Sony BMG licenses its Home Video Library to Moserbaer

Sony BMG has licensed the right of 14 movies under its home video segment to Moser Baer for their distribution.

The movies include the likes of Guru, Yuva, Lakshya, Rang De Basanti, Dil Chahta Hai, Mistress of Spices, Balle Balle Amritsar to LA, Bride and Prejudice, Meeanxi, Passion of Christ, Jai Santoshi Maa, two Bengali movies- Manush Bhoot and Aalo and the most recent movie being Jannat.

Sony BMG director marketing Shanujeet Bhujbal said, Moser Baer is a strong player in the home video segment due to its pricing and reach, so we thought it would be nice to have them exploit our catalog to drive big numbers in small towns. Moreover, the home video market has changed drastically due to the new price points and nobody knows how this segment will shape up in future.

However, Sony BMG is not intending to shut its home video shop. Acquisition and distribution of newer titles will continue alongside, and gradually these titles will be redirected to Moser Baer for further exploitation. Moreover, Sony BMG has not passed all its titles to Moser Baer; they chose to retain films from 'Dharma Productions' banner.

Moser Baer will be able to exploit this catalog only for the time balance under the agreement that Sony BMG signed originally with various producers. Moser Baer has already begun to roll out some titles in the market and will be releasing all other titles within a month's time.

The titles Rang De Basanti, Guru, Yuva, Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai and Jannat are already available in the shops under Moserbaer brand name. And except Jannat, which is priced for Rs. 50/- all other titles are available at a price of Rs 45/- for a single DVD.

With this deal of Moserbaer with Sony BMG, it has again increased its titles number in his catalogue. Before this only, it had 10,000 different titles to offer to consumers which includes both bollywood and regional movies along other documentaries. Last year only it had acquired 1000 titles from Ultra Home Video and that deal made Moserbaer, the largest content owner in Home video Market. Before this, Moserbaer had acquired 30 films from B.R.Chopra which include titles like Baghban, Bhoothnath, Naya Daur and other hits.

Whereas Ultra's catalogue that Moserbaer had acquired, also contains some of the biggest hits like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, Sholay, Koi...Mil Gaya, Apna Sapna Money Money, Iqbal and so on.This is not the only story of acquisation of Moserbaer, it has also acquired many other companies before it entered the market. It has acquired 600 titles from Indus Home Video, 550 titles from Bombino Digital, 400 titles from Captain Video, 200 titles from Venus and also titles from Time Home Video and Tips.Moser Baer had also pocketed films from individual producers like Shakti Samanta, Shivaji Ganeshan (AVM) amongst others and also from many other small home video and production companies like Gypsy and others. With this Moserbaer has become the true giant of Bollywood Home Video Library and along that it has also entered regional markets with a bang and made a pan India presence also within a two years entry in the market.

So we consumers are at the profit end with the entry of Moserbaer in the Home Video Segment and i hope this business model of Moserbaer of selling the products at lower price point will curb piracy also on a large scale.

Am doing a complete research on Moserbaer Entertainment and sooner will write about there business model, whats there future plannings and each and every detail which i will get regarding it. So keep watching this blog if your interested to know how they are selling there products at such a low price point whereas its competitors are selling the same at higher prices and whether they are recovering there inputs.

Source: businessofcinema.com
Compiled by: Saurav Chakraborty