STAR & Zee form distribution JV

The media industry is abuzz with speculations on the distribution JV between STAR India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Though the industry is murmuring under the breath about a strong change of game with the two majors joining hand , officials from the two companies are yet not speaking on the nature of this alliance, or what can be expected from it.

It is reportedly believed that STAR India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd are coming together to create a distribution joint venture that will include all of STAR Network's channels and all channels from the Zee-Turner bouquet. Though there is not much clarity on who will be heading the JV and who will be part of the senior management and how will the team be equally represented by officials from both the network.

As officials remained unavailable for comments there seems no clarity on whether the STAR-Zee JV would be involved in the international distribution of the channels too, and will it include numerous distribution platforms. The question of distribution platforms seem supreme as Star Network only recently launched all its channels in HD, and a primary requirement for HD is a digitally enabled HD connection.

At present, all STAR channels lie with STAR DEN, the JV between STAR India and Digital Entertainment Networks. There is also speculation that STAR will exit the STAR DEN JV.

The two Networks this year also announced a sizeable increase in their ad rates, and at the time of the announcement of ad rates hike Sanjay Gupta, COO, Star India Pvt Ltd., had told Adgully, "While the programming strategy is in place Star Network also plans to strengthen its distribution and as HD seems to be the buzzword the network will look at strengthening ties with digital providers."

As is known, the STAR bouquet includes Star Plus, Star One, Star Gold, Star Movies, Star World, Vijay TV, Star Utsav, Star News, Star Ananda, Star Majha, Star Pravah, Star Jalsa, Channel [V], National Geographic Channel, Fox History & Entertainment, Fox Crime, FX, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Music, Nat Geo ' HD, Baby TV, Asianet, Asianet Plus, Sitara, Suvarna, Star CJ Alive, NDTV 24x7, NDTV profit, NDTV India and NDTV Good Times.

Zee's brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Zee Smile, 9X, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Jagran, Zee Salaam, Zing, ETC Music and Zee Khana Khazana. The company's regional presence includes channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Cinemalu and ETC Punjabi. The Zee Turner bouquet also includes channels like Cartoon Network, Pogo and HBO.

Between the two, the bouquet will have over 90 channels in its command and the combined might of the bouquet is reportedly seen to be around 40-45 per cent of the industry.

Last year, in a similar move Network18 and Sun Network joined forces to create Sun18 North and Sun18 South. In January 2011,Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd formed a joint venture with Yogesh Radhakrishnan, a veteran in the Indian Cable and Satellite industry, called Media Network & Distribution India Ltd (MNDIL). MNDIL launched Prime Connect, an independent distribution platform.While MNDIL remains an exclusive distributor for The Times Group Channels such as Times Now, ET NOW, Movies Now and Zoom, it also intends to expand its bouquet by including more third party channels for distribution. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]