BIG is in BIIIGGG trouble????????

Now the latest buzz doing the rounds in BIG is in BIIIGGG trouble. In fact the entire BIG label is in trouble if the stories were to be believed.

All the BIG units within the entertainment chain are in deep red and with the current stock market melt down, things are not all that well within the BIG chain.

A Zapak guy told me that ADAG is considering closing or diluting stake across the BIG units. Another fellow from the music arm said – the management was seriously considering closing the music business or diluting stake. A  third person from BIG FLIX – from the DVD rental business said – the management has actually decided to shut shop.

The same source said that all is not well with the radio unit also with more than 60 people having quit the company in the last couple of months. The source added – the much hyped JV with AB Corp (Amitabh Bachchan) is not going anywhere and BIGADDA blog may be shuttered. Not surprising, since from the very launch period all the business looked shaky with doubtful revenue models in place.

Ah…so many rumors floating about ….who knows what to believe ….but mind you – one thing is for sure…the times they surely are changin’

 

Are the newly launched Music/ Entertainment companies in Trouble?

Barely 1-2 years back, the music industry was experiencing a boom of sorts. Suddenly new & big players emerged / entered the industry. Among the big players who entered this space was:

Moser Baer Home Entertainment

Big Music

UTV Music & Entertainment

All of them backed by big money from the corporate behemoths like Reliance ADAG – Anil Ambani, UTV Software -  Ronnie Screwalla, Deapak Puri – Moser Baer.

Good times alas don’t last forever. And in less than year after starting their operations only one player remains standing, Moser Baer, who actually changed the game was played by introducing DVD’s & VCD’s at price points well below the then prevalent market price, forcing all the incumbent players to slash prices to match Moser prices

UTV has recently announced they would be shutting down their Home Video and Music operations. In fact they were looking for buyers to buy out the company. And the names doing the rounds were BIG & Moser Baer. 

News

I have always tried to get the inside news of the telecom / entertainment world for my readers. News that you will not get in the media in general. Once again presenting the inside news from the entertainment world of India.

UTV new venture in trouble

As per sources UTV new venture, UTV Music & Home Video is begin winded up after begin in the business barely for 18-19 months. They would be selling the business to either BIG Music or Mosaer Baer. Things are so bad they would be winding up in the next three months. All the staff and the senior manager have been told they might get absorbed in other units of UTV…..MIGHT?

 

They also did pretty nasty about turn with Sony BMG. They had signed up with Sony BMG India for 17 movie 30 cr deal for 2 years. Then just before signing up they did an about turn and did an agreement with T – Series for 36 cr. Shridhar – MD Sony BMG is said to extremely pissed by this development. Has to be, the poor fellow now has to find 2 years worth of content to fill up his pipe line for the next two years…and that too at a fairly high cost.

 

What about others?

What about Nokia India?

Well among those who left TTSL last time around a good many were from the ABU unit of TTSL, one of the most ill managed units of TTSL. In fact it was so ill managed that their president-  Vikas(coconut) had to leave the company followed soon by his cronies like Ashiyana, Kaustubh, among others.

 

Where are they now?

Ashiyana has put in her papers and she has joined The Big Picture a internet investment firm where her boss Vikas is the CEO.

Kaustuv, the great marketing manager of ABU unit (yeah! TTSL had a marketing manager to and 40+ marketing team to assist the sale of PCO’s) left to join GE. He has put in less than one year in GE based out of Gurgaon and now moved back to Mumbai and has now joined NOKIA India as their operator marketing manager. Got a fat package say the sources in the know…but is he worth it? He is joined by  Puneet Kapur, his trusted side kick from ITC.

 

 

Wish the companies who recruited them all the best. Especially Nokia, after all their present operator marketing manager has quite a reputation for having a high attrition in his team. Half of the marketing team he had under him at TTSL had left before the year was out….

 

All not well with IMI Mobile?

Well last year couple of senior managers left TATA Tele Services to join IMI mobile. One of them begin Pradeep Rao who left  TTSL to join IMI as Senior VP, & Ingersol who was with TTSL as senior manager left to join IMI as a AVP.

 

However things do not seem to be going on very well there. Pradeep has left IMI to join as Head VAS of Aircel. And Ingersol has come back to TTSL as AGM in VAS.

 

Not only are these two, a slew of people leaving the company ……so what’s going on with them?

 

Youtube comes to India

Ending speculation and rumors in Blogosphere Google’s Youtube has launched India centric in.youtube.com. Mayajaal had covered the speculations here. They also have a blog up and running here. What will become of the Indian home web sites? As it is these site are losing money heavily. My take – they will close shop or cash out. Only the biggies would be playing!!!

Vodfone brings I-Phone to India

Vodafone has tied up with Apple to bring it iconic I-Phone to 10 of its markets including India, South Africa & Australia. While the pricing is still under warps it is possible that it would be priced at around Rs. 21k for 8 GB and 25k for 16 GB after taking adding all the taxes & duties. More Here.

Asia emerges as the growth driver of mobile with India & China leading the Mobile Race

Emerging markets like India & China are firmly in the driver’s seat when it comes to global mobile growth, and in 2007 that growth accelerated as the top 10 racked up hundreds of millions of new subscribers.

Last year, the 10 developing countries that registered the most new subscribers gained a combined total of 320 million. That was 35 million more than in 2006, when the top 10 added more than 285 million new customers

By contrast, the world's mature markets are now so saturated that even if the ranking was open to them, too, only one, the U.S., would have made the cut.

The 2007 ranking, shown in the table below, has shifted somewhat from last year. While Ukraine – in 6th place last year, now down in 15th – and Nigeria – 9th in 2006, but now 13th – dropped off the list, Iran and Egypt made the cut thanks to the launch of new operators during the year.

China and India are once again far ahead of the pack, though this time China has claimed the top spot, boasting 86 million additional mobile subscribers compared with India’s 84 million. And the growth will continue unabated at least in the foreseeable future!

Zapack to enter Mobile VAS space in India with ABCL

Zapack to enter Mobile VAS space in India with ABCL
Another exclusive from Matrixmaya. After taking the gaming world by storm in India Anil Ambani’s group Reliance Entertainment is planning a foray into the booming Mobile Value Added Services space through their group company Zapak Entertainment. The details as of now are pretty sketchy.
Apparently Zapak has tied with Amitabh Bacchchan, a close pal of Anil Ambanis, for content. The tie has happened between Zapack & ABCL.(I thought ABCL has now become defunct- but apparently it still exists on paper)
Exactly what the content would be is not quite clear yet but apparently content would be from the entire Bachchan khandan, beta Abhishek, bahu Aishwarya & biwi Jaya Bachchan. As a first step towards this initiative, Amitabh Bachchan has started to blog here on Big Adda, although the response to that has been lukewarm to say the least.
There might be a media announcement, when they are ready, till now you will read about it only here. Of course this might not take off altogether like their planned foray into TV – Zapack TV.
They have targeted 12 Cr revenues from this business for the first year and are setting up a team to execute the project. Watch this space for more!