Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group?s (ADAG) Reliance MediaWorks Ltd, a film and entertainment services company, has expanded its presence in the UK by opening a film and media services facility in London. The facility will offer front-end, processing, restoration, 2D to 3D conversion and post-production services to broadcasters and studios.
The company has also acquired the assets of iLabs UK Ltd, one of only two film processing facilities, operating in London?s small office home office (SOHO) segment. Reliance MediaWorks UK will offer services within its own facility, and will tap into the quality and scale of services available through Reliance MediaWorks operations in India and the US. It aims to offer lab and transfer services to Indian films that are shot on locations in London and the UK each year.
Anil Arjun, CEO, Reliance MediaWorks, said, ?The acquisition of iLabs not only allows us to strengthen our services portfolio in UK, but we are also fortunate to gain talent, experience and local learning that iLabs team brings onboard. Through Reliance MediaWorks UK, we would provide next generation services for the local film makers and broadcasters, while also catering to Hollywood and Hindi film businesses. We look forward to the creative synergies that integrating of UK operations would bring to the entire film and media services value chain that Reliance MediaWorks has developed across continents?
The company has already secured image processing and restoration work for two projects from UK broadcasters at Reliance MediaWork?s LA-based subsidiary Lowry Digital. Lowry Digital has handled projects for leading studios like Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, MGM and 20th Century Fox.
The company has also established an optical fibre network, through Reliance Globalcom?s ethernet private line. This network has already been used for close to a year for distributing digital cinema releases of Indian films from Mumbai to the US.
Reliance MediaWorks currently has a dominant presence in film services, motion picture processing, visual effects, film restoration and image enhancement, with facilities located in the US and India.
BIG TV to invest Rs 150 cr for HD content
Reliance BIG TV (RBTV), the DTH subsidiary of Reliance Communications, is currently in discussions to sign content acquisition deals with global media conglomerates like BBC, CNN, Comedy Central and other studios, for sourcing non-film content, which will be showcased on its paid per view (PPV) platform.
The current deals are estimated to be around Rs 150 crore and in line with RBTVs strategic plans to introduce high definition (HD) content. Deals with these players will enable RBTV to air comedy shows, access to current affair shows, chat shows, political news from the US, Europe and Asian regions on its PPV platform.
