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Tag: Zeel

  • Around 80% of ZEE5’s revenue is attributed to India: Punit Goenka

    Around 80% of ZEE5’s revenue is attributed to India: Punit Goenka

    KOLKATA: ZEEL is working towards creating a digital dominance in the Indian media and entertainment market. Their plan has been on track as ZEE5 has significantly grown in the last one year.

    At the second leg of APOS2020, ZEEL MD & CEO Punit Goenka reported the last quarter’s financial results of ZEE5 for the first time since its launch. He mentioned that 80 per cent of ZEE5’s revenue is currently attributed to India, and the rest comes in from Asia.

    Goenka shared that the platform has not seen a lot of revenue coming in from the western world till now as ZEEL’s linear business is pre-dominantly still running there. Goenka thinks this part of the world could offer the next phase of growth for ZEE5.

    ZEEL will shut its linear business in the UK and Europe sometime around the end of this year and ZEE5 will carry the content instead. Later, the move will be repeated in the US and other developed markets. Given the Indian diasporas demand for content, it is presumable that ZEE5 will certainly see fair traction in traffic.

    However, the plan is not similar in APAC, MEA, and Africa due to different market dynamics. As TV and digital co-exist in these markets yet, ZEEL is not planning complete digital migration immediately. But, Singapore and Hong Kong exceptionally provide an opportunity for such migration although the timing is not decided yet.

    “We have to understand ZEE5 will be played out in the Indian context very differently compared to the developed world. In India, we are still a 97 per cent single TV household market. Therefore, the consumption of television still remains prime. What happens in the digital world or on ZEE5 is that we get consumption in individual capacity which is private consumption. We don’t have enough penetration of alternate screens like PCs or laptops that you see around the world which can replace television,” he states.

    “In India, the second screen is usually a mobile phone. You can never replace the TV experience on the phone. Therefore, the consumption of ZEE5 while at home will be replacing television for all people who are either not TV consumers or have moved out of television because of the sheer kind of content. I look at ZEE5 or digital content consumption as an incremental consumption of content. It is not TV versus digital,” he further opines.

    ZEE5’s advertising revenue has been impacted in the second quarter of the calendar year as well due to the unprecedented situation as it largely depends on television content. But like the linear business, Goenka is confident that ZEE5 will see a resurgence in advertising from the second or third quarter onwards as it comes out of the Covid2019 situation.

    “The biggest thing I had said as a part of the agenda last year was to take ZEE5 ahead and build ZEE5. I put a five-year horizon where it could be as much as 30 per cent of the total business of the company. The business of the company is growing at healthy 12-13 per cent on a CAGR over five year period. That would mean, even on today’s context, ZEE5 revenue could potentially go up by 4x or 5x in the next four years,” Goenka puts it as. 

  • ZEEL to launch new ‘Cinema2home’ service on 2 October

    ZEEL to launch new ‘Cinema2home’ service on 2 October

    KOLKATA: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently released the guidelines for unlock 4.0. While as a part of the guidelines cinema halls will continue to remain shut, leading players are looking at direct premieres. Jumping on the bandwagon, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE) has announced the launch of its ‘Cinema2home’ service ‘Zee Plex’. It is scheduled for launch on 2 October. With this new offering, consumers will now be able to watch their favourite new blockbuster releases in the comfort of their homes, along with their entire family at an attractive (per film) price point.

    The new C2H service from the network is for both television and digital platforms. Along with convenience for consumers, this new movie distribution model will enhance the overall commercial ecosystem for the film producers, enabling them to present their creative work, to a wider range of audiences on established entertainment platforms.

    “We are very excited to bring this new offering to all the movie buffs across India and around the globe. While we all love to catch the latest movies at the nearest theatres, we sensed the need for a solution like Zee Plex, which gives the consumers flexibility and convenience, to catch their favourite films in the comfort of their homes, along with friends and family. We have received great interest from producers and are looking forward to release a strong slate of blockbusters across languages,” Zee Studios CEO Shariq Patel said.

    With new releases every month, Zee Plex aims to bring the theatres right to the consumers’ homes, offering them a quality family viewing experience at an attractive price-point. ZEE has partnered with leading television distribution platforms in India and has also established strategic alliances with distribution partners in the international markets. Zee Plex as a C2H service will also be available on ZEE5 globally.

  • How Zee re-oriented its international strategy in FY2019-20

    How Zee re-oriented its international strategy in FY2019-20

    NEW DELHI: With the world grappling with a slowdown and a potential recession, companies have been tinkering around with their domestic and international strategies. India’s leading broadcaster Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zeel)- which had been grappling with its own ownership issues –  is no different. Even as it has realigning its domestic business to build its digital offerings and some niche television channels, it has been doing the clipping some services in some markets, while adding some in others internationally. 

    Recognised as one of the most international of India’s TV networks, Zeel has been serving content in 19 languages, including nine foreign ones, through its channels which reach more than 170 countries.

    It follows a two-pronged strategy for internationally– reaching the Indian and south Asian diaspora with channels in Indian languages and serving the non-Indian audience in their native languages, as it
    says in its annual report for FY 20.

    The change is mostly perceptible in Europe. Three channels were shut down in the UK in 2019-20, which is now a primarily an FTA market for south Asian networks. Zee One, a network channel – which it tomtommed two years ago – was also shut down in Germany in May 2020.

    The network has strengthened its distribution reach in the US with a multiscreen platform presence across smart TVs, mobile, and set top box devices. It signed new distribution deals in Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad and organized the first-ever Indian Film Festival at the Embassy of India in Mexico City.

    During the year, Zeel also worked towards increasing the distribution reach of its channels in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. A total of eight productions were executed in the year of which three were in Tamil.

    In Africa, the distribution reach of Zee Magic was expanded on new platforms (on digital entertainment platforms StarTimes and Starsat) and Zee Alem was introduced in the Ethiopian market in June 2020. This channel is in Amharic language.

    Zeel was impacted in the middle east and north Africa (MENA) region owing to the shutting down of the south Asian language Pehla platform from OSN, one of the largest DTH operators, in the region. However, the network expanded its reach in the UAE and Qatar through the  launch of new channels on existing platforms and three local Arabic series productions in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon based on stories that were picked from the Zee format library.

  • Shyamala Venkatachalam joins Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd as chief legal officer

    Shyamala Venkatachalam joins Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd as chief legal officer

    MUMBAI: Shyamala Venkatachalam has been appointed as the chief legal officer of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL). She started her career as legal and corporate affairs professional at Dynamatic Technologies which designs and builds highly engineered products for automotive, aerospace, hydraulic and security applications in Europe and India.

    After spending close to eight years there, she handled a wide range of issues related to domestic and international contracts, intellectual property, foreign collaborations, banking finance, indirect and direct taxation. 

    With over 15 years in the media industry, Venkatachalam was associated with several coveted brands like Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Sony Pictures Network, Discovery Communications and, Star India Private Ltd, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. She joined Star India in 2014 as executive vice president head business counsel.

    After her stint at Star India, she founded ‘The REMEDIATION Company’. Throughout her career, she continued to manage the legal, regulatory and corporate affairs in the television media and moved up to a senior leadership role over the years.

     Venkatachalam has also authored several media-related research papers and a book titled "Remediation – Digital Transformation of Television.”

  • ZEEL reports higher subscription and OTT rights revenues for first quarter

    ZEEL reports higher subscription and OTT rights revenues for first quarter

    BENGALURU: Subhash Chandra’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported a profitable quarter, albeit with steep declines in top-line and bottom-line numbers for the quarter ended 30 June 2020 (Q1 20210, quarter or period under review, COVID2019 quarter) as compared to the corresponding year-ago quarter Q1 2020. A number of Indian media and entertainment companies have reported a loss for COVID2019 quarter. Among other silver linings is growth in subscription revenue and growth in other sales and services which includes the sale of rights of movies to OTT platform. These numbers increased y-o-y by 5 per cent and 30.2 per cent respectively.

    Zeel reported 34.7 per cent lower y-o-y operating revenue at Rs 1,312.03 crore for Q1 2021 as compared to Rs 2,008.12 crore in Q1 2020. Total income (Operating revenue plus other income) fell 32.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1,338.41 crore from Rs 2,112.03 crore in Q1 2020.

    Ad revenue fell 59.5 per cent y-o-y in Q1 2021 to Rs 421.06 crore from Rs 1,186.71 crore in Q1 2020. Subscription revenue and other sales and service revenue increased y-o-y during the period under review as mentioned above. The company reported Rs 744.34 crore and Rs 708.77 crore as subscription revenue and Rs 146.63 crore and Rs 112.64 crore towards other sales and services for Q1 2021 and Q1 2020 respectively.  Zeel says in an investor presentation that subscription revenue increase was led primarily by increase in its OTT platform ZEE5 subscription revenue.

    Zeel says that international Ad revenue was Rs 37.1 crore, international subscription revenue was Rs 81.8 crore and other sales and services revenue was Rs 15 crore.

    Zeel reported profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 29.28 crore for COVID2019 quarter, which was just about one-eighteenth (declined 94.5 per cent) of the PAT of Rs 529.76 crore for Q1 2020. Operating profit (EBIDTA) for Q1 2021 was Rs 219.93 crore (16.8 per cent of operating revenue), or about one third (down 66.7 per cent) of Rs 659.75 crore (32.9 per cent of operating revenue) for Q1 2020.

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by Zeel for Q1 2021

    Total expenditure for Q1 2021 was Rs 1,280.80 crore which was 6.5 per cent lower y-o-y than the Rs 1,369.99 crore in Q1 2020. Operational costs in Q1 2021 were 15.7 per cent lower y-o-y at Rs 657.79 crore than the Rs 780.02 crore in Q1 2020. Employee benefits expense in Q1 2021 at Rs 200.12 crore was almost flat (fell 0.1 per cent) y-o-y as compared to Rs 200.33 crore in Q1 2020.

    Financial costs were less than a fourth (declined 78 per cent) y-o-y during the quarter under review at Rs 4.52 crore as compared to Rs 20.51 crore in Q1 2020. The company reported a fair value loss of Rs 112,33 crore in Q1 2021 as compared to a fair value gain of Rs 67.88 crore for Q1 2020 for its investments in overseas mutual funds. Advertisement and publicity expenses during the period under review at Rs 111.09 crore were 43.2 per cent lower y-o-y than the Rs 195.46 crore in Q1 2020. Other expenses in Q1 2021 at Rs 123.10 crore were 28.7 per cent lower than the Rs 172.56 crore in Q1 2020.

  • ZEEL’s Punit Goenka expects advertising growth to be back in H2, moderate sub growth for FY 21

    ZEEL’s Punit Goenka expects advertising growth to be back in H2, moderate sub growth for FY 21

    KOLKATA: The unprecedented Covid2019 crisis has had a major impact on media and entertainment business, the leading player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) reported a revenue decline of 34.7 per cent YoY in the first quarter (Q1) of the financial year (FY) 21, led by the sharp decline in ad revenues. As the economy has started showing signs of slow recovery, ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka expect the growth of the advertising to be back in the second half of the year.

    “On the advertising side, our outlook is quite positive. We do expect the growth to be back in the second half of the year. We are targeting growth from the third quarter itself. We have factored in IPL into the same number. I don’t want to comment on what IPL is going to do, what is the industry going to do. It’s a very normal feature now,” Goenka stated in an investors call after declaring Q1 results.

    The company executives stated that the recovery has already begun and the advertisers are coming back as consumer spending has started again. ZEEL is seeing improvement in ad revenue on a month-on-month basis. 

    Goenka also mentioned that FMCG is the largest sector of advertisement that ZEEL gets. Hence, this sector is the first one to start moving for the broadcaster to have any semblance of growth coming back. 

    “If we look at the initial days, almost all discretionary companies completely stopped advertising and advertising was primarily dominated by FMCGs in the month of April. So, as things have progressed, FMCGs have been scaling up their investments. On top of that, we are seeing discretionary categories like Auto, Handset all are coming back. But primarily, it is FMCG where the rebound is strong. As festive seasons kicks in we will expect other categories like telecom, consumer durables, e-commerce to scale up their investment. And on the basis of that, we are projecting that we will see acceleration starting September,” ZEEL corporate strategy and investor relations head Bijal Shah said.

    ZEEL does not predict any major enhancement in CAPEX for the FY. Although it will be better positioned to guide the EBIDTA margin at the end of Q2 given the persisting uncertainties, it emphasizes that there will be an improvement compared to Q1. ZEEL expects the margin to improve sequentially every quarter, gradually inching back to 30 per cent. If everything is normal, it expects the margin to be at 30 per cent or above at FY 22. 

    The broadcaster will go back to its normal run rate on content cost in q2 itself because all channels have started going back to normal production level which was before pre-COVID. However, the content cost-revenue ratio may go up for this FY given the drop in advertising revenue. 

    “We have been really working on collections. While the receivables went up last year, we will see our receivables coming up as things settle down. In the coming quarters of FY 21, our receivables should be in line with what there were in earlier years,” ZEEL CFO Rohit Gupta said.

    “ In terms of domestic subscription revenue, we have factored in several price increases in channels and bouquets. Since a stay has been put on NTO 2.0, we have not been able to take those hikes. We do expect the domestic subscription growth will be moderated for the current year. NTO 2.0, whenever implemented, will have very short term impact as we do believe our content has the ability for consumption pull. Our ZEE5 subscription growth will also aid the growth,” Goenka commented. 

  • Subhash Chandra named chairman emeritus of ZEEL

    Subhash Chandra named chairman emeritus of ZEEL

    NEW DELHI:  Zee Entertainment Limited (ZEEL) named Subhash Chandra as Chairman Emeritus, the appointment will be effective from August 19, 2020. R Gopalan has been appointed as Chairman of the Board. This decision was made in a recent board meeting.

    "Shri. Subhash Chandra, vide his letter dated August 18, 2020 has tendered his resignation, as the Non-Executive Director of the Company, which was reluctantly accepted by the Board of Directors. In the mentioned letter of resignation, Shri. Chandra expressed a great sense of satisfaction, having witnessed a Company which he founded 27 years ago, emerge into a global media & entertainment powerhouse. He also expressed his passion as an entrepreneur, to consistently work towards creating a better tomorrow and mentioned about his undivided attention needed for the same," said the company.

    The statement read, “Referred as the 'Father of Indian Television', Shri. Chandra's pioneering vision has contributed immensely to the Company and the Industry at large, creating millions of jobs across the Nation. For his contributions to the Industry, Shri. Chandra was awarded the 2011 International Emmy Directorate Award at the 39th International Emmy Awards in New York. With this, he became the first Indian ever to receive a Directorate Award recognizing excellence in media outside the United States. In recognition of the fact that Shri. Chandra founded the Company and considering his unmatched contributions, as a mark of respect, the Board requested him to act as 'Chairman Emeritus' with effect from August 19, 2020 and the same was accepted by Shri. Chandra. In this advisory role, his rich experience and farsightedness will help the Company immensely and his services, guidance and mentorship will be availed from time to time. This position will not carry any remuneration.”

    The company has also appointed R Gopalan as chairman of the board. The statement read, “Mr. R. Gopalan was appointed as an Additional Director in the category of Independent Director on November 25.2019. Mr. R Gopalan, who has done Master of Public Administration & Management from Harvard University, MA in Economics from Boston University and Bachelor's in Chemistry from Madras University, has a rich experience in economic and financial administration of the country with long stints in Ministry of Commerce and Finance Ministry, and in Manufacturing and Services Sectors. He has been appointed as the 'Chairman of the Board' with immediate effect."

    As an officer of Indian Administrative Services (lAS), has Gopalan has held various responsible positions including inter alia, as Member of Public Enterprises Selection Board, Secretary Dept of Economic affairs, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, CMD Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation, CMD Taminadu Newsprints and Papers Ltd, MD Tidel Parks Ltd, MD Tamilnadu Agro Industries Corporation Ltd, Director Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals etc.

    “During his career spanning 36 years, Gopalan gained rich experience in establishing and managing a Venture Capital Fund; Infrastructure financing, Managing Financial Institutions, Creating Institutions & Corporates, leading India negotiation team in WTO, formulating policy(ies) etc,” read the statement. 

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  • Lower ad revenue and exceptional items pull down Zeel bottom-line for Q4, FY 2020

    Lower ad revenue and exceptional items pull down Zeel bottom-line for Q4, FY 2020

    BENGALURU: Subhash Chandra’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) reported 2.5 percent growth in consolidated operating revenue for the year ended 31 March 2020 (FY 2020, year under review) as compared to the previous year (FY 2019). For the quarter ended 31 March 2020 (Q4 2020, quarter under review) Zeel consolidated operating revenue declined 4.8 percent as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter Q4 2019. EBITDA (operating profit) and PAT (Profit after tax) for the year under review declined 66.5 percent and 36.2 percent respectively as compared to FY 2019. Consolidated PAT for FY 2020 was Rs 524.59 crore and for FY 2019 it was Rs 1,567.34 crore. Consolidated operating EBITDA for FY 2020 was Rs 1,634.57 crore ((20.1 percent of operating revenue) and for FY 2019 it was Rs 2,563.94 crore (32.3 percent of operating revenue).

    The company reported operating loss (negative consolidated operating EBITDA) of Rs 283.86 crore and consolidated loss after tax of Rs 765.82 crore for Q4 2020. Poor macroeconomic environment, conversion of two FTA channels into pay in March 2019, and market share loss in certain markets drove the decline in ad revenues said the company in its FY 2020 and Q4 2020 earnings release. The lockdown in March 2020 further impacted revenues, it added.

    Bottomline numbers for the year and quarter under review were also lower on account of 47.7 percent higher operating costs in Q4 2020 and 24.5 percent higher in FY 2020. (Operating costs include programming costs). The company said in the earnings release that underlying cost increase led by higher movie amortisation, new channels and investments in its OTT platform ZEES. The reported operating cost included one-time accelerated amortisation of higher inventory of Rs. 259.80 crore.

    Further, Zeel’s administration costs included Include a one-time provision of Rs. 343.30 crore for balances related to ad, subscription and other assets where recovery has become doubtful on account of COVID-19 led uncertainty. Also for FY 2020, exceptional items included goodwill write off of Rs. 113.70 crore pertaining to digital publishing business and provision of Rs. 170.60 crore relating to Inter Corporate Deposits (ICD). Another factor that impacted Zeel’s bottom-line for FY 2020 was  Rs. 383.50 crore loss in overseas investments in accordance with IND-AS 113 to, reflect the movement in fair value of these investments as on 31 March 2020.  

    However, these factors were partly offset by 41 percent growth in domestic business in Q4 2020, driven by the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) new tariff order (NTO) and growth in ZEE5's subscription revenues revealed Zeel. Domestic subscription revenues grew by 33 percent in FY 2020 as compared to FY 2020 driven by improved monetization of viewership post NTO implementation and ramp-up of ZEE5's subscriber base.

    Zeel’s ad revenue in Q4 2020 declined 14.7 percent to Rs 1,038.94 crore from Rs 1,217.49 crore in Q4 2019. Ad revenue for FY 2020 fell 7.1 percent to Rs 4,681.13 crore from Rs 5,036.66 crore in FY 2019. Subscription revenue in Q4 2020 increased 31.2 percent to Rs 741.36 crore from Rs 564.27 crore in Q4 2019. Subscription revenue in FY 2020 grew 25 percent to Rs 2,887.29 crore from Rs Rs 2,310.54 crore in FY 2019.

    Let us look at the numbers reported by Zeel

    Consolidated operating revenues for FY 2020, FY 2019, Q4 2020 and Q4 2019 were Rs 8,129.86 crore, Rs 7,933.90 crore, 1,951.08 crore and Rs 2,019.27 crore respectively. Consolidated total incomes (Operating revenue plus other income) for the same periods were Rs 8,413.50 crore, 8,185.35 crore, Rs 2,076.06 crore and Rs 1,991.76 crore respectively.

    Consolidated total expenses in Q4 2020 increased 66.5 percent to Rs 2,677.77 crore from Rs 1,612.60 crore in Q4 2019. Consolidated total expenses in FY 2020 increased 25.1 percent to Rs 7,109.70 crore from Rs 5,731.48 crore in FY 2019. Operating cost in Q4 2020 at Rs 1,304.62 crore was 53.9 percent more that the Rs 883.32 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. Employee benefits expense (EBE) in Q4 2020 declined 22.7 percent to Rs 160.39 crore from Rs 201.46 crore in Q4 2019. EBE in FY 2020 increased 7.7 percent to Rs 780.51 crore from Rs 724.94 crore.

    Advertisement and publicity expenses (ad expenses) in Q4 2020 were 4.6 percent lower at Rs 184.12 crore as compared to Rs 193.01 crore in Q4 2019. Ad expenses in FY 2020 at Rs 695.60 crore were almost flat (declined 0.5 percent) as compared to Rs 699.27 crore in FY 2019. Other expenses in Q4 2020 more than tripled (up 238.3 percent) to Rs 585.81 crore as compared to Rs 173.17 crore in Q4 2019. Other expenses in FY 2020 increased 36.9 percent to Rs 1,190.49 crore from Rs 869.96 crore in FY 2020.

  • Bombay HC restraints 2 TV channels from broadcasting Zeel-owned films

    Bombay HC restraints 2 TV channels from broadcasting Zeel-owned films

    KOLKATA: In the month of July 2020, media giant, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) moved the Bombay high court to restrain television channels Maha Movie and Manoranjan TV from broadcasting its films namely Jung (1996) and Kartavya (1979) without obtaining a license from ZEEL for the same. The court passed an order asking them to suspend future broadcasting of the movies in any form or through any medium.

    Maha Movie is a television channel owned by Teleone Consumer Products Pvt Ltd and Manoranjan TV is a television channel owned by Creative Channel Advertising and Marketing Pvt Ltd.

    The matter was heard by justice KR Shriram on 16 July 2020 where ZEEL submitted that in the end of June 2020, it learnt that the Teleone Consumer Products Pvt Ltd and Creative Channel Advertising and Marketing Pvt Ltd were broadcasting both the films on their respective television channels without authorisation from ZEEL. Upon collecting data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), ZEEL learnt that Jung has been broadcasted thirty-seven times and Kartavya thirty-two times on Maha Movie and Jung has been broadcasted forty-two times and Kartavya nine times on Manoranjan TV till 2 July 2020.

    The court held that unauthorised broadcast/exploitation of the suit films on the said TV channels is a violation of the copyright vested in ZEEL. It also added that it was restraining the channels from creating, alienating and/or transferring any rights in Jung to a third party.

    By and under a Film Assignment Agreement executed between Soham Rockstar Entertainment and Zeel, the latter acquired exclusive linear rights, on-demand rights, local cable distribution rights, catch up TV rights, syndication rights, editing rights, promotion rights, air borne rights,

    surface transport rights, commercial establishment rights, dubbing rights, subtitling rights, Doordarshan rights, home video rights, subtitling rights in all languages of the world including Indian languages, and non-exclusive performance rights, merchandising rights, dubbing rights and clip rights in a total of sixty-four films, including the Jung and Kartavya, for a term of 10 years commencing from 19 July 2017 in respect of linear rights, home video rights, local cable distribution rights, subtitling and dubbing rights for Jung; 1st October 2016 in respect of on-demand rights for Jung and Kartavya; 15th September 2016 in respect of home video rights and

    local cable distribution rights for Kartavya, for the entire world, including India and overseas territories.

  • Zeel leaps into 4.0 mode with 5 ‘G’s; Punit Goenka reaffirms he is here to stay & lead

    Zeel leaps into 4.0 mode with 5 ‘G’s; Punit Goenka reaffirms he is here to stay & lead

    KOLKATA: India is one of the most promising markets for pay TV and one of those few markets where the business is still growing at a higher rate compared to streaming. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), the leading force for three decades in the industry, is also the pioneer of this burgeoning business in the country. However, the network’s journey has not been rosy always. After facing strong financial headwinds in the business in the last 18 months, Zeel is ready to take the next leap with 5 ‘G’s through its vision of ZEE 4.0.

    Governance, granularity, growth, goodwill and gusto are the five pillars of ZEE 4.0. Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka has laid out the roadmap for its new journey while clarifying it he is here to stay and lead the transformation. 

    Under an all-new reconstituted board,  the focus going forward will be to build a process-oriented structure for the future along with achieving the highest levels of automation with zero manual intervention. Goenka also cleared the air by stating that the questions raised on some of its decisions taken earlier have been answered. Moreover, he informed that an independent review commissioned by the board has not found anything adverse to report. Zeel will also be releasing the findings of this review, to maintain the utmost levels of transparency. Considerably, the board was reconstituted last year after media baron Subhash Chandra resigned from his position of chairman.

    In a letter addressing to shareholders, Goenka assured that a transparent approach while reporting will be an important area of focus in the new phase of Zeel. The company will ensure that every single aspect including segmental reporting across businesses, consistent reporting on business KPIs, or regular communication pertaining to steps undertaken on ESG and CSR related activities will be informed properly. 

    “ZEE’s constant endeavour to stay ahead of the industry performance will always be a guiding factor in all our future initiatives. We will continue to build our business with speed, responsiveness and decisiveness. Apart from constantly reinventing our existing business models, the focus will be to maximise our core, expand into adjacent spaces and explore new areas of business. With an undeterred focus on growth and profitability, our aim would be to constantly enhance shareholder value,” Goenka stated in the letter.

    Since the time Zeel promoters announced stake sell to repay debt, number of speculations and rumours floated in the market about acquisitions and mergers. Even a few days ago, a rumour made the rounds about a large corporate of India acquiring Zeel. Hence, Goenka reaffirmed that he is here to stay and will remain committed towards the organisation. “I have taken this up as a challenge to restore the goodwill; not just for me, not just for my family, but for the entire team at ZEE,” he stated.

    “I am very proud of the professional leadership team at ZEE. Our entrepreneurial spirit, rich expertise in content creation and the unique ability to gauge the pulse of our consumers, have been instrumental to our success. The zeal, passion and commitment which the team brings to the table, gives me a deep sense of pride and I assure you that this will only grow with greater intensity,” he added.

    The proud son of media mogul Chandra has reminded that it was not possible to create such a large media conglomerate without his father's visionary approach.