Sony TV India to buy 11 regional channels from ETV

Sony Entertainment Television Asia’s parent company, Multi Screen Media India is set to acquire Ramoji Rao-owned Eenadu TV�۪s (ETV�۪s) bouquet of 11 regional channels.

The deal is worth $500-600 million, much more than previous transactions between Disney and UTV and Turner’s buyout of NDTV Imagine from New Delhi Television and Viacom teaming up with Network18, which runs India�۪s version of CNBC.

The new deal will no doubt give Multi Screen Media a much bigger share in the regional TV market space, with competition to the likes of Star India and ZEE Network.

According to various sources, the deal is expected to be formalised in the coming days with an announcement imminently.

In the UK, Multi Screen Media will be launching its first regional channel, Sony Aath (Bengali) later this year.