Markand Adhikari-led Sri Adhikari Brothers Group (SAB Group) is looking to strengthen its digital initiative and expand its broadcast and film businesses over the next three by earmarking ₹400-500 crore.

Besides launching a general entertainment channel (GEC) by the end of this calendar year, the company said it will extensively focus on its digital initiative Happii-Fi.

“We are looking at the Hindi-speaking markety. While our channel Happii will be launched by the end of this calendar (October-December), our digital initiative Happii-Fi will be operational by July,” Manav Dhanda, Group CEO, SAB Group, told BusinessLine .

The company said its digital initiative was not an over-the-top (OTT) platform but merely a channel to release the content across platforms.

Dhanda said that at the heart of its expansion will be comedy. “Our GEC is all about comedy and it will be 30-minute programmes, while on digital it will be two-minute episodes. We have been creating and producing content for months.”

He said the content will be available on various platforms. The company is looking to reach at least 300-400 million consumers. Dhanda said that the company has tied up with artists and is creating original content for its digital platform.

Recently, the company had completed its business restructuring to unlock the value of each business. Dhanda said the de-merger of its TV, events and publishing businesses into two separate listed companies could happen in a month or so.

The two new companies will be called TV Vision and SAB Events & Governance Now Media.

SAB group owns and operates five channels, mainly in the music and regional GEC space — Mastiii, Dabangg (music and GEC content, UP and Bihar), Maiboli (entertainment channel, Marathi), Dillagi and Dhamaal Gujarat (entertainment with youth focus, Gujarati).

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