Cinemeta Entertainment is mulling a sale of equity among options to raise funds for acquisition of more single-screen theatres this fiscal.
Proceeds would be used for acquisition of single-screen theatres
MUMBAI: Cinemeta Entertainment, the film exhibition business of World Media Group (WMG), is mulling a sale of equity among options to raise funds for acquisition of more single-screen theatres this fiscal.
The company currently operates about 17 screens in Gujarat under the brand name Cinemagic, wherein it takes single-screen theatres on a long lease basis, paying rent to the owners, and then refurbishes the interiors and upgrades the technology and projection systems.
Sameer Goswami, CEO, Cinemeta Entertainment said, “We are looking to acquire about 60 screens this fiscal, primarily in tier-II and tier-III cities in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Each acquisition would cost us about Rs 70-80 lakh and apart from using funds from internal accruals of WMG, we’re also looking at selling equity in the company.”
Eventually, Cinemeta sees itself managing about 2,000 screens across the country by aligning with local players. It has signed over 200 MoUs with theatre owners, although the agreements have not been put into operation yet.
WMG also runs the Sony Television Network in India, besides direct-to-home operations in Australia and New Zealand.
Cinemeta claims to provide multiplex experience at single-screen ticket prices. It employs its own standard of film projection, which involves beaming films directly through satellite connectivity.
Goswami said Cinemeta has its own codec.
“It’s not DCI-compliant, but it’s almost 96% of it,” he said. DCI is an international standard for film projection for digital cinema.
To ensure transparency in the operation of the cinemas, Cinemeta has installed an enterprise resource planning system, which will allow ticketing and food and beverage sales data to reside on a central server. This allows all stakeholders to access the sales data in real time. “We’ll soon enable distributors to check the status of the sales at all Cinemeta theatres at any point in time,” said Goswami.
Over the past one year, single-screen cinemas in India have been witnessing a revival of sorts with players like UFO Moviez and Real Image Media Technologies installing digital projection systems in them.
Films are beamed on the day of their release, either through satellite transmission or through transportation on hard disk, thus plugging any chance of piracy.
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