| Type | Public (BSE: 532619, NSE: UTVSOF) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media conglomerate |
| Founded | 22 June 1990 |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, India |
| Key people | Ronnie Screwvala (MD) Siddharth Roy Kapur (Motion Pictures) [1] MK Anand (Broadcasting) [2] Sameer Pitalwalla (Digital) [3] |
| Products | Films, Television, Satellite Television, Games, Websites Broadcasting, Media, Entertainment, Gaming, Animation |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Company (50.4%) |
| Website | www.utvgroup.com |
UTV Software Communications Ltd. or UTV (BSE: 532619, NSE: UTVSOF) is an Indian media and entertainment company owned by The Walt Disney Company India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
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UTV started off as United Software Communications Pvt. Ltd. on 22 June 1990. Subsequently, they went public and were renamed as UTV Software Communications Ltd. in 1998.[4]
The UTV Group was incorporated as ‘United Software Communications Private limited’ on June 22, 1990; under the Companies Act, 1956 as a Private Limited Company. Subsequently, it became a deemed Public Limited Company and the word Private was deleted on November 27, 1995. It was renamed as ‘UTV Software Communications Limited’ with effect from March 19, 1998.
At the time of incorporation in 1990, the group was primarily engaged in the production of television content for Doordarshan and also production of ad films. In 1992, with the entry of satellite TV, ZEE TV commissioned the group for producing content of around 250 hours wherein it became one of the largest content providers. Around the same time, it also expanded into the businesses of In-flight Entertainment programming and dubbing. In 1993, it ventured into the business of acquiring programs from outside producers and marketing airtime on their programs. In 1995, it launched India’s first daily soap titled ‘Shanti.’
In May 1995, it acquired 54.60% stake in Laezer Production Private Limited in order to enter into the area of post-production. Laezer Production Private Limited was incorporated on January 29, 1982. On becoming a deemed Public Limited Company, the word ‘Private’ was deleted on November 27, 1995. Subsequent to the acquisition of 54.60% stake by the UTV Group, Laezer Production Limited was renamed as United Studios Limited in December, 1995. At that point of time United Studios Limited (USL) was engaged in the business of providing post-production facilities to television software houses, private producers and advertisers.
In 1996, Disney contracted the UTV Group to dub its library into Indian languages. In 1996, the company’s In-flight Entertainment division, which was hitherto catering to Air India only, also started catering to other international airlines.
In 1998, the company’s subsidiary USL took over Ram Mohan Biographies, a well-known animation production house pioneered by Mr. Ram Monan, one of the leading animation artistes in the country. The animation division in USL was originally called RM-USL and thereafter was rechristened as UTV Toons and remained as a division of USL.
The company then diversified into Broadcasting, by acquiring controlling interest in Vijay Television Limited in November, 1998. Vijay Television Limited was incorporated on May 30, 1996 and operated Vijay TV, a 24-hour Tamil-language channel out of Chennai. The Udayar family of Chennai initially controlled Vijay Television as GEC channel since 1992. In 1995, United Breweries Group acquired the operational control of the channel and the name was changed to Vijay TV. The UTV Group acquired the controlling interest from United Breweries Group.
In 1995-96, the company also ventured into the movie distribution business.
In 2000, it incorporated a group company called UTV Net Solutions Ltd. (UTV Net) in which it held an 86% stake. UTVNet was in the business of Internet content creation and aggregation, Indian regional language portals (with dual language content) and leveraging of their audio/video library rights for Internet usage. In 2000, UTVNet started the business of broadband content aggregation under the brand name sharkstream.com, through its subsidiary Sharkstream.com Pte. Ltd., Singapore.
In 2002-03, the group acquired the studio business of Western Outdoor Media Technologies Limited (WOMTL) in order to attain leadership position in the Post-Production, Special Effects and Animation business. The Studio operations of WOMTL were thus merged with the group’s post-production business. Since 2000-01, the UTV Group initiated a corporate restructuring exercise in order to consolidate their holdings in certain group companies and subsidiaries. The objective of these exercises was to maximize shareholder value, remove conflict of interest and build a powerful combined entity that would be involved in various aspects of the entertainment business.
In 2011, The Walt Disney Company offered to buy out stakes held by public shareholders and other promoters of the company in a deal valued around Rs 2,000 crore. Subsequent to buyout of the public shareholders by The Walt Disney Company (South East Asia) Pte Ltd, a promoter group firm, the company will be delisted from both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange, it said. "The delisting proposal entails an offer to acquire all outstanding equity shares held by public shareholders in the company," UTV said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.Currently, Disney was the majority shareholder in UTV Software Communications at the time, with 20,497,994 equity shares, accounting for 50.44 per cent stake.The company's board of directors approved the delisting offer and acquiring shares from public at a price not exceeding Rs 1,000 per equity share, it said.
Ownership Pattern of UTV Software Communications Ltd. Before the internet, the television, the motion pictures, the radio, and everything else that we consider “mass media” now, the world had newspapers. Newspapers are one of the oldest forms of mass communication. At one time, all newspapers were local, and most were individual enterprises. The earliest colonial newspaper was owned and operated by a printer as a supplement to his job printing business, and his individual ownership plan is still popular in small communities. But many communities grew rapidly and, as newspaper operations became more complex and opportunities to serve increased, other types of newspaper ownership, management, and operation were developed. Those found most commonly today are individual ownership, partnership, corporation, group or chain ownership, employee ownership, vertical ownership and joint operation.
These ownership patterns can also be applied to media enterprises other than just newspapers, such as the UTV Group, as far as theory goes, the UTV Group has a Vertical Ownership Pattern.
These 5 verticals include the following:
The UTV group has several business & strategic talent relationships in India, the UK and the USA. These associations are formal relationships with leading players in the Indian and international media industry. They also help UTV enhance its visibility in the international media industry.
The UTV Group’s significant current relationships include those with:
• The Walt Disney Company (South East Asia) Pte. Ltd. is a strategic Investor in UTV India.
• Fox and Fox Searchlight were movie co-producers for ‘The Namesake’, ‘I Think I Love My Wife’ and ‘The Happening’ with UTV Mauritius and USA.
• UTV has Talent Relations with Mira Nair, M Night Shyamalan, Iranian film director Majid Majdi, Ramgopal Verma, Vishal Bhardwaj, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Ken Ghosh, Rensil D’Silva, David Dhawan and John Owen after having past associations with directors Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Aamir Khan to name a few.
• UTV is also associated with Verizon, Vodafone and Airtel and over 80 telecom companies worldwide for Mobile game publishing, new media and online gaming.
• UTV is associated with Coke, Pepsi, Hero Honda, HUL, P&G, Cadburys, Airtel, Reckitt Benkiser, Godrej, Johnson & Johnson – for sponsorship and branding relationships across various TV channels and content titles.
• It has a partnership with Virgin Comics to create original superhero franchises across platforms.
• It is also working with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in the console gaming business.
• UTV has long standing relationships for television content with Star India, Zee TV, National Geographic Channel, Sun TV.
As a part of the consolidation plan, during 2000-01, it augmented its share capital by swap of shares from Shareholders of group companies. And as of 31 March 2009, the company has the following subsidiaries / joint venture:
UTV Motion Pictures (UMP) PLC The Company was incorporated on March 27, 2007. On July 2, 2007 UMP Plc shares were admitted to trading on Alternate Investment Market (“AIM”) of the London Stock Exchange. UTV Software Communications Ltd. holds 76.82% of controlling stake of UMP Plc which in turns holds 99.75 % controlling stake in UTV Motion Pictures (Mauritius) Limited and balance 0.25% is held directly by UTV Software Communications Ltd.
IG Interactive Entertainment Limited (IG)
IG was incorporated on September 6, 2004 with an intention to carry out Film Acquisition, Syndication and Distribution business in the United Kingdom.
UTV Communications (USA) LLC (UTV US) UTV US was incorporated on April 26, 2004 with an intention to carry out film acquisition, syndication and distribution business in the United State of America (North America) and other surrounding territories.
UTV TV Content Limited (UTV TV)
UTV TV a 100% subsidiary of UTV Software Communications Ltd. It was incorporated on July 9, 2007 to carry on the business of producing, exhibiting and distribution of television serials/programmes for various television channels. RB Entertainment Limited (“RBEL”), a 60:40 joint Venture between UTV TV and Mr. Rajesh Beri, was incorporated on May 6, 2008 with intent of producing content for television channels.
First Future Agri and Developers Limited (FFADL)
The Company was incorporated on April 7, 2008 as First Future Agri and Developers Private Limited Company. On June 11, 2008, UTV Software Communications Ltd. acquired 100% equity stake in FFADL for a consideration of Rs. 0.10 million, thereby making it a wholly owned subsidiary of UTV Software Communications Ltd. On March 25, 2009 FFADL further allotted 15.99 million equity shares at par to UTV Software Communications Ltd. The status of FFADL was changed from a private limited company to public limited company on April 29, 2009.
UTV Global Broadcasting Limited (UGBL)
UGBL was incorporated on June 6, 2007 with an intention to carry on the business of broadcasting of satellite television channels in India. On August 8, 2008 UTV Software Communications Ltd. acquired 75% equity stake in equity shares of UGBL. UGBL is a parent company for its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Genx Entertainment Limited (Genx) and UTV Entertainment Entertainment Limited (UETL). Genx and UETL are engaged in the business of up linking and broadcasting entertainment (non-news/current affairs) channels from India.
On September 30, 2009 UTV Software Communications Ltd. acquired additional 10% equity stake in UGBL from Unilazer Exports and Management Consultants Limited (“Unilazer”) for a total consideration of the total stake of the company in UGBL increased to 85%.
UTV Games Limited (UTV Games)
UTV Games Limited is a 100% subsidiary of UTV Software Communications Ltd. and was incorporated on September 5, 2008 to carry on the principal activity as of investment holding. On September 10, 2008 UTV Games Limited acquired 80% equity stake in True Games Interactive Inc, (True Games) an online gaming start-up Company based in California, USA, thereby making True Games a downstream subsidiary of the Company.
UTV New Media Limited (UNML)
UNML a 100% subsidiary of UTV Software Communications Ltd. and was incorporated on September 20, 2007 to carry on the business of developing and maintaining websites and acquisition and exploitation of digital rights on mobile and digital platforms.
Smriti Irani Television Limited (SITL)
Smriti Irani Television Limited is a 50:50 Joint Venture between UTV Software Communications Ltd. and Mrs. Smriti Irani. SITL was incorporated on December 6, 2007 to house the joint venture with Mrs. Smriti Irani for television content production.
UTV is listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange and the Indian National Stock Exchange, and its motion picture division UTV Motion Pictures Plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
In August 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired a 14.85 percent stake in UTV.[5] This was subsequently hiked to 32.1 percent in 2008, the same level as UTV's founders Ronnie Screwvala and his associates.[6] The remaining share is publicly traded.
UTV started off producing television content for Indian public broadcaster Doordarshan in 1990. They were also into ad film making.
With the entry of satellite television in India, UTV grew larger and produced several television programmes for a number of Indian TV channels such as Zee TV and Star Plus.
In 1995, UTV produced India's first daily soap opera, Shanti, for Doordarshan. UTV was also contracted by Disney to dub its cartoons in Hindi. Revenues from the television segment increased by 31% from Rs. 1,006 million in the previous year to Rs. 1,317 million during the year primarily due to the growth in the scale of operations of the television business. The segment reported a profit of Rs. 54 million as compared to Rs. 180 million in the previous year.
Following is the complete list of TV programmes produced by UTV:
UTV ventured into film distribution in 1996 with its subsidiary UTV Motion Pictures Plc. It then moved into film production, first in Bollywood and then in Hollywood in partnership with major studios like 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney and Sony Pictures.[7] It is today one of the largest production houses in South Asia.
According to the UTV group, movies enjoy an almost ‘basic need of survival’ status in India. Therefore, UTV Motion Pictures has worked consciously to ride on that phenomenon, pioneering not just newer films and story ideas, but also the very manner in which films are made in India. From novel plots and stories that one would think can never work in mainstream cinema, to pioneering the studio model in movie production, UTV has always led positive change in the Indian motion picture industry. Today, UTV’s Motion Pictures business spans the integrated model of creative development, production, marketing, distribution, merchandising and syndication worldwide. UTV’s portfolio includes Hindi Movies, Regional Movies, Animation Films, International productions and co productions, besides an exclusive distribution arrangement for India with The Walt Disney Company.
It is no surprise then that their movies do just as well at the box office as they do at film festivals around the world. The ability to innovate at the script level has led to the development of an almost new genre in Indian cinema, breaking the mould in Indian film making. Films like “Dev.D” and “A Wednesday!” were among those that did not boast of a lavish budget or a power-packed star cast, and yet created history at the box office because of the inherent strength of their content. By the same token, “Fashion,” led by an all female star cast, bucked the trend of women oriented subjects not performing at the box office and grossed more than most big solo hero starrers in the same period.
UTV co-produced two Hollywood movies with Fox Searchlight in 2007, making it the first and only Indian company to have mainline Hollywood film releases – the box office hit and critically acclaimed masterpiece by Mira Nair, “The Namesake;” and “I Think I Love My Wife,” with Chris Rock in the lead role and as Director.
Pioneering the stint of producing movies abroad, UTV was the first Indian production house to announce its independent production venture globally in April 2009, with “The Exterminators.” It also has a co-production agreement with the Actor/Producer Will Smith, his production company Overbrook Entertainment and with Sony Pictures Entertainment, for two films to be produced and distributed worldwide.
In 2008-2009, UTV Motion Pictures emerged as one of the largest production houses in the country with 10 Hindi Film releases, 1 in Tamil and M. Night Shyamalan's “The Happening” – the first mainstream Hollywood movie co-produced by an Indian movie studio. Not only this, UTV also distributed Disney's productions – “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “Bedtime Stories” in India. This coupled with innovative marketing initiatives and a concentrated campaign to leverage value across existing and new media platforms, further reinforced their stature as not only the leading motion picture producers in India, but also the most innovative.
An unparalleled slate that started in 2009 will see even more content driven movies in 2010 – the slate will boast of movies spanning across various genres from romance to action and from thriller to comedy such as Prakash Jha’s “Rajneeti,” Deven Khote’s “Phillum City,” Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Guzaarish” and Aamir Khan’s production “Delhi Belly” and “The Falling.”
Along with production, UTV successfully distributes its movies in more than 45 countries around the world on the same day as their theatrical release in India. UTV Motion Pictures accomplished the feat of being among the Top 20 Distributors in North America and is the first Indian film studio ever to have crossed the US $5 million revenue mark in the first half of a year, thus redefining the scope of overseas distribution of Indian films.
In the South, post their successful maiden venture – “Kanaamochi Yenada” in Tamil, UTV Motion Pictures forayed into another project with Priyadarshan as a co-producer for the remake of the commercial and critically acclaimed “Khosla Ka Ghosla” called “Poi Solla Porom.” This proved hugely successful, completing 100 days in theatre. UTV Motion Pictures went on to co-produce the remakes of the superhit “A Wednesday!” – “Unnaipol Oruvan” (Tamil) and “Eenadu” (Telugu) by joining hands with Actor Kamal Haasan. The remakes starred Kamal Haasan, Mohan Lal and Venkatesh.
UTV forayed into animation production in 1998 with the acquisition of Ram Mohan Biographies. Currently, UTV's subsidiary UTV Toons handles its animation business. UTV channel is popular channel in India.
UTV entered into the broadcasting arena through its acquisition of Vijay TV from United Breweries. It was later sold to Star TV in two phases in 2001 and 2004.
In 2004, UTV launched Hungama TV, a kids channel. This was sold to Disney in 2006.[8]
In 2008, UTV re-entered the broadcasting business through its broadcast arm, UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd (UGBL). UGBL launched five entertainment, news and film channels in its first year. These are:
In December 2007, UTV's ventured into production of gaming software and content through its subsidiary UTV Media by acquiring Indiagames Ltd., an Indian gaming company.[9] It later went on to acquire Ignition Entertainment Ltd. and US-based True Games.
During the year, the results of the Games Content segment included consolidated financials of Ignition and Indiagames for the full year and financials of True Games for the period September 11, 2008 to March 31, 2009. During the year, the Gaming segment reported an increase in revenues of 49% to Rs. 1,105 million from Rs. 742 million in the previous year. In the current year the Gaming segment also reported a loss Rs. 289 million, as against a profit of Rs. 75 million during the previous year.