NETWORK18

April 25 (Reuters) - Indian news broadcaster NDTV NDTV.NS posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss on Friday, with a sixfold increase, due to higher production and marketing costs.

The company, primarily owned by Adani Group, has scaled up its operations over the past year by investing in distribution, digital infrastructure, brand building and new channel launches such as NDTV Marathi and NDTV World.

While such investments and moves led to a bottom-line loss in the year, "these foundational investments will yield strong returns in the years ahead," the broadcaster said in an exchange filing.

Last week, Reliance Group-controlled Network18 Media NEFI.NS, which owns both news and entertainment channels, posted a narrower quarterly loss after reining in its expenses.

NDTV reported a loss of 608.8 million rupees ($7.13 million) for the January-March quarter, compared with 84.6 million rupees a year earlier.

Total expenses of the broadcaster operating channels like NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India jumped 50%.

The broadcaster reported a 19% rise in operational revenue to 1.27 billion rupees but did not disclose the portion from advertising, typically the main revenue source for media companies.

The company's shares dropped 4% ahead of results.

($1 = 85.3670 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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April 18 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 303.1 MILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 5.61 BILLION RUPEES

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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Adds context on importance of India market for OpenAI in paragraph 3, Open AI comment in paragraph 10, global AI market estimates in paragraph 12

By Aditya Kalra and Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Digital news units of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets including the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, are joining proceedings against OpenAI for improperly using copyright content, legal papers show.

Courts globally are hearing claims by authors, news organisations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission or payment.

India has more than 690 million smartphone users thanks to cheap mobile data plans and OpenAI has said the country is a critical market.

The Indian media outlets, including Adani's NDTV NDTV.NS and Ambani's Network18 NEFI.NS, have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work for users of the powerful AI tool.

Reuters was first to report the case filing by the news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also joined the lawsuit.

The 135-page case filing, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI's conduct constitutes "a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights" of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

It refers to OpenAI's "wilful scraping ... and adaptation of content", adding that "the disproportionate power of tech companies in prioritising content and extracting advertising revenue has raised concerns among publishers."

The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani's NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group and the Hindu. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.

The Times of India is not part of the legal challenge despite being member of the DNPA, the filing said, without elaborating on the reasons.

Asked for comment, OpenAI reiterated an earlier statement that it was engaged in constructive partnerships with many news organisations, including in India, and was using publicly available data in a manner protected by fair use principles to builds its AI models.

None of the Indian media companies involved immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.

The global AI market is expected to grow to $320 billion to $380 billion by 2027, expanding 25% to 35% each year, with the India market likely to follow that trend, according to Boston Consulting Group and India's tech lobby group NASSCOM.

LANDMARK INDIA CASE

In the United States, the New York Times sued OpenAI and its largest financial backer Microsoft MSFT.O in December 2023, accusing them of using millions of its articles without permission to train chatbots to provide information to users.

The new Indian intervention will add firepower to ANI's lawsuit against OpenAI in India's most high-profile legal proceedings on the issue.

A hearing in ANI's lawsuit against OpenAI is scheduled for Tuesday.

Responding to the ANI case, OpenAI said in a court filing reported by Reuters last week that any order to delete training data would result in a violation of its U.S. legal obligations, and Indian judges have no jurisdiction to hear a copyright case against the company as its servers are located abroad.

Reuters, which holds a 26% interest in ANI, has said in a statement it is not involved in ANI's business practices or operations.

In recent months, OpenAI has signed deals with Time magazine, the Financial Times, Business Insider-owner Axel Springer, France's Le Monde and Spain's Prisa Media to display content.

The Indian publishers in their new filing argue OpenAI has entered into partnership agreements with media outlets abroad, but has not entered into similar deals in India, hurting the media companies.

Such conduct by OpenAI "in India betrays an inexplicable defiance of the law," the Indian media outlets' filing said.

The publishers also said OpenAI was set to become a profit-driven business benefiting from the creative works of the media industry. This would result in a "weakened press" and would not be in the best interests of a vibrant democracy, their filing said.

OpenAI made its first India hire last year when it tapped a former WhatsApp executive, Pragya Misra, to handle public policy and partnerships in the country of 1.4 billion people.

"India is really important because it's the youngest demographic in the world ... we've seen massive uptake of ChatGPT, it's almost our second largest country in terms of users outside of the US," Misra said in a recent interview with AIM TV.

OpenAI kicked off an investment, consumer and corporate frenzy in generative AI after the Nov. 2022 launch of ChatGPT. It wants to be ahead in the AI race after raising $6.6 billion last year.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Arpan Chaturvedi; Additional reporting by Praveen Paramasivam; Editing by Sonali Paul and Kate Mayberry)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS fall as much as 4.7% to 58.6 rupees, last down 4.5%

** Co reports Dec-qtr consol net loss of 14.35 bln rupees ($165.8 mln) from loss of 588.2 mln rupees a year ago

** Reports one-time expense of 14.26 bln rupees related to Viacom 18 ceasing to be a unit of co

** Rev falls 23.3% to 13.61 bln rupees

** NEFI has been below its 200-day simple moving avgs since Sept, indicating bearish sentiment

** More than 7.6 mln shares traded, 1.7x its 30-day moving avg

** Stock declined 18.1% in 2024

($1 = 86.5650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru)

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Jan 14 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS DEC-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 14.35 BILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS DEC-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 13.61 BILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS - Q3 ONE-TIME EXPENSE OF 14.26 BILLION RUPEES ON DERECOGNITION OF UNITS

Source text: ID:nBSE5DNBSg

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS fall 4.5% to 63.6 rupees, their lowest since Oct. 4, 2023, amid a broader muted market

** Stock set for fifth straight week of losses, if trend holds

** Reuters could not immediately ascertain the reason behind the day's move

** NEFI set for its busiest week in three, with over 16.7 mln shares traded

** Stock fell 18% in 2024 vs 23% decline in the Nifty Media index .NIFTYMED

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru)

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Oct 23 (Reuters) - India's New Delhi Television (NDTV) NDTV.NS posted its fourth-straight quarterly loss on Wednesday, as the news broadcaster's expenses surged.

The company, 64.7% of which is owned by ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, reported a loss of 527.7 million rupees ($6.28 million) for the July-September quarter, compared to a profit of 59.1 million rupees in the year-ago period.

NDTV's total expenses surged 76% on the back of a jump in operating as well as production and marketing costs, as it continued to invest in newly launched TV channels and infrastructure.

The company, which runs news channels, said its revenue from operations rose 16.5% to 1.11 billion rupees in the latest quarter, attributing it to enhanced content strategy, an expanding portfolio of intellectual properties, and strategic digital initiatives.

Indian consumer good makers, who typically spend the most on advertising on television, have reined in their expenses as they grapple with muted demand for their products amid rising living costs.

That has weighed on advertising-dependent media companies.

In the past couple of weeks, Zee Enterprises ZEE.NS, which runs its eponymous TV serial and entertainment channels, posted a decline in ad revenue. Reliance group-controlled Network18 Media NEFI.NS, which owns both news and entertainment channels, said its TV news ad revenue was soft during the quarter.

NDTV did not disclose its ad revenue for the quarter.

The company's shares dropped after the results, closing 0.8% lower.

Other rivals TV Today Network TVTO.NS and Zee Media Corporation ZEEN.NS are expected to post results later this month.

($1 = 84.0650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS rise 5.5% and 6.3%, respectively

** Parent Reliance Industries RELI.NS expects merger of co's and Disney's DIS.N Indian media assets to be completed in third quarter of FY25

** Cos, which already have approval from India's antitrust watchdog and company tribunal for the merger, are in process of obtaining other approvals

** Merger of TV18, E18 with Network18 was sanctioned by the company tribunal and made effective on Oct 3

** NEFI sees busiest session since Aug 30; TVEB marks second busiest day in a week

** NEFI, TVEB down 3% and 11% YTD, respectively

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS fall as much as 3.2% to 78.8 rupees

** Media co reported a wider Q2 consol net loss of 958.4 mln rupees ($11.4 mln) from a loss of 830.8 mln rupees a year ago

** Q2 rev fell 2.2% YoY, with larger entertainment segment down 5.4%, and total expenses rose 1.7%

** Stock on track to fall for third straight month

** More than 1.2 mln shares traded as of 10:32 a.m. IST, vs 30-day moving avg of over 3.1 mln shares

** NEFI last down 2.4%, adding to YTD losses of 9.5% so far

($1 = 84.0670 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru)

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Oct 4 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• GOVERNMENT APPROVES TRANSFER OF LICENSES HELD BY TV18 TO CO

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSEg8kPh

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of Reliance Industries RELI.NS-owned Network18 Media NEFI.NS and TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS climb 8.5% and 10.6%, respectively

** India's competition regulator on Wednesday approved $8.5 billion-merger of the Indian media assets of Reliance and Walt Disney DIS.N

** Network18 and TV18 Broadcast will merge as Reliance consolidates its broadcast business

** TVEB and NEFI both see most active session since Jan.

** Including day's gains, TVEB is up 6% YTD, while NEFI has climbed 20% in the same period

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru)

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July 4 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• RE-APPOINTS RAHUL JOSHI AS MD

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE9yq2kN

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS fall as much as 4.6% to 45 rupees; last down 2%

** The media company posted consol net loss for the Jan-March qtr from profit a year earlier as expenses jump ~87%, rev from ops up ~66%

** Stock down 2% so far this week, on track to post second straight weekly loss

** Shares fell 8% in Jan-March qtr after posting three consecutive quarterly gains

** Another billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned media firm, Network18 Media NEFI.NS, posted weak results; shares down 2.6%

** Including session's losses, stock down 8% YTD, NEFI and peer NDTV NDTV.NS down 0.2% and 17%, respectively

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru)

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April 18 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 959.5 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 367.8 MILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 24.19 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 14.84 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE4zBbll

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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March 14 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• DIGITAL18 MEDIA CEASED TO BE WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF COMPANY

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE5G98gy

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Reliance Industries RELI.NS up 1%, top gainer on blue-chip Nifty 50 .NSEI, which is flat

** Reliance and Disney DIS.N merge their Indian TV, streaming assets, creating an $8.5 bln entertainment juggernaut

** However, RELI gains come after stock dropped 2% on Weds amid a broader market pullback

** Rivals Zee Entertainment ZEE.NS and Sun TV Network SUTV.NS fell over 2% on the day before pulling back

** Reliance-controlled Network 18 NEFI.NS and TV 18 TVEB.NS down nearly 5% each

** RELI has surged 30% since late Oct, on first media reports of possible deal; Nifty has gained 14% in same period

** In that time, Sun TV has lost 3.5% while Zee has slumped 35%, with most losses coming after collapse of merger with Sony India in late Jan

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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- Source link: (https://bityl.co/NcMi)

- Note: Reuters has not verified this story and does not vouch for its accuracy

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Jan 16 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• DEC-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 580.8 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 76.8 MILLION RUPEES

• DEC-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 17.74 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 18.5 BILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Network18 NEFI.NS and TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS up 20% and 16%, respectively

** NEFI shares hit highest since Aug 2011 at 119.40 rupees, while TVEB rises to highest since April 2022

** More than 11 mln TVEB shares and 7.3 mln NEFI shares change hands in multiple blocks - LSEG data

** Overall, ~170 mln TVEB shares traded as of 12:00 p.m IST, 6x the 30-day avg,

** TVEB sees most active session since April 2022

** Nearly 53 mln NEFI shares traded in morning session, 5x the 30-day avg

** TV18 Broadcast to merge with Network18 in $1.2 bln deal, effective April 2024

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS up 4.4% at 89.85 rupees

** Economic Times reported Monday that a unit under NEFI-owned Viacom18 would take control of Disney's Star India as part of Reliance-Disney India media ops merger

** NEFI parent Reliance to own 51% stake in merged Disney entity - ET

** Reliance and Disney did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the report

** Over 9.2 mln NEFI shares change hands, a little over stock's 30-day moving avg volume of 9 mln

** Stock up 36% so far this year, outperforming Nifty Media index's .NIFTYMED 20% rise

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

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** Indian media companies TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS down as much as 10.94% and 10.31%, respectively, to 50.05 rupees and 88.3 rupees

** Cos announce $1.2 billion merger deal to help cut costs and expand reach

** NEFI to issue 100 shares for every 172 shares of TVEB, valuing the latter at a 1.9% premium to its closing price on Wednesday

** The two stocks had surged 33.7% and 18.8% each, in the previous six sessions

** Stocks last down 7.3% and 7.6% each, Nifty media index NIFTYMED is down 0.5%

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru)

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BENGALURU, Dec 6 (Reuters) - India's Reliance-owned TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS will merge with Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS in an all stock deal, the two companies said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto; Editing by Sohini Goswami)

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By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The entertainment unit of India's Reliance RELI.NS has signed a deal with The Pokemon Company to show children's shows and movies on its platform, two people with knowledge of the deal said, its latest bid to boost content amid a domestic rivalry with the Walt Disney Co DIS.N and other streaming services.

The deal, signed this month, will make JioCinema's streaming app the "exclusive" India platform partner for more than 1,000 episodes and around 20 movies of the Japanese anime series, one of the sources said, without disclosing any financial details.

The shows and movies will be dubbed into three Indian languages to broaden their appeal, the source added. Pokemon has spawned a global multi-billion dollar media franchise spanning trading cards, games, TV shows and movies.

Viacom18, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's entertainment joint-venture that runs JioCinema, and The Pokemon Company, owned by video game company Nintendo 7974.T and affiliates, did not respond to a request for comment.

Adding child-focused content is Ambani's latest push to expand in the Indian streaming market which research firm Media Partners Asia estimates will be worth $7 billion by 2027.

Netflix NFLX.O and Amazon AMZN.O are among JioCinema's competitors, but Ambani has most recently taken on Disney's Hotstar app, with both offering free streaming of cricket matches.

In total, JioCinema will add around 3,000 hours of children's content, including movies and shows from Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios and DreamWorks, the sources said.

Those additions will come through Viacom18's existing content deals, or integration with its other streaming app, Voot Kids, which has shut, they added. Some Pokemon content was earlier on Voot, but the new JioCinema deal is a "much larger partnership", one of the sources said.

NBCUniversal told Reuters that "kids and family programming", including DreamWorks content, was part of a multi-year partnership with JioCinema announced in May. Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios did not respond to requests for comment.

In April, Viacom18 struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. WBD.O to include more Hollywood and international content on JioCinema, including hit series "Succession" and "Game of Thrones".

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; editing by Miral Fahmy)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS down as much as 4.7% at 66.7 rupees

** Media conglomerate, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, reports widened Q2 consolidated net loss at 609.9 mln rupees ($7.34 million) vs loss of 364.9 mln rupees a year earlier, rev from ops up 20.4% Y/Y

** Total expenses rise ~39%, led by cost of materials consumed, which jumped ~56%

** Advertising demand remains guarded due to soft consumer sentiment - Network18

** Co expects festive season to bring positive momentum

** Nifty media index .NIFTYMED down 1.5%

** Stock up 3.6% YTD, underperforming Nifty media index which is up 8.2%

($1 = 83.1474 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru)

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BENGALURU, Oct 23 (Reuters) - India's New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) NDTV.NS, part of the Adani Group, reported a nearly 51% drop in second quarter profit on Monday, as businesses cut back on advertising spending in the face of rising interest rates.

Consolidated net profit was 59.1 million rupees ($710,803.00) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with 120.1 million rupees a year earlier, it said in an exchange filing.

Indian broadcasters are grappling with slowing advertising spending as businesses clamp down on discretionary investments to rein in costs amid high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes.

Still, the company rebounded from a loss in April-June.

Revenue from operations fell nearly 10% to 955.5 million rupees in the September quarter.

The broadcaster is the first among its peers to report quarterly results. Rival TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and its unit Network18 NEFI.NS will report their earnings later this week.

Another competitor Zee Entertainment Enterprises ZEE.NS will report next month.

Shares of NDTV fell as much as 7.2% after the results. The shares had fallen over 8% during the quarter, as opposed to a more-than-30% jump in the Nifty Media .NIFTYMED index.

NDTV and other listed Adani-owned companies have seen their shares battered since a U.S. short-seller, earlier this year, accused the group of improperly using offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. Adani Group had rejected the allegations.

($1 = 83.1454 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS rise as much as 7.08% and 7.97%, respectively

** Viacom18 wins BCCI's media rights for international and domestic cricket from Sept. 2023 to Mar. 2028 nL4N3AC3H0

** Viacom18 is a JV between the unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries RELI.NS - Network18 Group - and Paramount Global

** TVEB and NEFI are among top gainers in media index .NIFTYMED which is up over 0.5%

** More than 28.5 mln shares of TVEB traded by 2:20 p.m. IST, 1.6x the 30-day avg

** More than 8.2 mln shares of NEFI change hands, 3.4x the 30-day avg

** TVEB and NEFI stock up 33% and 7% YTD respectively, compared with media index, which is up 15.7%

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru)

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Adds share price in paragraph 2, context from paragraph 4

By Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - India paved the way on Thursday for a $10 billion media and entertainment powerhouse, giving Zee Entertainment and the Indian unit of Japan's Sony Group 6758.T a key merger approval.

Zee's ZEE.NS shares were up 16.6% after the National Company Law Tribunal cleared the long-delayed deal to create a company which will be nearly 51% owned by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and 3.99% by Zee's founders.

The Zee Group is among India's first privately owned television networks and industry executives say the Sony-Zee alliance stands to become the country's biggest industry player, with significant distribution and advertising muscle.

The combination, which was announced in 2021, hit problems after the Securities and Exchange Board of India banned Zee's CEO, who had been lined up to run the merged entity, from the boardrooms of listed companies for a year.

Zee later formed an interim committee under the supervision of its board to run operations after Chief Executive Punit Goenka failed to get the ban overturned at appeal.

Goenka told India's Economic Times in June that the merger would go ahead whether or not he was CEO of the new entity.

In February, an Indian tribunal put on hold insolvency proceedings initiated by lender IndusInd Bank Ltd (INBK.NS) against Zee, in a major relief for the media company. Later, the company settled its dispute with the lender.

Last year, Zee and Sony offered concessions such as pricing discounts to help ease regulatory concerns and received antitrust approval for the merged entity, which will compete with Walt Disney India and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Network18.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Elaine Hardcastle and Alexander Smith)

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July 18 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 387.3 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 33.2 MILLION RUPEES

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 32.39 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 13.40 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE2xNh4n

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, June 2 (Reuters) - Streaming giants Netflix, Amazon and Disney on Friday privately discussed a possible legal challenge and other ways to stall India's new tobacco warning rules, amid fears they will need to edit millions of hours of existing web content, sources said.

The pushback is the latest headache for streaming giants in India, a top growth market. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurt religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years.

As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. Also, India wants at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each program.

In first signs of industry distress, executives of the three global streaming companies, and India's Viacom18 which runs billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioCinema app, held a closed-door meeting, where Netflix NFLX.O said the rules would hit customer experience and push production houses to block their content in India, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Executives in India also discussed ways of a possible legal challenge to assert that other ministries - IT and information & broadcasting - have powers over streaming giants, and not the health ministry, said one of the sources.

The companies, and India's health ministry, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters is first to report the industry's planned pushback.

Already, all smoking and alcohol drinking scenes in movies in India's cinemas and on TV, under the law, require health warnings, but so far there were no regulations for the streaming giants, whose content has become increasingly popular.

In 2013, Woody Allen stopped his film, Blue Jasmine, from being screened in India after learning about mandatory anti-tobacco warnings would be inserted into its smoking scenes.

Activists have welcomed new anti-tobacco rules by India, the world's second largest producer of tobacco that kills 1.3 million people each year in the country. India also has stringent cigarette pack warning rules.

HEALTH VS WARNINGS "HARASSMENT"

Truth Initiative, a public health nonprofit group, in March said 60% of the 15 most popular streaming shows among 15- to 24-year-olds it analyzed contained depictions of tobacco, "effectively exposing 25 million young people to tobacco imagery" in 2021.

But in India, companies from Netflix to Amazon AMZN.O to Disney DIS.N, also have popular Hindi content which often shows Bollywood actors smoking, something activists say encourages tobacco use.

India is a hot market for streaming giants, and executives fear business impact and higher costs. Ambani's JioCinema has just in recent weeks signed multiple content deals with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros WBD.O, bringing popular shows like "Succession" and "The Office" on its platform.

Together, the companies have millions of hours of content.

"New content being created needs to be changed and old content needs to be modified. It could require insertion of ad-type warning in between," said Kaushik Moitra, partner at Bharucha & Partners who advises streaming firms and production houses.

During the Friday meeting, Amazon and other companies made the point there was no way films can be edited in three months, said the second source, adding the industry decided to consult lawyers and write letters in protest.

Dylan Mohan Gray, a filmmaker who directed documentaries such as "Fire in the Blood", said the new Indian rules amount to "harassment", saying that murder, war and extremely violent crime scenes were not regulated in the same way.

"Smoking, which though certainly a serious public health problem, is both legal and a massive source of government revenue in this country," he said.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi, and Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Tony Tharakan and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by David Evans)

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MUMBAI, May 23 (Reuters) - India's Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS plans to raise funds by selling commercial papers maturing in three months, at a yield of 6.99%, three merchant bankers said on Tuesday.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Sohini Goswami)

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