If Bollywood failed to deliver many hits at the box-office in 2007, media and entertainment stocks did not mirror that trend?well for the most part. Domestic equity bourses witnessed a lot of action among media and entertainment sector stocks in calendar year (CY07) with a few stocks emerging as big hits among investors while others were battered.

Among the media and entertainment sector stocks, oldies clearly hogged the limelight with investors showing their confidence in them thro-ughout the year.

Says Gopal Agarwal, senior fund manager, Mirae Asset Global: ?A higher level of media penetration, greater advertisement spends, economic and demographic changes and more favourable environment for foreign investment in the sector are the major drivers of growth.?

Out of the seven new stocks, which made their debut on the local bourses in CY07, only three stocks managed to give higher returns over their issue price and outperform the broader market.

The fabulous three include Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN), which rose by 285.76% to close at Rs 964.40 (December 20, 2007), Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision Ltd?it produced the runaway hit Jab We Met?which rose by 173.12% at Rs 437 and Pyramid Symira, which gave a return of 320.6% to close at Rs 420.60.

But others including Raj Television Network Ltd, Broadcast Initiatives and Dish TV gave a negative return of 24.41%, 53.66% and 14.09% respectively over their issue price.

Oldies were the clear favourites with Adlabs Films giving a return of 228% or Rs 990.7 to close at Rs 1,424.35 (as on December 20). Likewise, Entertainment Network India Ltd surged by Rs 321.05 or 121.75% at Rs 584.75, Mukta Arts Ltd has gained 306.57% or Rs 156.35 at Rs 207.35, Balaji Telefilms rose by 168.78% or Rs 214.1 at Rs 340.95, Saregama India Ltd gave a return of 44.33% or Rs 92.85 to close at Rs 302.3.

Other prominent gainers include Tips Industries Ltd, Telephoto Entertainment Ltd, PVR Ltd, Shringar Cinemas and Cinevistas Ltd. ?Nowadays most of the movies are pre-sold and the risk of making a movie has completely been eliminated which is generating higher interest among investors in entertainment stocks. Also, in the last one year, the ad rates have gone up by 50% and with increasing advertisement the revenues of these companies are rising immediately,? explains Agarwal.

?However with corporates getting in the media business, the so-called complex process of movie making seems to be simplified,? said Sharmila Joshi, institutional dealer, Asit C Mehta stock brooking.

She further added that ?corporates have already tasted the blood of show business and with myriad changes happening on the entertainment front, they have foreseen the potential in this sector not only on the bigger screen but also on the smaller screen. Better earning power, relatively young average age of an Indian citizen and a drastic change in their spending pattern has thrown open an ocean of opportunities for companies in the business of entertainment and corporate houses are scrambling on to capitalise over this space.?

After the Centre?s decision to relax foreign investment limit in certain subsectors of the entertainment business including print and electronic media, the stocks of the companies operating in this space has shown stupendous growth. Entities in the sector such as news channels and animation houses have also shown noticeable growth.

Even companies in the exhibition space are also expanding and they want to try their luck in the production side. Take for instance, PVR that entered the stock markets last year has ventured into film production. The recent one being Taare Zameen Par, an Aamir Khan starrer film and many more are in the pipeline, said trade sources. The PVR stock has risen by 40% in last one year from Rs 229 to Rs 320.

The interest of pumping in more and more money in the business of entertainment is on rise and can be justified by the fact that on his last tour to India, one of the top rung richest man of the world,

LN Mittal announced his intention of producing a film of the Boney Kapoor-Sridevi production house.