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Sony goes Zee way, picks raft of new Hindi films

BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai

The market for acquisition of satellite rights for Bollywood blockbusters seems to be heating up.

Close on the heels of Zee Telefilms acquiring rights for 26 recent releases, Sony Entertainment Television has announced the acquisition of 10 Hindi films including one of the biggest hits of the year, the Karan Johar-directed Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, popularly referred to as K3G.

Its other acquisitions include the recently released Deewangee, Awara Pagal Deewana, Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, Na Tum Jano Na Hum and Chor Machaye Shor.

According to Rajat Jain, executive vice -president & business head, SET Max, "Acquisition of movie rights is an activity which will continue since it is strategic to our entire bouquet of channels. We have been doing this for the past five years and it is the cornerstone of our strategy to focus on Bollywood movies apart from cricket."

Though Sony officials declined to reveal the exact amount paid for the movie rights for the blockbuster K3G, industry sources said that the deal would be in the range of Rs 6-7 crore (Rs 60-70 million).

The satellite rights for K3G were unsold until now since no channel was willing to buy the rights at the price which were reportedly being quoted.

The satellite rights for the other mega hit movie of the year, Devdas, are still unsold since the producer is reportedly quoting an astronomical price in the region of Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million).

The amounts paid for the other movies however would be more modest figures and could vary between Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6 million) and Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) depending on the movie, say industry analysts.

Sony's decision to acquire the rights of K3G could be partly due to the fact that the channel was extremely successful with the telecast of Lagaan a few weeks back, which received a TRP of over 10 according to TAM ratings.

The latest acquisition by Sony comes at a time when the market for satellite rights for Bollywood movies is getting extremely competitive.

Channels are also becoming increasingly discerning in what they buy and the rates which they are willing to fork out.

In October this year Zee had unveiled its new programming format with the entire Thursday prime time slotted for a recently released Bollywood production.

In an aggressive and innovative strategy it had acquired the satellite rights for 26 recently released films and had, in fact, secured the right to broadcast these movies in some cases as early as three months from the date of release.

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