Taj Television to distribute Zee and Turner channels

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) content aggregator regulation which bars bundling of television channels from multiple broadcasters resulted in a fall out between Zee and Turner thus ending their 12 year long joint venture Media Pro.

In 2002 Zee and Turner had set up a 74:26 joint venture wherein Zee Turner Ltd, the JV company, bundled the Zee and Turner groups of channels with an aim to get better subscription revenues from the multi-system operators (MSOs) and the direct-to-home (DTH) platforms. Post the MediaPro split two months back, a decision by Zee 

Taj Television which was earlier the sole distributor of Ten Sports channels will take on additional responsibility as agent for Zee Entertainment, Zee Media and Turner. Former Media Pro Enterprise India CEO and industry veteran will head Zee’s distribution business while Rajesh Sethi will continue to head Zee Sports broadcasting business.

Taj Television the distribution arm of Zee is all set to be unveiled today, June 18, 2014 with their first rollout ‘Zindagi’ in the presence of Mr. Arun K Kapoor CEO, Taj Television (earlier CEO at Media Pro) & Mr. Bharat Kumar Ranga, Chief Content and Creative Officer, ZEEL. The new regulations will disallow Taj Television from bundling Turner with Zee channels. However Taj Television will be distribution agent for the Turner group of channels which include HBO, Cartoon Network and Pogo, CNN, Warner Brothers and under the Zee group will handle distribution for Zee TV, Zee Cinema HD, & Pictures, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Marathi, Zee Tamizh, Ten Cricket, Ten Sports, Zee Café, Zee Studio , Zing Ten Action, Ten Golf, Zee News and Zee Business and their latest addition to the bouquet new channel Zindagi.

TRAI’s latest regulation on content aggregators has impacted several distribution companies and more joint ventures are seen to be dissolving post the introduction of the new regulation.