CANNES: Index Corporation and Sojitz Corporation have announced the launch of Index Global Rights Management Corporation (IGR) at Mipcom in Cannes, France. The company will specialise in Wireless and New Media (WNM) business like mobile and internet content by obtaining international copyrights to highly valued content and distributing the rights all over the world.
IGR will kick off with $2.19 million in capital, out of which 65 per cent will be contributed by Index Corporation and 35 per cent by Sojitz Corporation. IGR will obtain international distribution rights to content that includes video, music and sports from content holders around the world and offer them on a global scale, informs an official release.
The global market size of WNM content is now $15 billion and it is expected to grow to as much as $45 billion by 2008. These favorable market conditions of rapid expansion will help IGR towards a possible IPO in the future.
In the past, Index Corporation has forged global connections with content holders around the world, and accumulated WNM know-how and businesses, which amount to the world's leading network for mobile content delivery. On the other hand, Sojitz Corporation's acquisition and distribution of international copyrights continues to grow and is diversifying into animation for children, documentaries and Japanese film.
IGR, which will capitalise on the networks, contacts and know-how of these two companies, will provide content holders with an open door to WNM business that reaches mobile, Internet, television, video and DVD industries. They plan to obtain high quality video and audio content, in order to complement the existing content held by Index and Sojitz. IGR will also deliver them to overseas providers.
It has already acquired the Internet distribution rights for "BBC Radio", provided by BBC Worldwide Ltd., and started distribution to WOWOW, a Japan based premium satellite broadcaster.
The release also informs that the worldwide mobile business growth has the potential to reach an annual rate of 15-40 per cent. The worldwide IP content market is also experiencing rapid growth and promises potential annual growth of 25-40 per cent. Although the rights business, which is a key to content, requires regional negotiations, considerable cost and a great deal of effort, Internet distributors and Video on Demand (VOD) companies throughout Japan, Europe, North America and beyond are increasingly in need of comprehensive international copyrights.
