Moser Baer & Pyramid Saimira enters home video

Chennai based Cinema chain operator Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd. and digital disc maker Moser Baer India Ltd. have joined hands to tap India's growing home video market. With this deal that follows Moser Baer's entry into low-cost pre-recorded video retailing, the two companies hope to beat the grey market for compact discs and DVDs with copyrighted versions of movies produced, distributed or exhibited by them.

"This is the beginning of a new chapter for viewers who want to see movies of their choice," G. Dhananjay, chief operating officer of Moser Baer's entertainment division, told Reuters.The plan envisages Moser Baer's releasing home videos of movies shown in Pyramid halls, which in turn, would serve as additional points of sale. Profits would be split equally.Home videos would come out typically after 4-6 weeks of theatre release and retailing would be done both through own outlets and franchisees, Dhananjay said.

"Retailing is the key. We have to ensure that every store stocks our products and we are present everywhere," he said adding the new approach could help expand India's 5.5 billion rupee home video market rapidly. Moser Baer, a maker of blank optical storage media, moved into entertainment sector, selling films on DVDs for 34 rupees each and video CDs at 28 rupees each.It is selling the low-cost discs through 2,000 outlets in Tamil Nadu, where it launched the service.

Last week, Moser Baer announced a tie-up with Baba Arts Ltd. to exclusively burn CDs and sell 450 Telugu titles produced by Baba in the Indian market for a period of 8 years."We have just launched in the southern markets and we will be looking at the Hindi market soon," Dhananjay said, adding that similar talks were on with other production houses. Pyaramid has around 256 screens in Tamil Nadu and plans to release 100 films in southern India.It is also setting up a content fund for $25 million and would raise $150 million in India and overseas to fund movies for the local market.