the U.S. and is poised to launch in April as a coast-to-coast chain. Recently, George Soros paid $100 million for a 5% stake in Reliance, which has 250 screens in 28 North American locations, including Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles, Washington state. The company plans to rename the US sites "Big Cinemas" as their renovations are completed, and says most of the sites are close to centers of ex-pat Indian and Asian populations. The company's objective is not to force the pace of crossover by Bollywood movies but to play popular movies from a wider range of sources, including popular Chinese or Korean cinema. The company's expansion into the US entertainment market, which is likely to be followed by moves into other countries, is one of several efforts to diversify into the entertainment industry. With major positions in telecommunications, broadband Internet, video, radio, movie production and post-production, Reliance has also unveiled plans to offer up to 20 TV channels and is weeks away from launching India's fourth satellite TV platform. Overall, the move underlines Indian companies' growing appetite for international properties and influence. (VarietyAsiaOnline, 3/26/08)

The Indian entertainment sector is expected to grow by 18% per year for the next four years, and could be worth $28.6 billion by 2011, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC points to record inward foreign investment of $211 million and increased digitalization, and estimates that Internet advertising will hit $104 million in 2008, and touch $272 million in 2012. Film is expected to expand from $2.37 billion to $4.35 billion by 2012 as movie players discover revenue streams beyond the traditional box office such as television, mobile, Internet, home video, merchandise, music, re-make rights, and several branded entertainment opportunities. TV, where most of the foreign investment has gone, is forecast to grow from $5.59 billion to $14.8 billion by 2012. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 3/25/06)