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Tag: Zeel

  • Subhash Chandra’s Living Ent. to launch 5 channels; eyes Rs 1000 crore revenue in 4 years

    Subhash Chandra’s Living Ent. to launch 5 channels; eyes Rs 1000 crore revenue in 4 years

    MUMBAI: Essel Group’s Living Entertainment is looking at launching five new channels in the Indian market.

     

    The first channel to go on air will be an international food and lifestyle channel christened Living Foodz. Hitting Indian airwaves on 11 September, 2015, this foodtainment channel will have dual feed in Hindi and English.

     

    Additionally, the group also plans to launch Zee Living in India, which is already an established channel in the US. Apart from this, channels that will be launched under the Living Entertainment’s umbrella are: Living Rootz, which will concentrate on the rich civilization of the country, Living Homez focusing on home décor and Living Travelz, which will emphasise on the traveling aspect. The launch dates of these four channels have not yet been decided. 

     

    What’s more, the Living network, which has generated revenues of Rs 80 crore from global operations, is eyeing global revenue of Rs 1000 crore in the next four years.

     

    “In the next six months, we will add Rs 30 crore from India operations, which will take our business to around Rs  110 – 115 crore. In next four years, Living network will reach the Rs 1000 crore mark,” informed Zeel and Essel Group chairman Dr Subhash Chandra.

     

    According to him, 12 – 13 per cent of the global television viewership comes from the lifestyle category, while in terms of revenue generation the percentile goes up to 18 to 20 per cent, hence offering a huge space to explore.

     

    “This is yet another endeavour from our group to bring the world closer through entertainment. Living is all about global mindsets and experiences. This is also in line with our group philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – The world is my family. Our group has always believed in creating not just great content but building genres and brands that are milestones,” he added.

     

    According to Dr Chandra, the American market, where Living network’s Zee Living has already established itself, is the most closed economy. “I have no hesitation in saying that, though people say US is the father of market economy, it’s the most closed economy I have ever seen in my life. We had to tussle hard to get distribution and even today out of 110 million homes, we managed to reach only 30 million homes,” he asserted.

     

    Zeel MD & CEO Punit Goenka added, “With Living, we intend to make global content for global audiences. This will be for the first time ever  that original content from India will be available to audiences across the globe. We are very proud to present this new form of entertainment to our audiences.”

     

    Drawing light to the business aspiration of the first channel to be launched from the bouquet, Goenka said, “Living Foodz will be a profitable from year one. Given the quality and content we have, I am sure of the fact that Living Foodz will go a long way.”

     

    Living Foodz will specialise in exploring the evolving social status of food: moving out of the confines of the conventional kitchen into a world of entertainment and adventure with food. Having food at its core, Living Foodz will explore different perspectives towards food and the way it touches people – from lifestyle, travel, wellness to food infotainment and reality.

     

    “Living is our endeavour to showcase audiences with great lifestyle content. Growth of digitisation is leading to fragmentation of audiences, thereby creating an opportunity for differentiated and genre specific content. Moreover, increasing digital households are giving rise to increased audience expectations and demand for more diverse viewing opportunities. Under this scenario we are providing Living Foodz to people who love exploring and knowing more about food,” opined Zee Living – India & APAC CEO Piyush Sharma. 

     

    Sharma further informed that the network will launch an app in six months’ time as well as a website in the next two months. “The channel will have 100 per cent original content,” he added.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Living Foodz business head Amit Nair said, “We will have 80 per cent of Indian content, while 20 per cent will be English. The entire programming will be in-house. We have a very good in-house team who will handle that part.”

     

    In terms of marketing, the channel will emphasize more on digital platforms while there will be a 360 degree presence.

     

    For the Indian market, Living Foodz will be the international food & lifestyle channel that will have a universal feel and will appeal to new age groups in digital households. The core audience set will comprise the well travelled and connected people with high interest level of food. 

     

    The launch of Living Foodz will also mean curtains down for Zee’s Khana Khazana channel. “We are proud of the achievements and accolades Khana Khazana has garnered so far but now we believe audiences’ taste has changed and hence we decided to come up with Living Foodz. We will use Khana Khazana content and re-package it for our digital platforms, but since Living Foodz is going to have 100 per cent fresh content we cannot have its content on television,” said Sharma.

     

    The shows that Living Foodz is launching with are: Food Xpress: Rocky & Mayur, Chef on Wheels, Vickypedia, with Chef Vicky Ratnani, The Great Indian Rasoi with chef Ranveer Brar, Good Food America and Peggy’s Kitchen Cures.

     

    The channel will be available across all direct-to-home (DTH) platforms like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon d2h as well as leading cable networks.

     

    Living Entertainment in India will be an extension of the Living network belonging to Essel Group, which already exists in international markets.

  • Zindagi to bring new show from Turkey

    Zindagi to bring new show from Turkey

    MUMBAI: Living up to its brand philosophy of ‘Jodey Dilo Ko,’ Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (ZEEL) Hindi premium entertainment channel Zindagi is all set to bring a new tale from Turkey.

     

    Starting 15 September, the channel will launch its first Turkish show titled Feriha that will be aired from Monday to Saturday at 7 pm.

     

    Feriha is a Turkish television drama series produced by Med Yapim. The series is about the life of a young and beautiful girl named Feriha Yilmaz, a doorkeeper’s daughter, who gets into a university through full scholarship. Ever since her first day there, Feriha poses as a rich girl with a very wealthy father. There she meets a handsome and rich boy called Emir Sarrafoglu. Feriha lies about her whole life and background. Emir falls in love with her not knowing who she really is. Unfortunately, she also falls in love with him and is trapped in her own lies.

     

    So far known for its content from Pakistan, the channel in August, had forayed into a new territory by coming up with its first original non-fiction show titled as Shukriya. Produced by Frames Production, the show was launched in keeping with the channel’s aim to give its viewers varied content experience.

     

    It can be recalled that in May 2015, Zindagi also launched two shows of US origin, dubbed in Hindi-Urdu. While the first show Simply Beautiful was a health and beauty tips based programme hosted by Roni Proter, the other was a cookery series by Chef Nirmala Narine titled Nirmala’s Spice World.

     

    Zindagi which completed its successful one year in June 2015 has so far aired some memorable drama series from Pakistan including Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Aunn Zara, Mera Saaya, Khwahishein, Maat, Kitni Girhain Baaki Hain and Noorpur Ki Ran among others.

     

    In such a short span of time Zindagi has appealed to the audiences of all age groups. According to the week 34 of TAM Media Research ratings, the channel garnered 10 GVTs.

     

  • Zindagi to launch new series ‘Kashmakash’

    Zindagi to launch new series ‘Kashmakash’

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Hindi-Urdu language entertainment channel Zindagi is all set to launch a new series titled Kashmakash. 

     

    The show depicts the story of two marriages and reflects how a seed of doubt can lead to the end of the strongest of relationships.

     

    Starting from 31 August, Kashmakash will be aired from Monday to Saturday at 10 pm.

     

    Kashmakash is about the lives of two couples Saba (Sajal Ali), Yousuf Mizra (Affan Waheed) and Rahana (Juggun Kazim) and Dr. Adeel (Faisal Rehman). An accident sends Rahana and Yousuf into a coma and when they are brought into the hospital, they are assumed to be a couple. This puts Rahana’s husband, Dr. Adeel and Yousuf’s wife, Saba in a state of shock. Dr. Adeel is shocked that his wife was with another man and so is Saba but Saba decides to give her husband the benefit of the doubt, unlike Adeel who immediately assumes the worst.

     

  • TAM-BARC India JV: The King is dead, long live the King

    TAM-BARC India JV: The King is dead, long live the King

    MUMBAI: Merely four months after the new television ratings measurement body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India entered the fray, the battle of matrices saw a happy ending today (27 August) as Television Audience Measurement (TAM) gracefully bowed out of the ratings race.

    Seeing more wisdom in forming a joint venture with its now erstwhile competitor BARC India, TAM joined hands with it to form a meter management company.

    Industry Cheers Move

    The move has brought much cheer from the industry as this means a unified single ratings sans any confusion week on week. Moreover, this move will benefit broadcasters and advertisers alike.

    Indiantelevision.com spoke to multiple industry stakeholders to get their first reactions on the coming together of TAM and BARC India. Here’s what they had to say:

         Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhandhsu Vats

         “It’s very good news for the Indian broadcasting industry. With BARC consolidating all the video audience measurement assets, we are happy       that stakeholders will have a greatly improved view on reach and impact. The aggregation of people meters and panel management powered by       BARC’s technology gives us an effective measurement system that expedites the solution on geographical coverage, sample size, and rural-           urban reporting.” 

    ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka  

    “This partnership is a big step forward and in this era of cooperation, we welcome this move forward as a joint industry body. The technology and methodological prowess of BARC, combined with the extra meters and the field force will definitely help the industry progress.”

    R K Swamy Hansa Group chairman Srinivasan K Swamy

    “It’s a good development. It has become a larger sample and a more robust study. The techcom is strong in BARC and I am sure they will seamlessly integrate the inputs from two sources to great advantage.”

    Times Network CEO and MD M K Anand  

    “It’s a great move. The new system has launched quite well. The usual teething troubles are mostly getting addressed. The lingering presence of the erstwhile measurement system as a shadow was confusing. There have been faint mentions of TAM by clients and that chatter needed to end. With this move, the industry is truly and completely on BARC. The additional boxes and some talent from the older system will surely help in getting to maturity quicker. All in all, a great move for the industry and the two players.”

    Madison World and Madison Communications founder, chairman and MD Sam Balsara

    “This is a step in the right direction and achieves multiple objectives at one stroke:

    1.       It eliminates possible confusion in the market because of 2 currencies

    2.       It enables Barc to scale up cost effectively by putting the additional meters to good and effective use

    3.       It enables Barc to have ready access to trained people in the field

    4.       It ensures that a large number of people don’t go out of their jobs

    There are sufficient checks and balances in place to ensure that Barc in course of time will discharge its responsibilities, honourably.”

     Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman Ashish Bhasin

    “I think it’s great that BARC and TAM have joined forces for the meters because definitely we don’t need two currencies for television ratings and BARC is the officially accepted ratings currency for the industry to use. Moreover, it is also good that the TAM meters will get utilised because that will help speed up the process of scaling to the meters required for BARC, so that the entire country can be quickly covered. We now look forward to robust viewership data, covering the entire country, and are particularly looking forward to rural data commencing soonest.”

    To start with, the new JV company will have 34,000 meters covering all of India, and will supply raw data to BARC, which will use its own statistical processes and sampling design. The details of the formation and roll out of this new company will be shared in the coming weeks.

    After an unrivalled run of almost 17 years in the Indian broadcast space, TAM Media Research, which started its function way back in 1998 with the mandate to work neutrally, will now no longer be rolling out television ratings.

    To say “The King is dead, long live the King” would be an apt proclamation to summarise this latest development.

  • Zee names Sharlton Menezes as biz head of digital content

    Zee names Sharlton Menezes as biz head of digital content

    MUMBAI: In a recent internal re-shuffling, Zee Digital Convergence Limited (ZDCL) has named Sharlton Menezes as business head of original digital content. 

    Menezes was earlier heading programming and marketing at Zee Café and Zee Studio. 

    In his new role, Menezes will be responsible for production, distribution and monetisation of original video content. He will directly report to ZDCL CEO Debashish Ghosh.

     

    He will also be responsible for optimising the current TV show content created by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) and look after traffic and revenues on YouTube and other emerging Video on Demand (VOD) platforms. 

    Menezes will work closely with digital video production content head Vineeta Shridhar, Zeel Digital business head Hemant Inamdar, and Ditto TV business head Manoj Padmanabhan to ensure effective impact of the digital content across all platforms.

     

  • ZMCL forays into English news broadcasting; names Rohit Gandhi as editor-in-chief

    ZMCL forays into English news broadcasting; names Rohit Gandhi as editor-in-chief

    MUMBAI: Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) has announced its foray into the English news broadcasting space with the appointment of Rohit Gandhi as editor-in-chief of English news broadcast and related content, effective 17 August.

    It may be recalled that Indiantelevision.com was the first to report about the network’s plan to get into English news broadcasting. In an earlier conversation, Essel Group chairman Dr Subhash Chandra had said, “I have been harbouring this thought of starting a global news network in English for the global audience but with an India point of view.”

    Gandhi, who reports to ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka, will be heading the operations of all initiatives in this space, working closely with the business head & revenue resources.

    Goenka said, “Venturing into the English News space allows us to extend our presence in the overall news genre across geographies and even in the international arena. We want to launch a news network for global audiences with an Indian point-of-view. With Rohit on-board to spearhead this initiative, we are confident that we will be able to showcase a world-class product. We welcome Rohit to the Zee family and wish him all the very best.”

    Gandhi added, “It is a phenomenal opportunity for me to work with Zee and Punit to deliver world-class coverage to viewers at home. We want to continue on the path of providing in-depth, textured coverage across platforms to address the ever-changing needs of the global audiences.”

    ZMCL has neither revealed the name of its new English news channel nor its launch date.

    Gandhi brings with him over 23 years of experience across 40 countries and has managed the complete gamut of the news business. In his previous assignment, he was the international correspondent & communication strategist for South Asian International News. Prior to that he worked with CBC, CNN, BCTV & Global TV, Canada, and NDTV. He has also covered many war zones including Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

  • Zindagi forays into original non-fiction programming with ‘Shukriya’

    Zindagi forays into original non-fiction programming with ‘Shukriya’

    MUMBAI: Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) stable, Zindagi has forayed into a new territory. The channel, which was launched in 2014 with shows from Pakistan, is now gearing up to launch its first original non-fiction show. Titled Shukriya, this reality show has been produced by Frames Production.

     

    This, according to the channel, is just the beginning, as it plans to launch a number of original shows in this quarter. Refusing to spell out the genre of the original shows in the pipeline, Zindagi and FTA cluster business head Priyanka Datta said, “The fact that we air finite shows gives us the opportunity to create more content and churn out more original programming.”

     

    The new show Shukriya, which premieres on Sunday, 9 August at 8 pm, is a 13 episode series, which is designed to urge people to pause life, reflect and acknowledge the good things life has given.

     

    “Given the format of the channel, it was clear that when we got onto creating original programming, it had to be something which built an emotional connect with the audience,” opined Zeel chief business officer Sunil Buch. 

     

    With original content in its programming mix now, the channel will however continue to air shows from Pakistan. “Pakistan has a legacy of great content and we have a huge library of shows from the country. Considering the cultural overlap, it was but natural for us to get shows from Pakistan when we launched with the theme of ‘Jodey Dilon Ko.’ We want to give our viewer varied content experience and so we decided to launch original content, this doesn’t mean we will discontinue those shows,” said Buch. 

     

    Shukriya, according to Datta, as a concept marries well with the brand philosophy of ‘Jodey Dilon Ko.’ 

     

    Anchored by Gunjan Utreja, this reality programme will give people a platform to exhibit their real emotions and in turn give those they want to thank a memory that will last a lifetime. The show will travel to several cities including Delhi, Mumbai and parts of North India. “All 13 episodes of the first season have been canned. We will come up with multiple seasons of Shukriya,” informed Datta. 

     

    Promotional strategy for Shukriya 

     

    The channel’s new concept has been backed by some unique promotional strategies. “Every communication highlights not just the real emotions, but also embodies the spirit of Shukriya,” said Datta.

     

    According to her, the real hero is the concept of the show. “We have ensured that this stands out in all the promotional activities, be it in print, radio, outdoor or digital. The aim is to create an element of surprise that will inspire people to do the same,” she added.

     

    Creative communication has been given a new age approach that drives interactivity. The identity of the campaign was centered around #Shukriya. Three short promos have been created and seeded across platforms like Facebook, Youtube and all digital platforms of Zindagi.

     

    “The first two videos have already created a social surround driving close to 7.9 lakh views and counting,” she informed.

     

    The channel has also associated itself with e-commerce player Snapdeal for a dedicated Shukriya Store on its website and app. “This initiative is in association with friendship day, where Zindagi and Snapdeal give netizens discounted offers to buy special Shukriya gifts for loved ones,” said Datta.

     

    Additionally, Zindagi in association with Big FM created unique Shukriya experience for their listeners where RJs were heard saying Shukriya to local unsung heroes across its 24 stations. 

     

    “We have taken this ahead on Zindagi by creating a special section called ‘Keh Do Shukriya’ wherein Gunjan and RJ Siddharth will narrate some real life stories that have reached to us through Big FM,” she said.

     

    With ordinary people being a part of the show, the channel will also visit close to 50 housing colonies in Delhi to celebrate Shukriya day with residents. 

     

    Multiplex viewers have also been targeted across more than 400 screens for three weeks with blockbusters like Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Drishyam and Mission Impossible 5.

     

    “This is alongside high impact print and TV campaigns including leveraging the platforms of our sister concern ZMCL to drive tune-ins in our key markets,” concluded Datta.

  • Amagi and Zee expand partnership for geo-targeted ads

    Amagi and Zee expand partnership for geo-targeted ads

    MUMBAI: Amagi Media Lab and Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited (Zeel) have furthered their partnership by adding Zee Cinema to their list of channels that serve geo-targeted TV ads. 

     

    A significant development, Zee Cinema will now give advertisers targeted access to over 158.6 million viewers and coverage across 16 markets where Amagi has the capability to deliver geo-targeted content. 

     

    The 16 markets are: Delhi-NCR, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, North-east, J&K, Mumbai, Rest of Maharashtra, MPCG, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and All India- direct-to-home (DTH). 

     

    Zee Cinema gets added to the list of high-viewership channels, which are already on Amagi platform that includes: Zee News, Zee TV, Zee Marathi, Zee Kannada and Zee Bangla (for Bangladesh).

     

    In a diverse market such as India, Amagi’s platform offers advertisers the benefits of targeted reach and increased relevance in key markets. Advertisers can use Amagi’s platform to market region-specific products, communicate regional offers and promotions and to increase share of voice in target markets. 

     

    Zee’s partnership with Amagi is reflective of the company’s commitment to driving incremental value for advertisers.

     

    Zeel chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal said, “We are confident of the value that Amagi’s platform offers our advertisers. Geo-targeted TV ads will add greater direction and specificity to media planning, especially in the Indian market. Our partnership with Amagi will significantly boost our efforts to offer greater return on investment (ROI) to advertisers.”

     

    Amagi co-founder KA Srinivasan added, “We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of geo-targeted TV ads for Zee Cinema. We feel there is tremendous scope for the growth of geo-targeted TV ads in a country as varied as India. It is our endeavour to be India’s central advertising platform that offers advertisers a reliable and cost-effective solution to TV advertising. The addition of Zee Cinema to our bouquet of channels is a step forward in this direction.” 

  • Q1-2016: Zeel’s 25% spurt in y-o-y ad revenue ups PAT by 16%

    Q1-2016: Zeel’s 25% spurt in y-o-y ad revenue ups PAT by 16%

    BENGALURU: The Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported a 25.4 per cent hike in advertisement revenue in the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 (Q1-2016) to Rs 779.93 crore (58.21 per cent of Total Revenue or TR) as compared to the Rs 622.10 crore (57.3 per cent of TR) in the corresponding quarter of last year. This is also 16.5 per cent more than the Rs 669.66 crore (49.7 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Profit after Tax (PAT) in Q1-2016 increased by 15.8 per cent to Rs 243.76 crore (18.2 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 210.57 crore (19.4 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015 and 5.6 per cent more than the Rs 230.77 crore (17.1 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Zeel’s PAT was affected by lower q-o-q subscription revenue and other sales and service income. Subscription revenue in Q1-2016 was at Rs 462.53 crore (34.5 per cent of TR) just 4.5 per cent more than the Rs 442.77 crore (40.8 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015 and 9.4 per cent lower than the Rs 510.77 crore (37.9 per cent of TR) in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    The company said that during the quarter, domestic subscription revenues in Q1-2016 stood at Rs 368 crore, which was 13.7 per cent more than the Rs 323.8 crore in Q1-2015, but 11.9 per cent lower than the Rs 417.5 crore in Q4-2015. International subscription revenue stood at Rs 94.5 crore in Q1-2016, which was 20.5 per cent lower as compared to the Rs 118.9 crore in Q1-2015 but 1.3 per cent higher than the Rs 93.3 crore in Q4-2015.

     

    While y-o-y other sales and service income more than quadrupled (was up 367.6 per cent) in Q1-2016 to Rs 97.4 crore (7.3 per cent of TR) as compared to Rs 20.83 crore (1.9 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015, it was 41.5 per cent lower than the Rs 166.62 crore (12.4 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    The company’s y-o-y operating EBIDTA (Earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) increased fractionally by 0.7 per cent in Q1-2016 to Rs 311.20 crore (23.3 per cent of TR) from Rs 309.17 crore (28.5 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015 and was 14.9 per cent more than the Rs 270.75 crore (20.1 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Other results reported by Zeel for Q1-2016:

     

    TR in the current quarter increased 23.4 per cent to Rs 1339.86 crore from Rs 1085.70 crore in Q1-2015, but was 0.5 per cent lower than the Rs 1347.05 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Total Expense (TE) in Q1-2016 at Rs 1045.47 crore (78 per cent of TR) was 31.3 per cent more than the Rs 796.10 crore (73.3 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but 4.4 per cent lower than the Rs 1093.70 crore (81.2 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Zeel’s operating cost increased 40.7 per cent to Rs 610.76 crore (45.6 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 434.02 crore (40 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but fell 1.5 per cent from the Rs 620.09 crore (46 percent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Other expense in Q1-2016 fell 20.6 per cent to Rs 183.24 crore (13.7 per cent of TR) from Rs 230.80 crore (21.3 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015 and was 9.7 per cent lower than the Rs 202.86 crore (15.1 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Employee Benefit Expense increased 23.5 per cent to Rs 138.01 crore (10.3 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016 from Rs 111.71 crore (10.3 per cent of TR) in Q1-2015 and was 10.6 per cent more than the Rs 120.89 crore (nine per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Advertisement and Publicity expense was 20.3 per cent more in Q1-2016 at Rs 96.65 crore (7.2 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 80.37 crore (8.4 percent of TR) in Q1-2015, but 27 per cent lower than the Rs 132.46 crore (9.8 per cent of TR) in Q4-2015.

     

    Company speak

     

    Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry is making strides in the economy, backed by rising advertising revenues and consumer payments. 61 per cent of all households in India are now equipped with a television making us the second largest TV viewership market after China. With digitization, subscription revenues in urban and rural areas are growing , resulting in a healthy impact on the industry.”

     

    Chandra added, “Zee has recorded a satisfactory performance during the first quarter. Our investments have resulted in organic growth, which is in line with our expectations. We continue to build Zee’s presence in this highly competitive space by creating compelling content across genres and by pursuing new opportunities that will yield long term growth.”

     

    Zeel managing director and CEO Puneet Goenka said, “We continue to experience growth in both advertising and subscription revenues through the launch of new and innovative programming. We believe that by delivering excellent content we can benefit from monetizing revenues from an advertising and subscription standpoint.”

  • Zeel expands into Odisha; acquires Sarthak Entertainment for Rs 115 crore

    Zeel expands into Odisha; acquires Sarthak Entertainment for Rs 115 crore

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) has acquired 100 per cent equity stake in Sarthak Entertainment Pvt Ltd which operates Sarthak TV, the Odia language general entertainment channel (GEC). 

     

    The acquisition will be from current shareholders of Sarthak Entertainment, subject to requisite regulatory approvals, as an all-cash deal at a consideration of maximum of Rs 115 crores.

     

    With this, Zeel has entered the rapidly expanding regional market in Odisha. This acquisition further strengthens its already dominant line-up of regional channels.

     

    Sarthak TV would complement Zeel’s regional bouquet of channels viz. Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Tamizh.

     

    Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Sarthak as we continue to invest in tomorrow. The acquisition of an already profitable, market leading venture is going to be a value accretive investment in line with our philosophy of enhancing shareholder value. Sarthak will further add to our formidable bouquet of 33 channels in the domestic market.”

     

    Sarthak Group founder and managing director Sitaram Agrawalla and Sarthak TV director Raj Thourani added, “It gives us great pleasure to announce that Sarthak will now be a part of India’s leading entertainment network. Being the oldest and market leading network in India, Zeel would provide the perfect platform for Sarthak to grow further in the future. With a history of successful operations, we are sure Sarthak will be a great value-add for Zeel.”

     

    The channel has been successful in creating high quality content catering to the needs of local audience. It airs reality and non-fiction shows besides being the market leader in the fiction segment.