BWI: Indiatimes (58888) Acquires Aananda Audio Video Digital Music Rights

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Times Internet Limited
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 09:23 PM IST (03:53 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, Lifestyle; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Information technology, Media & entertainment, Telecommunications; Technology
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Indiatimes (58888) Acquires Aananda Audio Video Digital Music Rights
Establishes Majority Share in Kannada Mobile Music Market

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Wednesday, May 19, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- Close on the heels of Indiatimes' recent strides in the Mobile music arena comes a significant content acquisition alliance with Aananda Audio Video (AAV), the largest music label in Karnataka. With this move, Indiatimes (58888), a division of Times Internet Limited (TIL), has increased its market share to more than 60% of the Kannada mobile music downloads. Karnataka is the largest regional market in mobile music monetization. This marks a significant step towards TIL's evolution into a major digital music rights manager.

According to TIL CEO Rishi Khiani, "With this recent alliance with AAV, we are expanding our footprint in the mobile music segment, and we will continue to do so going forward. This is a core element of our strategy to grow in the digital entertainment segment. You can expect more to come from 58888," he added.

"Changing trends in the mobile music business gives us fillip to join hands with an experienced and India's largest media conglomerate - the Times Group. We are entering into a pact, with an objective of providing quality mobile music and leveraging our partner's experience in monetization and massive marketing strength," says Mr. Mohan Chabria, Managing Director of Aananda Audio Video.

About Times Internet Limited:

Times Internet Limited (TIL) is the Internet and Mobile venture of India's largest media house - the Times Group. Times Internet Network generates over 400mn pageviews per month through their flagship portal Indiatimes.com. In the mobile space, Indiatimes 58888 is the largest direct-to-consumer SMS and IVR shortcode, accessed by over 50mn consumers across all telecom operators in India. 58888 offers VAS services such as news, bollywood gossip, cricket scores, astro information, and a host of other fun, easy-to-use mobile applications.

About Aananda Audio Video (AAV)

AAV, the brainchild of Mr. Mohan Hariram Chabria, has been in the trade since 1999. Currently, AAV boasts of 4000 Kannada film songs, devotional songs and popular music. Besides acquiring audio rights for music, AAV has also produced films, TV soaps and serials and helped corporate and MNCs build their ad campaigns. AAV's 300-strong dealer networks across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bombay include leading retail chains like Big Bazaar, Landmark, Music World, Temptation M and Planet M.


CONTACT DETAILS
Yashmeen Barua, Times Internet Limited, +919811699757, Yashmeen.barua@indiatimes.co.in

KEYWORDS
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