Digital disc maker Moser Baer to sell movie titles

MUMBAI- Digital disc maker Moser Baer India Ltd. will next month start selling home video discs at low prices, taking a step into entertainment business, a senior official said.

The company will spend up to five billion rupees over a couple of years in the initiative and plans to acquire copyrights and licences for 7,000 movie titles, Executive Director Ratul Puri told reporters on Thursday.

The company would sell films on compact discs for 28 rupees each and DVDs for 34 rupees, Puri said but declined to elaborate how the acquisition cost of the film rights would be factored into the prices.

However, he said, the company had new technology that would help cut disc costs. "We have the patented new optical technology which we have developed to make the titles available at the low prices," Puri said.

He also said the initiative would start complementing revenue from its core business of optical media in April-June 2007.

Over the next three to four years, optical media operations would generate free cash of $350 million, part of which would be used to expand the entertainment business, Puri said.