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Tag: Zee Group

  • Media veteran Sulina Menon joins Rise India Chapter’s advisory board

    Media veteran Sulina Menon joins Rise India Chapter’s advisory board

    MUMBAI: Sulina Menon, a seasoned professional with over 37 years of experience in advertising and communications, has joined the advisory board of Rise India Chapter. Rise is a global organisation committed to fostering gender diversity in the broadcast and media technology sector, with initiatives such as its award-winning mentoring program, the Rise Awards, and the Rise Up Academy that inspires the next generation.

    Having served as a mentor at Rise for the past two years, Sulina expressed her excitement about contributing further to the organization’s mission to empower women and promote inclusivity. 

    She remarked, “Being part of this transformative journey is an honor.”

    Sulina’s career spans leadership roles across major advertising agencies, broadcasters, and brands, including Zee group, Carat Media, Cheil, Starcom, and Omnicom group. Her extensive portfolio includes work with globally renowned brands like Airtel, Gillette, Nestlé, Samsung, Dabur, and Levi’s, where she helped shape impactful brand strategies.

    An ICF-approved Grow More Coach, Sulina is also passionate about mentoring high-performing individuals and leaders, offering strategic counsel to help them overcome challenges and realize their potential. Known for her empathetic and intuitive coaching style, she combines deep industry knowledge with a results-driven approach to foster growth and innovation. She currently runs her own consultancy Media Power and has been doing so for the past three years or so. 

    As a new advisory board member, Sulina aims to leverage her expertise to further Rise’s mission of creating a more inclusive industry and inspiring the next generation of leaders.

  • The era of internet belongs to Mayaverse: Subhash Chandra

    The era of internet belongs to Mayaverse: Subhash Chandra

    Mumbai: Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra opened up about the latest corporate developments in an interview with Zee Business’s managing editor Anil Singhvi on Wednesday. He spoke about the Mayaverse, Zee Group’s digital ambitions, Zeel-Sony merger, Yes Bank Dish TV issue and other matters.

    When asked about new trends such as metaverse, crypto and NFTs, Chandra said, “I call it Mayaverse, as the era of internet belongs to Mayaverse.” During the conversation, Chandra hinted that the group will be coming up with something new very soon – this time on the technology front. 

    He said, “we never started any business for money, we always tried to do something new by means of business.”

    He also revealed Zee group’s plans to add one billion users in the next three years. Zee Media’s digital platforms have 300 million active users and the group will focus on monetising digital content going forward.

    Channel’s performance 

    Talking about Zee Media’s performance, Chandra noted that 58 per cent of the viewers watching Zee Media’s international channel WION is a foreign audience. 

    He also stated that WION has more followers on YouTube than the BBC and plans to add another 500 million viewers in the next five years.

    Speaking about the corporate developments at Essel Group, Chandra said that it has reduced 92 per cent of debt at the promoter level and the rest of the debt will be cleared within one to two months. He also admitted that venturing into the infra business was a ‘mistake’. 

    The conflict between Dish TV-Yes Bank

    On the boardroom conflict between Dish TV and Yes Bank, he commented that the previous management at Yes Bank ‘did fraud with us’ and that many people in the media lack the right information regarding the matter between Yes Bank and Dish TV. Coming to the ongoing merger between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and Sony Pictures Networks India, he said the merger is moving in the right direction and after regulatory approvals, the merger will be completed.

    The media mogul is hopeful for a bounce-back with more ‘strength’ and ‘power’ and observed that the environment is quite positive in the country under PM Modi’s leadership. “We are continuously working on many fronts,” he said.

  • Zee Group expands across South India; launches four regional news channels

    Zee Group expands across South India; launches four regional news channels

    Mumbai: Expanding its footprint across South India, Zee Group on Tuesday announced the launch of four digital news channels – Zee Tamil News, Zee Kannada News, Zee Malayalam News and Zee Telugu News to cater to the tech-savvy young viewers in the southern market.

     “It is a great feat for us to enter the South Indian market with digital news channels that aren’t just selling debates. We see a gap in honest, unbiased, and extensive on-ground reporting in these markets, and hence these channels will cater to fulfilling that gap. We aim to be the most trustworthy news brand of these markets,” stated CEO of South channels Purushottam Vaishnava.

    According to the data cited by the company, the internet penetration of South India is much higher compared to the rest of India. The time spent watching videos per day has also increased by 60–70 per cent over 2018–20, where 85 per cent of content viewed is non-English and 30 per cent in languages other than English or Hindi. “With 68 per cent of the population consuming news through digital platforms, Zee plans to address the need for a voice which can focus on the real on-ground situations,” it said in a statement.

    Zee Media founder and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra said, “It is indeed a great pleasure for us that we are launching four digital news channels in South India. Helmed by Purushottam and very capable editors – Manjesh Gopal, Ravi, Sebi Stanley and Bharat Kumar – I believe that we will be one of the most trusted news sources and set new benchmarks in the news media. We will soon be launching a news channel in Kashmiri language too.”

    The channels which will fall under India Dotcom Private Ltd have also launched a marketing campaign with a focus on the digital platform along with radio and TV.

    Udaya Kumar, who was appointed as the sales head for the south digital channels said, “We have carefully curated programming that caters to all the needs and wants of an educated viewer. Our focus is not just politics but includes a plethora of other genres like crime scene investigation, political satire, lifestyle, health, etc. Looking forward to some great work with this dynamic team and contributing to the revenue growth across all four south Indic languages.”

    The channels – Zee Tamil News, Zee Kannada News, Zee Malayalam News, and Zee Telugu News – will be available on the respective websites as well as YouTube platforms, social media platforms such as Facebook, OTT streaming platforms like Zee5 and others along with news aggregators like Dailyhunt, etc, said the company.

  • Media tome throws light on the biz growth pre and post pandemic

    Media tome throws light on the biz growth pre and post pandemic

    Mumbai: The Indian media business is estimated to be a $19 billion industry in 2021 (EY estimates), said veteran business journalist Vanita Kohli-Khandekar. She observed that the media industry had doubled in the period between 2013 to 2019. But what’s remarkable is not only the change in size but also the composition of the industry.

    Khandekar was speaking at the launch of the latest edition of her book- ‘The Indian Media Business: Pandemic and After’ on Wednesday. The fifth edition of the book published by Sage Publications India was unveiled at a virtual event attended by noted industry leaders.

    To highlight the transformation that the industry has undergone in recent times, she opened the discussion with an intriguing question “What is a media company?”.

    Unlike in the past where media companies used to compete for consumers’ leisure time, today media consumption is no longer only about leisure and entertainment but has permeated every aspect of the consumers’ lives. “The pandemic imprisoned audiences in their homes and access to media via their smartphones, TVs and other devices were the only way they were connected to the world,” she said.

    In FY 2010, the top 10 media companies comprised Times Group (Rs 5000 crore), Zee Group (Rs 4,000 crore), Star India (Rs 3,500 crore), Airtel (Rs 2,900 crore), HT Media (Rs 1,500 crore), Sun (Rs 1,400 crore), Network18 (Rs 1,300 crore), Sony (Rs 1,300 crore), DB Corp (1,100 crore) and Jagran (Rs 900 crore). There isn’t a single digital media company in the top 10 list which is dominated entirely by linear broadcast media organisations.

    Fast forward to FY 2019 where the composition of the media landscape changed significantly. The top 10 companies were Zee Group (Rs 16,300 crore), Star India (Rs 13,500 crore), Times Group (Rs 10,000 crore), Google India (Rs 9,400 crore), Sony (Rs 6,300 crore), Tata Sky (Rs 6,200 crore), Network18 (Rs 5,100 crore), Airtel TV (Rs 4,100 crore), Sun Network (Rs 4,000 crore) and PVR Cinemas (Rs 3,100 crore).

    The pandemic reshuffled the top 10 companies once again but the composition remained largely unchanged. Disney-Star (Rs 14,350 crore), Zee Group (Rs 13,300 crore), Google India (Rs 13,000 crore), Times Group (Rs 10,000 crore), Sony (Rs 5,900 crore), Tata Sky (Rs 5,700 crore), Network18 (4,700 crore), Sun Network (Rs 3,800 crore), Airtel TV (Rs 3,100 crore) and Netflix (Rs 1,500 crore).

    Netflix breaking into the top 10 bracket in FY21 with only Rs 1,500 crore in revenues is indicative of how badly the pandemic impacted the industry on the whole. A leading cinema exhibition chain saw revenues drop from Rs 3,500 crores to effectively zero and a burn rate of Rs 100 crores a month in 2020. Khandekar observed that the opening of theatres and return of film exhibition business is a key indicator that the ecosystem has come back to health. Films are the Gangotri of the media business, she remarked.

    “A key trend during the pandemic was the explosion of audiences without the ability to monetise them,” said Khandekar. “Apart from digital media companies which saw a marginal increase in revenues, most media companies were not able to successfully monetise the growth in audiences during the pandemic.” According to her, Indian media companies have been successful at driving penetration of their business, however, post-pandemic they have realised the need to focus on effective monetisation.

    Khandekar observed that even though there is no import quota on entertainment in India, 90 per cent of the market is watching local content. “We don’t celebrate this industry enough,” she said, adding that the Indian media business is the highest tax-paying industry and could easily contribute five to seven per cent to the country’s GDP. Countries like the US and the UK nurture their media companies but in India, the TV broadcast ecosystem is caught in a regulatory mess and the entire industry is reeling from the pandemic. The media industry that employs over three million people is one of the best markers of India’s soft power,” she concluded.

    Some of the media industry leaders who attended the event included PVR Cinemas chairman and managing director Ajay Bijli, India Today Group vice-chairperson Kalli Purie, director of University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the study of journalism and professor of political communication Rasmus Kleis Nielsen and director of YouTube content partnerships at YouTube India Satya Raghavan.

  • Network18 digital onboards Rohit Chadda as group chief strategy officer

    Network18 digital onboards Rohit Chadda as group chief strategy officer

    Mumbai: Network18 has announced the appointment of Rohit Chadda as group chief strategy officer for its digital arm. He was previously associated with Zee Group as the CEO-digital publishing for over four years.

    In his new role, Rohit will drive important business & strategic projects, growth, new initiatives around product, content, audience & video across the network, and new business/product development for the digital business, the channel said in a statement.

    He will work closely with the leadership team to sharpen the strategy and deployment for scaling the business & operations and will report to Network18 digital president & CEO Puneet Singhvi, it added.

    An award-winning entrepreneur, Rohit has extensive experience across technology, e-commerce, fintech, OTT, and media & entertainment. He also co-founded two start-ups – Foodpanda and PayLo.

    Speaking on his appointment, Rohit said, “I am elated to be a part of Network18, a platform renowned to thrive in excellence. I am excited to join the remarkable team and execute on all the exciting upcoming initiatives. The future is here and untapped – I am looking forward to creating value for the network and its portfolio of companies.”

  • Teleshopping market sees growth ahead

    Teleshopping market sees growth ahead

    MUMBAI: Since the inception of television home shopping industry in India in the 90s, it has come a long way as compared to the time when the segment was associated with ‘magical’ products, impractical promises or dubbed English slots.

    Players have modified content t better engage channels and introduce products at rates lower than market prices. HomeShop18, Shop CJ, Naaptol and TVC Skyshop account for almost 80 per cent of the market.

    In 2015, actor Akshay Kumar and entrepreneur Raj Kundra also launched a home shopping channel, Best Deal TV, but in 2016 the company had temporarily suspended operations after seeing a drastic drop in the business after demonetisation. The cash-on-delivery business was negligible because of which the company was finding it difficult to meet internal expenses. Two big players merged this year – HomeShop18 and Shop CJ – showing how competitive the environment is getting.

    While one may think the end of TV home shopping in India is certain, there is Prathem Bazar a TV shopping channel which also has a digital presence. Being bullish about the growth of the segment Prathem Bazar MD Ashutosh Bajpai feels that the market is growing and is expecting to break even within one or two years. An international launch is also on the cards.

    Reports predict that teleshopping market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of around 13 per cent by 2023 in India, on account of increasing disposable income along with better discounts and offers in comparison to e-commerce websites. Moreover, expanding television penetration in rural areas and rising number of dedicated channels for teleshopping are further expected to aid the growth.

    Besides selling on TV and home websites, some channels are already thinking m-commerce. The new entrant Prathem Bazar also plans to foray into Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam space.

    A media professional said in a report that teleshopping has potential to grow even when e-commerce in the country is expanding by leaps and bounds. “Theoretically, one can argue that the rise in broadband penetration will challenge television commerce. But we have observed in mature markets like the US that both home-shopping and e-commerce have found their own space, complementing each other,” he said. 

    Zee Group was the first to have launched a home shopping TV channel in India in April 2004. Called Asian Sky Shop, the channel folded up a few years ago after the business ran into losses. According to reports in 2016, the company had announced the acquisition of two companies owned by Living Media India Ltd (also known as India Today Group) — Today Merchandise Pvt Ltd (TMPL) and Today Retail Network Pvt Ltd (TRNL) and with the acquisition, Zee was to relaunch Asian Sky Shop. The reason why Zee has the advantage over standalone home shopping broadcasters is that it doesn’t have to contend with high carriage fee.

    According to industry estimates, the size of the home-shopping industry in India is around Rs 5,000-6,000 crore. Prathem Bazar has invested Rs 25-30 crore in building up his own TV channel and online segment. The channel has a tough space to break into with existing players having solidified their bases.  

  • Adi, your DishTV virtual tech-assistant, joins today

    Adi, your DishTV virtual tech-assistant, joins today

    NEW DELHI: Zee Group’s Dish TV, which has sprung into action over the past few weeks to protect its status as Asia’s largest direct-to-home platform, has now launched an Advanced DishTV interface’ (ADI). ADI world’s first AI-enabled pay-tv chatbot to enhance customer experience and offer a user-friendly interface.

    The move comes even as the ministry of information and broadcasting is insisting on complaint redressal system following a Supreme Court judgment earlier this year.

    Built for redressal and service lifecycle management, ADI provides a virtual interface that acts as a one stop solution window to subscribers, and guides them instantly to address their queries. It is an Omni-channel interface with customer experience as a core tenet, strengthening DishTV’s position as an innovator in the DTH space. It can enable quick recharges and answer millions of customer queries across multiple channels instantly.

    It is designed to process user requests, powered by deep analytics and its artificial intelligence engine. It enhances customer service through personalized and immediate answers that are available 24×7 and are constantly evolving to become more relevant and accurate for the users. Users converse with ADI in a personal setting, just like they would with family/friends.

    According to Dish TV, it provides a landscape to move from personalization to individualization at massive scale, harnessing the power of big data.

    Dish TV group CEO Anil Dua said, “Relevance in the digital age requires connecting with customers across multiple channels while maintaining the information accuracy along with ease of interaction. With the launch of ‘ADI’, customers can get information on our products and services instantaneously and will be able to recharge, troubleshoot or order a connection on the go. ADI will also encourage those customers who may not be very comfortable navigating the traditional web space. With digital platforms gaining popularity across industries, ADI will enable us to reach out to a wide spectrum of customers, and serve them better with both speed and accuracy.”

    ADI appears as a pop-up feature on the website and introduces itself as “Adi, your DishTV virtual assistant.” One can initiate a conversation by simply entering a message that transforms into rich personalized experience, delivering real-time responses, timely and pertinent to one’s DishTV account. It gives solutions to problems concerning recharge offers, current balance, add-on service upgrades, or any other glitches like unsubscribed channel or lost signals or Smart Card related issues. All the subscriber needs is an 11-digit VC number or one’s registered mobile number, and the rest will be taken care of.”

    ADI is available on desktop and mobile platforms currently and would soon be available on other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It is a step towards true engagement with customers that goes beyond mere “clicks”, and helps them cut through the clutter to view offerings relevant to them. It also relieves the customers from the effort of calling the customer care or visiting the dealer stores for recharges.

  • Dish TV–D2H merger gets NCLT approval

    MUMBAI: Dish TV India has announced that the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the scheme of arrangement for merger between Videocon D2h Limited and Dish TV India.

    The company informed BSE that a hearing held on 27 July 2017 the NCLT approved the agreement between the two companies and their respective shareholders and creditors under the provisions of Sections 230-232 and other applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.

    The appointed date for the scheme is 1 October, 2017.

    On May 2017, the proposed merger of two DTH players, Zee group’s Dish TV and VideoconD2h received the approval of Competition Commission of India (CCI).  The merger was announced in November last year.  After merger, the new entity will be called Dish TV Videocon.  

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  • Zee group launches news channel Zee Hindustan

    MUMBAI: Another news channel has joined the 800-odd currently beaming into Indian homes. And it is coming courtesy the Subhash Chandra headed Zee group. Called Zee Hindustan, it was launched on 20 May, with an intent to “ bring to fore the voice of the common man, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.”

    Its motto: State makes the Nation. And it has been positioned as Nai Bharat ka Naya News channel.”

    While announcing the launch of Zee Hindustan, Esssel group chairman Subhash Chandra tweeted: “This was the day 91 years back when my great grandfather founded the firm, which is today’s Essel, It is a coincidence that the MOU with Richard also was signed 25 years back on this day to hire a satellite for the first private TV channel Zee.”

    Said Zee Media Corp Ltd executive director & CEO regional channels Jagdeesh Chandra: “In the present scenario, where other news channel from all the languages are busy discussing the national capital priorities, there will be one channel which will discuss the state’s news affairs which can influence the center. Why do states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Assam not set agendas in Delhi? The answer to these questions lie in zee Hindustan, because we believe that states make the nation. This picture will be the main focus of our special program ‘राजधानी से राजधानी तक’, which will be aired seven days a week at 7pm. Not just eight stories, but our special program will focus on 80 stories making it our agenda, Zee Hindustan will become voice of the nation. No TRP games. For this channel, every gram panchayat will be a TRP centre. We promise the country sacchhi khabar and acchhi khabar.”

    Zee Hindustan channel’s programing lineup includes ‘11 pm CM’s Corner’ – a show that will broadcast stories of states’ chief ninisters and the bureaucracy, The show is set to be broadcast five days a week, giving viewers the complete balance sheet of each state government’s progress.

    The Zee group runs a clutch of news channel under the Zee Media umbrella among which figure: Zee News, Zee Business, Zee Punjab, Haryana and Himachal, Zee 24 Taas, 24, Zee Madhya Pradesh , Chattisgarh, Zee Kalinga, Zee Rajasthan, Zee Marudhara, Zee Gantalu, and WION.

    Zee Hindustan can be watched on channel 528 on Tata Sky, 675 on Dish, 339 on Airtel Digital, as well as on DD Direct. The company is in the process of tying up its carriage deals with cable TV MSOs nationally.

  • Siti Networks’ CFO Sanjay Berry resigns after four months

    MUMBAI: Barely four months into the new role, Sanjay Berry has resigned from the position of the chief financial officer of Siti Networks. Siti Networks Ltd, a sister company of Zee group, today informed the BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange that Berry has resigned with effect from the close of business on 28 April, 2017.

    Siti Networks had appointed Berry in December 2016. Prior to the Siti role, Berry was working as the corporate financial controller with Bharti Enterprises. Berry has been handling finance function with expertise in financial management, compliance and internal controls.

    In his 25 years of work life, he had varied experience with computer sciences corporation, Bharti Airtel, Patni Computer Systems, HCL Technologies and Arthur Andersen & Associates.

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