Sea TV Network Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Sea TV Network was incorporated as Sea TV Network Limited at Agra, Uttar Pradesh, on May 21, 2004, under the Companies Act, 1956. The Company obtained the certificate of commencement of business on June 01, 2004. Sea TV Network Limited is one of the three MSOs in the Agra region. Sea TV Network is engaged in providing services of a Multi System Operator (MSO) to various Local Cable TV operators of Agra city. The promoters of Sea TV are in this line of activity since about 16 years and are well conversant with the Cable TV industry. Sea TV is one of the three existing MSOs in Agra City.

The Jain brothers, the promoters of the company under the guidance of Neeraj Jain, started their cable TV business in the year 1992 in the name of “Shubham Cable Satellite” from 118 Manas Nagar, Shahganj Agra. This was not a corporate entity and the business was at a very rudimentary stage with only two channels. Even with such a small network they managed to garner a viewer base of approximately 800 customers. As the fancy towards this new mode of television picked up, the demand for the number of channels increased. As a result they expanded their network and were able to telecast a bouquet of 18 channels. Encouraged with the continual growth of their subscriber base they set up another Headend in the year 1995 with a capacity of 35 channels, at 4 Mini MIG Friend’s colony, New Shahganj, Agra. This new branch of theirs captured a base of 500-700 subscribers. By this time organised players also entered the cable market in Agra city. Many FTA (Free to Air) channels were converted into pay channels. The Jain brothers tied up with various organized market participants and started taking signals from them at both locations. This continued till the year 2002. Upto this time however, the status of the Jain brothers was that of an LCO (Local Cable Operator) and not an MSO (Multi System Operator). The difference between the two entities is that the latter gets the signals directly from a broadcaster and distributes it through the former. The subscriber base belongs to the latter and the former is merely an agent.

In January 2003, the Jain brothers started business operations under SPN Trust, an existing family trust, for having smoother operations and better control over their business, under the name and style of “Sea TV”. Since the first day of commencement of business operations under SPN Trust, they acquired the status of a full-fledged MSO, a departure from their status of an LCO. On May 21, 2004 Sea TV Network was incorporated to carry on the business in a more organized and streamlined manner as a corporate entity. Thereafter, the entire business of the SPN trust along with the assets and cable network was purchased by the company and they have been running this business since.

Milestones:

• 2004 - Year of Incorporation

• 2009 - The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India gave its permission for up-linking and down-linking of non-news and current affairs TV channel “Jinvani” in Hindi, English and all other Indian languages and for a news and current affairs TV Channel “SeaNews” in Hindi, English and all other Indian languages

Sea TV also has its own local channels, programmes of which are produced by its own production team. These local channels mainly focus on Agra city/U.P State news/events and information, which is more relevant to the city viewers. These channels are broadcasted free of charge to the TV subscribers of Sea TV.

Sea News: - It is a 24 hour News channel of Agra City. The focus is primarily on Local News from Agra City and other news from the state of Uttar Pradesh. This is the USP of this news channel, as such news content is not catered to by the National level news channels. The entire operations of the news channel are managed in-house by its production team consisting of 41 employees.

Sea Jinvani: - This channel is dedicated to the followers of ‘Jain Religion’. All type of religious programmes like Pravachan, Satsang, Short stories on the various Jain Tirth, Songs etc are telecast through this channel. The Company also has plans to launch this channel as a Satellite Channel as a part of the second phase of its expansion activities. It has been conceived to be an international channel based on Jainism, while at the same time giving due weightage to all other religious cultural events and religious practices of the people.

Sea TV: - On this channel the company telecast’s local cultural programmes, sport meets, annual functions, various other programmes e.g 'Kavi Sammelan' etc. Thus they are able to attract schools/colleges, Clubs, Hotels, Committees and provide them a local platform for their performances.

Sea Bhakti: - It is 24 hour religious channel. Besides these niche channels the Company also plays old Hindi Movies and Music on its local channels. Company has made 3 applications to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for uplinking TV Channels with news and current affairs in the name of “REAL NEWS”, “OCEAN TV” and “YOUR TV” on August 12, 2010. All applications are pending as on date.