20th Century Fox takes stake in Italian TVoD platform
March 2, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
20th Century Fox has invested nearly €6 million to buy a 4 per cent stake in Italian TVoD platform Chili, reports local daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
Milan-based Chili is a transactional service which offers a digital catalogue of over 50.000 films and TV series, which can be streamed or downloaded on various devices (Smart TVs, Blu-Ray players, PCs, tablets and smartphones).
There are no monthly fees nor activation costs and the price of content ranges from €0.90 to €11.00, depending on the picture resolution or whether the viewer wants to buy or rent the content.
20th Century Fox thus joins other movie studios that are already shareholders – Sony Pictures Entertainment (3 per cent), Paramount Pictures and parent Viacom (4 per cent); and Warner Bros (4 per cent). Chili is controlled by founders Brace (32 per cent) and other shareholders include Torino Investimenti 1895 (24 per cent), Negentropy Capital Partners (12 per cent). Antares Private Equity (11 per cent), InvestinChili (7 per cent) and Tony Miranz (1 per cent).
The arrival of 20th Century Fox has boosted the company’s market value to €150 million, however Chili has so far closed in red and 2016 was no exception (-€8.4 million). The 2016 revenues of €7.1 million revenues doubled in 2017 and should reach €30 million in 2018. Besides Italy where it has around 1.4 million customers, the platform is also active in the UK, Germany, Poland and Austria.