Star and Zee team up to create TV distribution venture

As part of the landmark deal announced here, Star Den Media Services Pvt Ltd and Zee Turner Ltd will form a joint venture to combine distribution of their respective channel sets in the country.

Zee channels are currently distributed by Zee Turner Ltd, a joint venture between Essel Group, Zee’s parent company, and Turner International, which operates channels such as Cartoon Network and Pogo in India.

Star Channels, on the other hand, is distributed by StarDen, a 50:50 joint venture between Star India and Samir Manchanda’s DEN Networks. The newly formed Media Pro Enterprise India Pvt Ltd will be a 50:50 50:50 joint venture between Zee Turner and Star Den Media Services and will jointly aggregate and distribute channels licensed to Zee Turner and Star Den.

Zee Turner Ltd is an existing 74:26 joint venture between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) and Turner International India Private Limited (TIIPL).

Commenting on the deal, Puneet Goenka, CEO and Managing Director of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said, “The Indian TV market is growing rapidly and provides ample opportunity for joint ventures to create value.”

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said that bringing together “the two leaders will lead to greater consensus on the growth plan for the Indian electronic media industry.”

The new joint venture would mark the reunion of the bands Zee and Star, who many years later became one of the first participants in the Indian private television space.

Industry observers believe that a team of next-generation media companies such as Star’s Uday Shankar, Zee’s Puneet Goenka and Den Networks’ Samir Manchanda have successfully transcended the old history of bitter rivalry between their groups and created a new enterprise.

Among these people, Manchanda has mostly been a behind-the-scenes strategist, and industry observers believe that a partnership between two giants like Star and Zee would not have been possible if Manchanda had not played a critical role in bringing them together.

Observers said the partnership’s origins stem from Manchanda’s departure from Network18 after the latter contacted the Sun TV group and took the group’s channels off the Star DEN network.

Commenting on the deal, Turner International Managing Director Anshuman Misra said, “This is a big win for consumers as it gives them better content choice, greater access and diversity in one package and paves the way for faster content digitization. cable industry.

Den Networks Chairman and MD Samir Manchanda said, “This is a historic step forward in the Indian TV industry and will lead to a paradigm shift in pay distribution.”

“The new joint venture gives a clear boost to digitalization and promotes transparency and addressability in the broadcast distribution value chain. It also provides the Indian consumer with more channels, more choice and flexibility,” he added.

Star India has about 33 channels in seven languages ​​including titles like STAR Plus, STAR One, STAR Gold, Channel [V]STAR World, STAR Movies, and joint venture channels Asianet, STAR News, ESPN and STAR Sports.

Star India also operates a portfolio of commercial ventures including DTH operator Tata Sky, cable system Hathway and channel distributor STAR Den.

STAR India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the global media conglomerate News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Zee Group, on the other hand, is one of the largest producers of Hindi TV content and its channels include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, ETC Music and Zee Khana Khazana.

The company also has a strong regional language offering with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Cinemalu and ETC Punjabi.

Zee Group joined forces with Turner International in 2002 to create a distribution venture with a portfolio of 34 channels including Cartoon Network, Pogo, HBO, WB and CNN.