Time Warner approves NDTV Imagine acquisition

The Time Warner board has approved the acquisition of Hindi channel, NDTV Imagine by Turner Asia Pacific Ventures.

It was announced last week that Turner Asia Pacific will be buying a 92% stake in NDTV Imagine Ltd from NDTV Networks Plc., an indirect subsidiary of NDTV Ltd.

At the end of the $126.5 million deal, Turner holds 92% in NDTV Imagine while 3.2% is retained by NDTV Networks and the remaining 4.8% is held by its chief executive officer Sameer Nair and other Imagine employees.

With this news, Hindi entertainment channel, NDTV Imagine, entertainment gossip channel, Imagine Showbiz and movie channel, Lumiere will join the Turner network of channels. This naturally means, NDTV Imagine will rebrand shortly, with the NDTV prefix being dropped and a whole new identity likely.

“It�۪s true that we cannot continue with the NDTV prefix in the Hindi channel brand name (NDTV Imagine), but we are waiting for regulatory approvals before we can change that,” said Nair, declining to share the proposed name for the channel.

Once the transaction has been completed, Imagine will continue to be led by current chief executive officer, Sameer Nair with the other Imagine team working closely with the Turner group management.

Turner also has several partnerships in India, one with ZEE Entertainment and Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) for distribution company ZEE Turner Ltd.