Mumbai : Entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, who sold his erstwhile UTV Group to The Walt Disney Company last year, is returning to the media and entertainment sector by launching a digital media company in partnership with B Saikumar, former group CEO of Network 18.
While Screwvala will bring in the initial investment of Rs 150 crore, Saikumar will head the company as its managing director. The two have also roped in Ajay Chacko, former COO at Network 18, as the CEO.
Based out of Mumbai, the company will start off with a digital brand offering multigenre, multi-lingual content across video, audio, text and other traditional and newage forms, the two founding partners said.
Video content will be a key part of the offering and to create that the company will source talent from the broadcasting sector across the globe, Saikumar said.
He said the company will carry out a global talent hunt across tech, design and content space. He is also bullish on global syndication.
The partners see huge potential for video content on the Internet — including video-on-demand models such as Netflix — as the government goes ahead with its Digital India plan to ensure high-speed Internet access across the country.
“India is the most under-Internet-utilised country,” said Screwvala. He said the company may explore subscription model for its digital offerings. In many global markets, digital media has already surpassed traditional broadcast TV, radio and print as the primary choice of consumers and marketers.
With over 300 million Internet users, India is slated to become the world’s third-largest digital media market.
Last week Ronnie Screwvala had ventured in to Education sector with the launch of ‘U Education’ with an initial investment of Rs 100 Crore.
