Eros India CEO Explains STX Merger Logic: 'The Bigger Story Is on the OTT Side'

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When STX Entertainment unveiled ambitious plans in 2018 to make an initial public offering Hong Kong — which, ultimately, didn't come to fruition — the company expected to raise $500 million at a target valuation of $3.5 billion

, among others. A launch date and price details for Eros Prime have yet to be revealed.

STX has never made a film with any Indian creative involvement or story lines. What exactly are the upsides to this merger, given that the two companies make very different kinds of content, for very different core audiences? Eros is listed on the NYSE and is valued at close to $400 million at this point in time. We are doing a merger of equals.

I would hold back on the revenue estimate for now, but the current slate we have — for instance our library of 12,000 titles — if we take a subset of that and use STX's tieups in the U.S. with the likes of Showtime, and additionally, in over 150 countries where STX has set up a brilliant distribution network, we will have access to these markets for Bollywood content.

Not immediately but in a phased manner. The cost of production, post-production and VFX is more cost effective in India, so for scripted series and TV entertainment we can bring in better cost efficiency [for U.S. productions]. What we are expecting from STX is a better sense of technology and skills in terms of animation or creating a thematic multi-generational concept. One of the biggest successes for Disney is the Marvel universe. There is nothing like that from India.

 

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