MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company will be adopting a direct to retail model for its home entertainment business in India. Starting 6 May, 2009, the business will be supported by a newly formed home entertainment team, which will handle sales and marketing for the DVD business in the country.

Until now Walt Disney had a licensing deal with Excel Home Videos in India for its home video business.

Tinkerbell, from Disney’s Fairies franchise will be the first DVD released under this new model. "The identification of effective distribution strategies will help us to best meet customer needs and continue to build our brand in India. Disney has a firm stake in developing the family entertainment sector in this country and we continue to strengthen our market presence by extending our franchises across multiple lines of businesses," said The Walt Disney Company (India) senior vice president and managing director Mahesh Samat.

Disney’s home entertainment team will focus on providing great content, stories and characters from across Disney’s extensive content library. The team will also look for local content development opportunities while making sure international content is made available in local languages. Some of the upcoming releases in local languages include – Bolt, Mickey Mouse Club House, My friends Tigger and Pooh. The Walt Disney Studios local productions will be some of the titles that the home entertainment team will additionally build on.

Earlier this year, Disney India appointed a specialized retail support team to focus on driving greater integration across company products and services. The team works closely with internal creative and brand teams and transfers this knowledge to the retail environment. "We spend a lot of time listening to consumers to understand what they want, and how they want to interact with us. With the Tinker Bell release on 13 May we hope to show our fans a fully integrated and all encompassing experience," said Samat.

In 2009, 30 new titles will be released, featuring a full range of Disney products. Each of these releases will be followed by an active promo-support in media and in-stores, applying additional advertising materials.

The Tinkerbell DVD will be priced at Rs 599 each.