ITV

Tag: Zee Media Corporation

  • Zee Media refutes Jindal allegations

    Zee Media refutes Jindal allegations

    MUMBAI: Last week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had on a complaint filed by Congress member of parliament Naveen Jindal, asked the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) to take action against Zee Media Corporation.

     

    Jindal alleged that Zee News and Zee Business had been airing defamatory, false and misleading news items about him and his company Jindal Steel and Power. Now, the broadcaster has sent petitions to both, the ECI and the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) to restrain Jindal from defaming the channel through social media on a matter that is pending before the NBSA.

     

    The network claims that it is being targeted by Jindal through social media. Another petition was filed to highlight that a section of the media was publishing incorrect and irrelevant information on the matter against Zee Media.

     

    It is also in the process of filing its response to a notice that had been sent to it by the NBSA on request by the ECI for which it had been given a deadline of 14 days.

     

    The company spokesperson stated, “As a responsible media house, we will surely address the issue and will share all relevant information with the NBSA. We will also provide the association with all relevant evidence as and when required by it.” The channel says it had recently covered an incident of a heated conversation between Jindal and local people during his election campaign. 

     

    Zee Media and Naveen Jindal have been embroiled in a fight since 2012 when Jindal accused the channel of asking him for a bribe to not telecast a negative story about him. Recently, Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni also filed a case against Zee Media for airing defamatory remarks about his involvement in the IPL scam.

  • Madras HC restrains Zee Media, News Nation in defamation suit filed by MS Dhoni

    Madras HC restrains Zee Media, News Nation in defamation suit filed by MS Dhoni

    MUMBAI: It’s Rs 100 crore and we aren’t talking about any Bollywood movie.  It is about a defamation suit filed by Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni against two news channel networks Zee Media Corporation and News Nation and also against suspended IPS officer G Sampath Kumar.

     

    Dhoni has filed the suit in the Madras High Court claiming that the three parties had made highly defamatory, scandalous, libelous and malicious false reports about his involvement in the IPL betting scandal.

     

    According to a report in The Hindu, an interim order has been passed by justice S Tamilvanan restraining the two news networks from broadcasting any news linking Dhoni with the betting scam for a period of two weeks.

     

    The reports that were broadcast by the news networks revolved around IPL team Chennai Super Kings, of which Dhoni is the captain, and his alleged involvement in match fixing, which, the suit said, has devastated his reputation and image in the eyes of millions of fans all over the world.

     

    When contacted, Zee Media Corp CEO Alok Agrawal said, “We have done nothing wrong. The allegations are baseless. Our lawyers are working on it and we will be fighting the case till the end.”

     

    One the other hand, the one-year old News Nation’s CEO Shailesh Kumar said he is awaiting a copy of the court’s interim order and that the news broadcaster is yet to rope in a lawyer to defend itself.

     

    The Hindu report also said Dhoni claims the news reports were done with an intention to project him as an object of hate and ridicule.

     

    Dhoni has also claimed a total of Rs 100 crore as damages from the three defendants.

  • Q2-2014: ZMCL holds ground despite economic downturn

    BENGALURU: Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) unaudited results for Q2-2014 reveal that though advertising revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 59.92 crore showed a growth of 20.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 43.92 crore for Q2-2013, it kept pace with the Rs 59.9 crore for the immediate preceding quarter (Q1-2014). ZMCL’s advertising revenue in Q4-2013 was Rs 52.19 crore.

    “The economy may have sputtered a bit but it is expected to be on track soon. What is important is that we continue to base our strategy on a sound understanding of our consumers and provide them with relevant and unique content experiences in the news domain,” said ZMCL non executive chairman of the board Subash Chandra.

    Let us take a look at ZMCL’s other Q2-2014 figures

    Operating revenue for Q2-2014 grew by 18.5 per cent to Rs 83.02 crore from Rs 70.03 crore in Q2-2013 and by 6.9 per cent from the Rs 77.68 crore reported in Q1-2014 (immediate preceding quarter).

    ZMCL’s subscription revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 24.9 crore grew by 11.9 per cent y-o-y from the Rs 22.26 crore in Q2-2013, and by 18.6 per cent from the Rs 18.6 crore in Q1-2014. Revenue from Other Sales and Services for Q2-2014 at Rs 5.2 crore grew more than a third (35.1 per cent) as compared to the Rs 3.85 crore in Q2-2013 and by 37.6 per cent as compared to the Rs 3.78 crore in Q1-2014.

    Total expense at Rs 75.54 crore for Q2-2014 was 21.5 per cent more than the Rs 62.17 crore for Q2-2013 and 10.5 per cent more than the Rs 68.37 crore in Q1-2014.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

    ZMCL’s recorded a fall in PBT of (-7.8 per cent) to Rs 6.47 crore in Q2-2014 from Rs 7.02 crore in Q2-2013. However PBT of Rs 14.99 crore for the half year ended 30 September 2013 was higher by 35.8 per cent as compared to the PBT of Rs 11.04 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year. Q2-2014 EBITDA also fell by (-4.8 per cent) to Rs 74.8 crore from Rs 78.6 crore reported in Q2-2013. However, ZMCL says that its existing news channels grew their EBITDA by 25.2 per cent on YTD basis at Rs 30.83 crore improving their EBITDA margins from 18.6 per cent to 21 per cent.

    Added Chandra, “Our company has embarked to consolidate our news media presence by bringing together our television, print and internet content under a single umbrella. This will enable us to reach out to our consumers in seamless and anytime, anywhere mode. Our commitment to grow larger in size, impact and shareholder value remains as is and we continue to take steps towards the same.”

    ZMCL group CEO news cluster Bhaskar Das said, “We launched Zee Rajasthan Plus in Rajasthan in early July and will soon launch in other regional markets. Furthermore with sustained push for cable digitisation, we expect more and more of our viewers to get associated with us. New media, which has been another focus area for us, has continued to show strong growth numbers.”

    ZMCL whole time director Alok Agarwal said, “Our network wide initiative Bharat Bhagya Vidhata has received tremendous feedback and social media engagement from the viewers, thinkers and the political fraternity alike by reaching a sum total of over 100 million television viewers cumulatively and having over 11.5 million reach for #BBV for the campaign. In addition we continue to leverage our network synergies to create further operational efficiencies in gathering and packaging our content and at the same time grow our revenues by providing creative sales solutions to our clients.”