MUMBAI: Turner has sold its entire 51 per cent stake in Imagine Showbiz to joint venture partner Cinestar Advertising Pvt Ltd (CAPL) as part of a chain of transactions that will conclude with Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) taking complete ownership of the Bollywood music channel.
CAPL now has 100 per cent ownership of Imagine Showbiz and will be selling it to RBNL.
“We have completed the transaction with Turner and own 100 per cent of Imagine Showbiz. We are in the process of selling our entire stake to RBNL,” says Cinestar Advertising promoter Abhimanyu Singh.
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RBNL is expected to make a formal announcement of its proposal to acquire the music channel on Wednesday, marking its entry into the Hindi broadcasting space.
Industry estimates put the purchase price at Rs 150-200 million, but this could not be independently confirmed.
Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that RBNL is set to purchase Imagine Showbiz.
Industry sources say an amount of $8 million has been invested in the channel that was launched on 15 August 2008. The channel was into losses and was struggling to compete effectively in the cluttered music broadcasting space.
“We wanted to exit from the broadcasting business. Our full focus will be to consolidate on content creation,” says Singh, who also runs a production company named Contiloe.
Showbiz was launched as a joint venture with NDTV Group holding 51 per cent and Cinestar Advertising having the remaining 49 per cent. But when NDTV sold its stake in NDTV Imagine Ltd (which also has Hindi GEC Imagine TV) to Turner, the channel changed ownership.
Turner will now entirely focus on its Hindi general entertainment channel, Imagine TV.
Imagine Showbiz will need the right kind of parenting from RBNL to turn it around. The channel will be rebranded as it comes under Reliance’s ‘Big’ banner.
