Bangalore, Karnataka, India and Paris, France
Thomson (Euronext 18453; NYSE: TMS), through its Technicolor Content Services business, today announced it is expanding its entertainment services capabilities with a strategic investment in Paprikaas Animation Studios, a leading animation and game content provider in Bangalore, India. This transaction further strengthens Thomson's commitment globally and in India to expand its service offerings in the feature film, television animation and video game industries. The addition of Paprikaas' creative, technical and computer animation work will give Technicolor added capabilities and resources to capture the growing industry demand for high end 3-D digital animation for feature films, television animation, commercial advertising and video games and provide Thomson with a leading position in the rapidly expanding Indian entertainment industry.
Paprikaas is a premier animation studio offering creative, technical and production capabilities to design and produce computer animation for feature films, television programming, commercials, and video games, with a strong focus on digital 3D content. The company works with some of the top studios, production houses and video game companies in the world.
Thomson's Technicolor Content Services is the world's second largest provider of content preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution capabilities to the broadcast, cable, feature film, advertising, and ancillary home video and DVD markets. The division also provides video game content creation and development services for leading video game publishers including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Vivendi Games, Epic Games, and Bioware among others.
"Technicolor Content Services has been looking to capture a larger share of the growing market trend toward outsourcing in theatrical, broadcast, commercial advertising, animation and video game segments," said Ahmad Ouri, president of Technicolor Content Services. "Paprikaas has proven that their animation and game content creation work consistently meets our high standards, enabling us to further expand our capabilities and global reach, while also achieving cost efficiencies."
"Our strategic partnership with Technicolor will pave the way for us to provide a unique service offering to the global animation and gaming industry. Our synergies will provide a perfect balance between the high front office competences of Technicolor through their global networks in the market place and qualified cost efficient back office resources of Paprikaas" said Nandish Domlur, Founder and CEO of Paprikaas Animation Studios.
"This strategic investment is another step in Thomson's initiative to expand its services to content owners and to broaden its scope of offerings for the film, broadcast and gaming communities. As one of India's leading animation studios, Paprikaas earned a strong reputation for quality services, which is in alignment with Thomson's high standards. This move also provides Thomson with a strategic platform from which to access the fast growing Indian media and entertainment market, thus, enabling us to accelerate our roadmap in India," says Thierry Pasquet, Vice-President, Thomson for India.
From a developer's perspective, India's animation industry is approximately $ 354m in 2006 and is expected to grow at a rate of 25% per year, nearly three times the global market rate. The Indian gaming industry (content developers' perspective) is $ 47.7m in 2006, and is expected to grow more strongly than the animation market.
*Sources:
1 Source: A Study on Animation and Gaming Industry in India, NASSCOM
2 Source: Screen Digest, "Outsourcing in Next Generation Games Development"
About Thomson - Leader In Digital Video Technologies
Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) provides technology, services, and systems and equipment to help its Media & Entertainment clients - content creators, content distributors, and users of its technology - realize their business goals and optimize their performance in a rapidly-changing technology environment. The Group is the preferred partner to the Media & Entertainment Industries through its Technicolor, Grass Valley, RCA, and Thomson brands. For more information: http://www.thomson.net
About Technicolor Content Services
Part of the Services division of Thomson, Technicolor Content Services provides world-leading, state-of-the-art preproduction, production, postproduction, and post postproduction services to major Hollywood film studios, independent filmmakers, cable and television networks, and commercial advertisers. With facilities located in major film, cable, and television production centers around the world, Technicolor Content Services offers a wide range of capabilities, including DVD compression, authoring, menu design, and localization; video on demand (VOD) encoding; episodic television and commercial advertising completion; digital intermediates, high-definition dailies processing; 2-D and 3-D visual effects; digital previews; video game development, design, and localization; sound design, recording, and mixing; multilingual subtitling, captioning, and localization; and film and audio restoration and preservation. For more information: http://www.technicolor.com
About Paprikaas
Paprikaas Animation Studios is a leading animation and gaming cinematics firm. Paprikaas combines the best of both worlds: a global company offering world-class animation services, cutting-edge imaging technologies, cultural compatibility, solid management, with industry experience and cost advantages provided by unique workflows and local market talent. For more information: http://www.paprikaas.com
Media Contacts:
Tom Bracken (North America)
Thomson Media Relations
+1 805 445 7293
tom.bracken@thomson.net
Season Skuro (North America)
Thomson Media Relations
+1 805 383 3245
season.skuro@thomson.net
Martine Esquirou (Europe)
Thomson Media Relations
+33 14 186 5851
martine.esquirou@thomson.net
Marie Boidot
Thomson Investor Relations
+33 14 186 5100
marie.boidot@thomson.net
Siddharth Kumar
Comma Consulting
+ 91 9810267907
skumar@comma.in
Abhishek Mahapatra
Comma Consulting
+ 91 9811667727
amahapatra@comma.in
Source: Thomson (Business Wire India)
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