MUMBAI: The hard talk over, PVR has stitched a deal with cricket World Cup rights holder ESPN Star Sports (ESS) to show the matches in its select multiplexes.
Starved of big ticket movie releases during the world Cup, other plex chain operators could be chasing similar deals with ESS.
ESS has inked a pure revenue share deal with PVR but could be asking for some 'minimum guarantee fee' from the smaller multiplex operators.
"We will be showing all the India matches. We have a 50:50 revenue share with ESS. Not finding good films in the World Cup period, we thought of screening the matches as part of 'alternate programming'. We will show these matches in 8 to 9 screens in the cities across the country," PVR Cinemas CEO Pramod Arora tells Indiantelevision.com.
PVR will kick-off its World Cup screenings with the India-England match on 27 February.
"We are working on the ticket pricing. This being a cricket-heavy year, we had to think of some positive strategy to get in footfalls," says Arora.
Several multiplex operators are continuing their talks with ESS. Says Cinemax India CEO Sunil Punjabi, "We will go ahead only if they do a pure revenue share deal with us. It doesn't make commercial sense to pay a minimum fee. The World Cup will stretch for over seven hours and in no way will there be a packed hall. In case we fail to strike a deal, we will continue with our alternate programming plan which we had experimented during the IPL (Indian Premier League) matches. We will show Marathi cinema."
Multiplex owners are sure to feel the heat of the cricket season this year as IPL follows the World Cup frenzy.
"Multiplexes will have to review their strategies following the PVR deal. Surely, the last ball has not yet been bowled. The cat-and-mouse game will continue between ESS and the plexes," says a media analyst.
However, some multiplex owners believe that a better strategy will be to offer alternate programming rather than agree to a minimum fee and revenue share model with ESS. "We showed the IPL matches last year but that didn't work. So we are not sure if it is a good idea to pay and show the World Cup matches," the chief executive of a Mumbai-based multiplex said on condition of anonymity.
Starved of big ticket movie releases during the world Cup, other plex chain operators could be chasing similar deals with ESS.
ESS has inked a pure revenue share deal with PVR but could be asking for some 'minimum guarantee fee' from the smaller multiplex operators.
"We will be showing all the India matches. We have a 50:50 revenue share with ESS. Not finding good films in the World Cup period, we thought of screening the matches as part of 'alternate programming'. We will show these matches in 8 to 9 screens in the cities across the country," PVR Cinemas CEO Pramod Arora tells Indiantelevision.com.
PVR will kick-off its World Cup screenings with the India-England match on 27 February.
"We are working on the ticket pricing. This being a cricket-heavy year, we had to think of some positive strategy to get in footfalls," says Arora.
Several multiplex operators are continuing their talks with ESS. Says Cinemax India CEO Sunil Punjabi, "We will go ahead only if they do a pure revenue share deal with us. It doesn't make commercial sense to pay a minimum fee. The World Cup will stretch for over seven hours and in no way will there be a packed hall. In case we fail to strike a deal, we will continue with our alternate programming plan which we had experimented during the IPL (Indian Premier League) matches. We will show Marathi cinema."
Multiplex owners are sure to feel the heat of the cricket season this year as IPL follows the World Cup frenzy.
"Multiplexes will have to review their strategies following the PVR deal. Surely, the last ball has not yet been bowled. The cat-and-mouse game will continue between ESS and the plexes," says a media analyst.
However, some multiplex owners believe that a better strategy will be to offer alternate programming rather than agree to a minimum fee and revenue share model with ESS. "We showed the IPL matches last year but that didn't work. So we are not sure if it is a good idea to pay and show the World Cup matches," the chief executive of a Mumbai-based multiplex said on condition of anonymity.
