MUMBAI: Essel Group’s E-City Ventures has launched E-City Media to provide on screen and off screen advertisement solutions in malls and multiplexes across the country.

The new venture will be headed by E-City Media vice president Anand Vishal.

E-City Ventures CEO Atul Goel said, “The main aim is to grow our current revenue from advertisements from the existing seven – eight per cent of the total revenue to approximately 15 per cent, and also to jumpstart the revenue stream of advertising for our digital business.”

E-City Media has been conceptualized for capitalizing on a very interesting business proposition that is synergistic to the company’s cinema exhibition and retail realty activities.

Focused around monetizing the on screen and off screen opportunities of E-City Venture’s investments in the exhibition and the retail realty business, E-City Media aims to capitalize on the growing trend of interest in ambient media. Vishal says, “With our massive digital, single screen refurbishment and multiplex rollout (1500 screens by 2011), it was important to create a center point for the advertisement activities. The hive off would give this media business the required attention and focus.”

With advertising and branding activities at malls and multiplexes slated to grow to Rs 5 billion (Rs 500 crores) at the very least in three years, with the numbers of screens in the country increasing rapidly, E-City Media will also push to enter into strategic partnerships with other existing advertising players in the same space to maximize its overall revenue.

This will be the sixth business of E-City Ventures, the others being Fun Cinemas, E-City Property Management and Services, E-City Real Estate Holdings, E-City Digital and E-City Films.