Thaindian News

Chennai, July 13 (IANS) Satellite channel majors Sun Network and Network 18 have jointly entered the distribution field, floating two companies for the south and rest of the Indian market.
The new entity will be a truly pan-India distribution company and aims to become one of the dominant players in the Rs.16,000 crore distribution space over the next two years, said a statement issued by Sun Network here Tuesday.

As per the agreement, the two newly floated distribution companies will distribute a total of 33 channels across all platforms in India-cable, direct to home (DTH), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Headend in the Sky (HITS).

The two new companies, whose shareholding pattern is not known, are christened as Sun18 Media Services South and Sun18 Media Services North.

While Sun18 South will manage the south India market and will be operated by the Sun Network, Sun18 North will manage the rest of the India market and will be operated by the Network18 Group.

“Sun 18 is an important initiative for us in the distribution platform business and is being created with the vision of better leveraging our very successful television brands across the country,” said Kalanithi Maran, chairman and managing director, Sun Network.

Raghav Bahl, founder of Network18 Group, said: “Distribution is one of the high-growth areas in this industry and we’re excited to now have a presence in this part of the business as well.”