United Home Entertainment (UHE), which runs the Kids channel Hungama TV, signed an 'Heads of Agreement' with the Malaysian media giant Astro All Asia Entertainment Networks on March 3, 2006, where by Astro will pick up as a strategic investor in UHE by subscription to UHE's equity, preference shares or a combination thereof for strategic stake of 26.01%, this was informed to the BSE.

According to sources, the Astro Measat and Hungama TV deal is worth about $7 million, so as the channel has been valued at $28 million by the Malaysian investor.

Note, in September last year, the Ronnie Screwvala promoted UTV has entered into a strategic alliance with Astro to launch two children's channels across Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore. UTV will provide the content, primarily based on the format of its Hungama channel in India, for the two channels. The content will be created locally in ethnic south east Asian languages like the Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia.

With a revenue of more than Rs 20,000 crore , the Indian entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing sectors. According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18% to reach more than Rs 45,000 crore in 2009.

Also note, Hungama TV has broken barriers to reach the No. 2 position among kids channels, thereby overtaking Pogo in the eighth week (February 19-25) of 2006. As per the data for (C&S-Hindi speaking markets, SEC ABC 4-14 years), Hungama TV garnered average gross rating points (GRP) of 97 beating Pogo, which got 93.

( www.televisionpoint.com)