Roundup: Sony, DoT, Turner International, Sify, DQ Entertainment

Sony’s Marketing & Expansion Plans In India

Sony India has earmarked Rs. 10 crores to promote its W series of MP3 players and add 2000 retail outlets. It will also launch more products to reach its target of 30% of the market share. The company sold 85,000 units last year and had a market share of 20%. (Business Standard)

Our Take: Sony sorely needs a pick me up – its PS3 has not made a splash and its camera sales must have also been hit by the cameraphone trend. Maybe what Sony needs to perk up its mp3 player sales is a tie up with one of the online music stores such as Hungama’s upcoming one?

DoT Suggests Permanent Licenses

Cellular service licenses could be made permanent, if TRAI okays DoT’s proposal. The licenses currently are for a 20 year period and are renewed every decade. Initially, cellular licenses and unified access licenses will be considered for this change. TRAI has been asked to recommend terms and conditions for extending the licence periods forever. (Business Standard)

Our Take: It is a good move that will help smoothen the government-telco relationship. Less red tape is always better.

DQ Entertainment To Make Animated TV Series On Lassie; Scouting For Acquisitions

The rights to the golden haired canine collie character Lassie have been bought off US-based Classic Media Inc by the Hyderabad based animation company DQ Entertainment, which is listed on the London stock exchange. It will co-develop the 3D animation series with M6 Studio in France and ZDF in Germany. The 26 half-hour-episode TV series which will be released in Q3 this fiscal. It is also scouting for companies in US, Canada and Europe to acquire them. The acquisitions would help it bag co-production deals with European entertainment firms. (SmallCap News & TelevisionPoint )

Our Take: Having more European offices will be advantageous to the company – but it is something other Indian animation companies are also doing, so competition for outsourced project will continue.

Turner International Appoints Troy Lobo As Dir, Wireless Dev

Lobo, in his new role as Director of Wireless Development, Interactive Content and Development for South Asia, will be responsible for driving the mobile and internet strategies for Turner’s properties – POGO, WB, Cartoon Network and news channel CNN. (Animation Express)

Sify Partners With Cisco To Launch Managed Services

Sify, in partnership with networking company Cisco, will launch managed services for enterprises. The new MPLS and Internet services are first of a series of other managed services the company plans to launch over the next 2 years. The managed services offered will enable more enterprises to outsource their IP communications. (Business Standard)

5 Comments

White Lightning July 19, 2009

I still feel this sector has immense potential, risks & wise-investments are key to this business. Whether its DQE,Crest or any-one else, important is India should realize & monetize on such promising markets, considering the kind of technically sound resource the country produces, and this would minimize the country's vulnerability to global recession's & meltdowns.

Gaurav July 18, 2009

While i agree with what you say, there is still a huge gap in the kind of shows that DQ works on and what their competitors like Koko & Dong Woo etc do in South Korea. The quality, budgets and scope of work is far far superior to what DQ churns out.

As i mentioned before its really about quality not quantity Crest is doing immensely big budgeted projects which they happen to co-produce. Their model is infinitely greater than the one DQ works in.

i have nothing against DQ but it just scares me a little that if something were to go slightly wrong they might have immense delays which might affect earnings.

Mostly the projects undertaken by Crest are service projects & not co-productions, except for one or two which are also just DVD release & not meant for broadcast.

While a co-production is a immense risk, one might end up investing a lot in the projects & recouping the investment is a mammoth task. Fortunately DQE has succeeded in implementing such a model. DQE might have gone wrong in recruiting a plethora of manpower but that’s a key to get high-profile customers like Disney, Nick, NBC, EA or some similar brands.

While I can not comment whether DQE has done is right or wrong but it has certainly shown a way to small Indian Animation companies of how to approach or exploit the global market. Korea, Philippines, Japan are very matured markets, immensely supported by their governments, while the Indian Animation & Gaming sector haven’t got its maturity time & nor any support from the Govt.

Gaurav July 17, 2009

DQ like Crest has been moving up the value chain by picking up equity/sweat equity in projects which is a better pay off in the long run.

However personally being in the industry i think DQ is just too large and unwieldy, the smarter move is to be relatively smaller with a higher quality team that works on high end projects (Toonz, Crest)

They are getting there but not fast enough !

White Lightning July 17, 2009

DQ has grown immensely in past few years....not only they have huge manpower but also they work on 30-40 Animation & Gaming projects at a stretch, which is probably 5 to 6 times the number of projects undertaken by Crest, Toonz, Paprikas, Big etc, at a time, Following the latest IP development & co-production model, DQE has taken India Inc to another heights. Projects like Casper, Ironman, The Jungle Book, Lassie, Taraduncan, Skyland, Mickey-Mouse etc have truly placed the company in highest ehelons.

Though I am not from this Creative Industry, but the information is based on the research undertaken by one of the leading consulting ompanies. Hence I feel Indian companies need to gear up well to attain the set standards & to go even higher.

Related Posts