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Tag: Zee TV

  • Zee Turner, Tata Sky spat reaches court

    Zee Turner, Tata Sky spat reaches court

    NEW DELHI: It has come a full circle for the Zee group. DTH service provider Tata Sky has dragged distribution company Zee Turner to court for acting pricey on giving its channels to the new entrant in the Indian DTH arena.

    The case filed some days back in a Delhi court by Tata Sky states that Zee Turner is setting “unreasonable” terms for negotiations for its bouquet of channels, which amounts to a breach of various directives issued by the sector regulator.

    The case is slated for a hearing today. However, court sources indicated that its unlikely arguments will take place in the first hearing.

    Tata Sky, which began its commercial operations few weeks back, is presently offering consumers 55-odd TV channels at a price that is more than the Subhash Chandra-promoted Dish TV, which is country’s first pay TV platform.

    Zee Turner is a 74:26 distribution joint venture between the Chandra-controlled Zee Telefilms and Time Warner company Turner International India.

    The genesis of the present face-off is lack of consensus on pricing of Zee Turner channels and Tata Sky’s insistence on select TV channels from the bouquet of 32 channels.

    While India’s second pay digital platform Tata Sky wants select Zee Turner channels for a reported sum of below Rs. 40 per subscriber, the latter is insisting all its 32 channels should be taken.

    As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, sources close to the negotiations said Zee Turner has conveyed that it’s ready to give all its channels to Tata Sky’s DTH platform for Rs. 74 per subscriber per month, which is 50 per cent of the price that cable operators pay for the Zee Turner bouquet.

    Bouquet 1 of Zee Turner comprises Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee News, Zee Studio, Zee Bengali, Zee Gujarati, Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi, Cartoon Network, Reality TV, CNBC, CNN, Zee Café, Zee Trendz, ETC, ETC Punjabi, Zee Jagran, Zee Smile, Zee Telgu and Zee Music.

    The second bouquet includes HBO, Pogo, Awaaz, VH1 and Zee Business. Zee Turner is soft bundling Zee Sports at a price benefit.

    The third bouquet, called Breakfree, consists of Zee Action, Zee Premier and Zee Classic, which air movies of different genre and are primarily available on Dish TV DTH platform.

    Zee Turner had earlier reasoned that its demand is based on a recent ruling of a disputes tribunal in Dish TV vs. Star case wherein Star was asked to make available its channel to Dish at Rs. 27 per subscriber, which is 50 per cent less than the price cable ops pay.

    Dish TV had to wait for over 18 months since launch to finally manage to get Star channels on its DTH platform.

    After having got powerful products like Star Plus, Dish TV has announced that it will not charge its consumers for some months anything extra for the Star channels, most of which are in the basic tier of 78-odd channels and can be had for Rs. 185 per month by a subscriber of Dish TV.

  • Zee TV associates with Sifymax for ‘Cinestars’ auditions

    Zee TV associates with Sifymax for ‘Cinestars’ auditions

    MUMBAI: Zee TV, which is targeting an October launch of its reality talent hunt property ‘Cinestars’, has associated with Sifymax for the on-ground auditions. The auditions will be held in 154 cities across India using the technology edge of Sify and its 3400 plus iWay cyber cafes.The channel has, meanwhile, kicked off its first phase of the auditions.

    Procedure of an audition: The participant will sit in front of the web camera at the iWay cyber cafe and record his / her talent stint, further to which the same will be uploaded on Sifymax.com. Prior to performing their respective stints, guidelines in the form of tutorials will be given to the participants in the form of audio-video content.

    Says Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra on the association, “Zee Cinestars is an all India contest and understandably the auditions requires a lot of hard work. But, with the help of Sifymax, we have simplified the whole process. The technology lessens the load and this helps us to channelise our resources to the other areas of the project.”

    As per the official release, Sify iWays will act as talent hubs for aspiring participants as it will make the audition process simple and comfortable for the contestants by allowing them to come to the iWays, showcase their talent, record and upload it on www.zeecinestar.sifymax.com.

    Mehra adds that, the auditions will conclude by the second week of September, after which the process of shortlisting will begin. “The shoot will begin by mid-September and we expect to launch the show by Diwali,” he says.

  • Zee TV International introduces Middle East band

    Zee TV International introduces Middle East band

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms International, the Middle East arm of Zee Telefilms, is expanding its programming package. As part of the initiative, the channel has announced the launch of a special Middle East band, christened Masti Band.

    The prime time segment of 8 pm to 10 pm will come under this new package. Reportedly, the Masti Band will offer entertainment programmes and special shows made on TV personalities.

    The programming package will combine family game shows, quiz programmes and music talent hunts shows.

  • Tata Sky and Zee Turner haggle on price

    Tata Sky and Zee Turner haggle on price

    NEW DELHI: Tata Sky’s talks with Zee Turner for its bouquet of channels have got stalled on the issue of price.

    While India’s second pay digital platform Tata Sky has evinced interest in the first two of the three bouquets of Zee Turner for Rs 42, the latter is insisting all its 29 channels should be taken.

    According to sources close to the negotiations, Zee Turner has conveyed that it’s ready to give all its channels to Tata Sky’s DTH platform for Rs 74 per subscriber, which is 50 per cent of the price that cable operators pay for the channels.

    Bouquet 1 of Zee Turner comprises Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee News, Zee Studio, Zee Bengali, Zee Gujarati, Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi, Cartoon Network, Reality TV, CNBC, CNN, Zee Café, Zee Trendz, ETC, ETC Punjabi, Zee Jagran, Zee Smile, Zee Telgu and Zee Music..

    The second bouquet includes HBO, Pogo, Awaaz, VH1 and Zee Business. Zee Turner is soft bundling Zee Sports at a price benefit.

    The third bouquet, called Breakfree, consists of Zee Action, Zee Premier and Zee Classic, which air movies of different genre and are primarily available on Dish TV DTH platform.

    Interestingly, Zee Turner wants to keep Zee Sports out of the negotiations with Tata Sky, saying a deal for the sports channel — holders of cricket rights for matches to be played by India on non-ICC recognised venues — could be done separately.

    According to the sources, Zee Turner has reasoned that its demand is based on a recent ruling of a disputes tribunal in Dish TV vs Star case wherein Star was asked to make available its channel to Dish at Rs 27 per subscriber, which is 50 per cent less than the price cable ops pay.

    Zee Turner has further said that in the Dish vs Star case, when Dish had wanted select channels of Star, the Hong Kong-based broadcaster was unwilling to accede to the proposal.

    Extending the same logic, Zee Turner has conveyed to Tata Sky that it would have to take all its channels.

    However, Tata Sky is only interested in the first two bouquets of Zee Turner for a price of Rs 42 per subscriber per month.

    On August 8, while announcing the commercial launch of Tata Sky service in 300 cities, company’s MD and CEO Vikram Kaushik had admitted that talks with Zee Turner had not been concluded.

    Amongst the 55-odd channels being offered by Tata Sky presently to its subscribers, Zee and Turner channels like Zee TV, Zee Sports, Cartoon Network and Pogo and some third party products like HBO, Reality TV, Awaaz and CNBC TV18 are conspicuous by their absence.

    Country’s first pay DTH platform, the Subhash Chandra-owned Dish TV, boasts of 1.25 million subscribers.

    Pubcaster’s DD Direct+ claims a subscriber base of 3.5 to 4 million for its subscription-free service of free to air channels.

  • Star offers to shake hands with Dish TV

    Star offers to shake hands with Dish TV

    NEW DELHI: Star and Dish TV move towards a consensus by shaking hands even as the launch of Tata Sky’s DTH service is imminent.

    A day before the Supreme Court is to hear a case on channel pricing, Star today delivered to Dish TV, country’s first pay DTH platform, the integrated receiver decoder boxes that would enable the DTH operator to access Star channels for redistribution purpose.

    Some formalities are yet to be completed, both the companies said.

    Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna added, “It might take a couple of days for us to start beaming the Star channels on the platform as the boxes need to be tested.”

    As per a directive of the disputes tribunal TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), Star has offered its channels to Dish TV at Rs 27 per subscriber a month. Dish would also not pay any minimum guarantee money to Star.

    A spokesperson for Star India said that in deference to TDSAT directive an offer was made to Dish TV despite the latter moving the Supreme Court on the tribunal order.

    Not clear at the moment is what would happen to a Supreme Court case, which was filed by Dish TV some time back. Dish had petitioned that instead of Rs 27, the Star channels should come to it cheaper as Star had offered its channels to Dish some years back at one-fourth the price paid by cable ops.

    The price of Rs 27 fixed by TDSAT for Star bouquet of channels is 50 per cent of Rs 54 that a cable operator presently pays.

    Dish TV sources said the Supreme Court case is likely to continue, but is unlikely to have much of a bearing on the present truce called by Dish and Star. The apex court will be hearing the Dish TV petition on 4 August.

    Dish TV has been waging a legal battle for over a year to get Star and Sony-Discovery channels on its platform. The Sony-Discovery One Alliance recently signed up with Dish TV.

    Meanwhile, Dish’s Khanna said that a price revision of the monthly subscription would be decided in a few days time. “In all probability, Star Plus and other popular channels would be part of Dish TV’s basic tier of service, which also includes other mass general entertainment channels like Zee TV, Sony and HBO.”

  • Tata-Sky approaches TDSAT against Zee over bouquet pricing

    Tata-Sky approaches TDSAT against Zee over bouquet pricing

    MUMBAI:There seems to be no end to the thrust and parry going on over the DTH airwaves. Close on the heels of Dish TV wresting a favourable decision against Star India, Tata Sky has moved the Telecom Disputes Settlement And Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) — against what it terms as Zee’s exhorbitatnt terms for providing its network channels to its still-in-the-pipeline DTH service.

    The petition by Tata Sky before the appellate tribunal makes Zee Turner Ltd, Zee Telefilms Ltd,Turner International India and Dish’s managing company ASC Enterprises LTD as party to the case.

    The Tata Sky petition alleges that the Zee Group has denied supply of Zee Turner bouquet of channels to the former’s yet-to-be-launched DTH service under reasonable terms.

    The petitioner has sought “to obtain appropriate direction for the signals of the channels,” alleging that respondent Zee Turner has quoted unreasonable terms for supply of its signals to Tata Sky.

    Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, a senior executive at Dish TV today refrained from commenting on the issue, saying, “We have yet not received any direction from TDSAT.”

    The disputes tribunal has given the respondents three days from the day they receive an official intimation to file its replies.The next date of hearing is 25 July 2006.

    As per regulatory norms, all content should be made available to all delivery platforms on a non-discriminatory basis.

    Last week, the tribunal had delivered a verdict laying down benchmark rate for channel prices for DTH platforms, while directing Star to make available its channels to Dish TV.

    Main respondent Zee Turner is a 74:26 distribution joint venture between Zee Telefilms and Time Warner company Turner International India.

    The cable pricing of the two Zee-Turner bouquets is Rs 83.65 plus service tax. Zee-Turner’s bouquet one comprises Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Movies, Zee English, CNN, Cartoon Network, CNBC, Trendz, Reality TV, Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi, Zee Bangla and Zee Gujarati and is priced at Rs 58.85 per subscriber/per month. The second bouquet carries HBO, Vh1, Pogo, Zee Business and Awaaz, which is available at Rs 25 per subscriber/per month.

    Tata Sky’s complaint before TDSAT is that Zee is seeking the same pricing terms for supplying its channels to its DTH service as is its cable rates.

    In what manner TDSAT responds to the Tata Sky complaint will be watched with close interest. After all, in its earlier order in favour of Dish TV, TDSAT, while directing the sector regulator to set a benchmark for channel prices for DTH services, said that Star channels should be made available to Dish TV at half the price at which they are available to cable operators.

    The tribunal’s reasoning in the earlier case was that DTH is an addressable system where loss of revenue down the value chain is negligible, if not zero.

  • Zee TV to defend turf with ‘Cinestar ki Khoj’, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge’

    Zee TV to defend turf with ‘Cinestar ki Khoj’, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge’

    MUMBAI: Zee TV is planning to launch the second season of its reality talent hunt show Zee Cinestar Ki Khoj in September-October 2006. The channel also has plans to bring back the 2006-2007 edition of its landmark property, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge, this year itself.

    “Zee TV will be launching the second edition of its reality talent hunt Cine Star Ki Khoj. The channel is targeting September-October for the launch of the new season. Zee will be taking the property to the market very soon. Also, inspired by the success of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, the channel will be bringing back the flagship property Challenge this year,” says a source close to Zee.

    When contacted for confirmation of the developments, Zee TV marketing head Tarun Mehra agreed that plans were on to bring back Cine Star Ki Khoj and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge. However, he was quick to add that no time frame had been fixed as yet on the launch.

    “We have plans to launch Cine Star Ki Khoj’s second season this year. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge may also come back in 2006. But, we are yet to finalise the details,” says Mehra.

    According to reliable sources, Zee has awarded the production duties of Cinestar Ki Khoj 2 to Optimystix Entertainment. The production house has earlier produced the Manoj Bajpai-anchored gameshow Kam Ya Zyaada for Zee TV. The winning couple of the contest will be awarded title roles in a movie.

    Race, the movie which stars the winners of the first season, is presently nearing completion, according to a Zee TV executive. Zee has associated with Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts for the film. Zee owns the world rights for the film while Mukta owns the India theatrical rights.

    THE STRATEGY
    Why would Zee TV exhaust all its key properties in the last quarter of the calendar year? Though settled comfortably in the second spot behind Star Plus in the Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) space, the channel is in no mood to rest on its laurels. Reason? Competitors are gearing up to launch some key prime time properties in order to set off a fight-back.

    Sony Entertainment Television will be launching the Indian version of the popular international reality show Big Brother in November this year. The upcoming Champions Trophy, to be telecast on Max and Sab, will also be there in the running for the prime time stakes as the matches will be played Day/Night.

    Star One, on the other hand, has already announced its intention to launch the second seasons of two of its most successful properties Naach Baliye and Remix. However, the immediate priority for Zee TV would be to beef up its 8 pm slot, which is presently occupied by the long running soap Tumhari Disha. The channel will wind up Tumhari Disha in the first half of August with a new prime time property Dulhan.

    The latest Tam data for C&S 4+, HSM, shows that, the rest of the Zee TV properties have already established in their respective time bands. As per the Tam figures provided by the channel for the period of 3 July to 10 July, Saath Phere has recorded a rating of 6.54 TVR in the Zee TV charts, followed by Kasamh Se at 6.11 TVR. In the 8:30 pm slot, the soap Jab Love Hua has recorded a rating of 2.4 TVR. Shabaash India, at 10:30 pm, has delivered a rating of 2.7 TVR, while the 10 pm show Johny Aala Re scored 2.4 TVR. The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’iL Champs is averaging at 2.7 TVR.

  • Zee Telefilms mulls an entry into China

    Zee Telefilms mulls an entry into China

    MUMBAI: Foreign media companies seem to have hit a wall when it comes to China. Star Group, for example, continues to bleed in that market despite pumping in big money for years. This, however, has not stopped global firms from eyeing a slice of the cake that a 1.3 billion population promises.

    Subhash Chandra is the latest media baron willing to throw his hat in the ring. Zee Telefilms Ltd. (ZTL) is planning to enter China, the toughest market to crack with its tight controls on foreign media.

    “We will be entering that market. We have not yet applied for the landing rights. It will take time and we expect it to happen sometime towards the end of this fiscal,” says Essel Group chief executive officer of corporate strategy Rajiv Garg.

    Though Zee plans to have a presence in China in the broadcasting space, it has not yet finalised on what content and channel it should set up to lure viewers. ZTL chairman Chandra recently said Zee would launch a dubbed movie channel in Russia.

    ZTL also plans to launch in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Indonesia to expand its international operations which account for almost one-fourth of the company’s revenues. Running businesses which have matured in the UK and US, Zee’s strategy is to launch dedicated channels in certain markets which it has identified. The company has stitched a deal with Malaysia’s multi-channel pay TV operator Astro to create a channel with Hindi content drawn from Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Music and Trendz for the Indonesian, Malaysian and Brunei audiences. For tapping youth audiences in the Arab region, Zee also has launched Zee Arabiya, a music and lifestyle channel.

    Global media companies like News Corp, Time Warner and Viacom see China as a fertile revenue market in the long term, though it is currently spoilt by heavy-handed regulation on foreign media.

  • ICC chief lambasts Zee TV’s racism allegations on cricket rights

    ICC chief lambasts Zee TV’s racism allegations on cricket rights

    The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive David Richards has labelled Zee TV’s allegations that the council was racist in its decision awarding telecast rights to its tournaments to the World Sports Group/News Corp consortoium as “ridiculous.”

    In an interview to air on ESPN’s Inside Cricket Richards has said that the racism allegation can be shown to be demonstrably untrue. “The ICC is made up of people from all over the world of cricket, from many different cultures, from many different backgrounds, but all with a common love for cricket,” he is believed to have said during the interview. “And there are constituencies within that grouping of member nations from all over the world. It’s just too easy and trite to say that this group did this or that group did something else. The decision taken by the group was, I say, on commercial grounds and it was in the best interests of the long term development of international cricket in all parts of the world.”

    Richards also pointed out that there was no indication of any rebel tour being started by Asian member nations of the ICC. “They are all responsible organisations and all are key members of the ICC. So if there were any suggestions of breakaway cricket teams or tours that would not be done through the official boards.”

  • Zee-Turner switches off OCN Network in Mangalore

    Zee-Turner switches off OCN Network in Mangalore

    MUMBAI: Zee Turner Limited, the distribution arm of Zee Telefilms Ltd and Turner International (I) Pvt. Ltd, has finally switched off its bouquets of 26 channels on OCN Network in Mangalore due to non payment of its huge outstanding to Zee Turner and non signing of fresh agreement after expiry of earlier one.

    Zee Turner has been in negotiations with OCN for past eight months to clear its outstanding and to sign a fresh subscription agreement declaring its accurate subscriber base as the old agreement. It was found that OCN had been serving many more subscribers and households as compared to the number of subscriber households declared to Zee Turner.

    The decision to switch off the operator came in wake of fall out of negotiations and the operator’s constant abstinence from clearing its outstanding and signing the requisite agreement.

    While rest of Mangalore on CCC and ICN’s network continues to enjoy the channels of Zee Turner, close to 50,000 subscribers of OCN Network are deprived of channels like CNN, Zee Cinema, Zee TV, HBO, Cartoon Network, Pogo due to default on OCN’s part.

    Zee Turner Ltd. CEO Arun Poddar said, “We are concerned about our viewers and still trying to negotiate with OCN and have kept all our channels of communication open. We have shared an extremely healthy relationship with OCN in past and are positive of resolving the issue in an amicable manner.”

    It is to be noted that as per the regulation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), if a cable operator drops a channel or bouquet of channels from his network, he is required to reduce the price of such channel/bouquet to be charged from his customers/households. The viewers are, therefore, entitled and may ask for reduction in price from their monthly cable bill if these channels are missing due to such switch off.