We’re in final stages of stitching up ZEE-Sony merger; sports a key focus: Punit Goenka

“The ZEE-Sony merger is not yet done; we are in the final stages of stitching up. Sony and Zee will form the largest media entertainment player in the country,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprises Managing Director and CEO Punit Goenka.

Speaking at a virtual industry event held recently, Goenka said that Sony and ZEE will form the largest media entertainment player in the country. “Our revenues on a standalone basis combined will be close to $2 billion. There is going to be a huge opportunity on both the digital and the linear side to create big-scale entertainment properties and acquire large IPS across genres. As an industry leader, Zee has consistently delivered across markets. We have made significant investments in our businesses, particularly in content and technology now,” he added.

Regarding the synergies from the ZEE-Sony merger, Goenka said that ZEE as an entity will now aggressively focus on sports. “My focus is to look at it on a joint consolidated basis with Sony. Certainly, the merged entity will focus on sports. ZEE on a standalone basis will not because we have just finished our non-compete with Sony on the sports side, why we will reconsider sports on a standalone basis. But I believe that the opportunity is great because the digital landscape has opened up a new opportunity for monetization, which did not exist five years ago. So certainly, sports will become an area of focus for the merged company,” he further said.

About the media and entertainment sector in the India sector post-pandemic, he said that the country is seeing an explosion in content choices, and new formats, such as user-generated, or even content like podcasts, which we had not even heard of, in the last five years, at least not in India.

“This change is driven by the omnipresence of screens and the interactivity that you are seeing, with the advent of technology. Content creators will have to find a fresh breed of people to deliver this for the consumers. Many people are doing a lot of work with augmented and virtual reality; this could pave the way for creating and delivering immersive experiences at a huge scale going forward. That is what is going to really leapfrog the content game going forward,” he said.

Talking about the role of technology in Indian content creation, in broadcasting and streaming, he said that technology has completely transformed the relationship between the creator and the consumer.

“Our engagement with the consumer at every touchpoint becomes very critical. The traditional distribution systems are continuing to thrive. However, the digital distribution systems through the OTT platform will turn out to become more mainstream as we go forward. Technology becomes crucial to bridge the gap from the user experience, which is not just about being good consumption but also being a two-way communication roadmap between the consumer and us. Data in itself is going to be very critical for creating content and that again comes from technology,” he said.

The MD said that Zee has created a tech innovation centre in Bengaluru, which is really going to transform this company from a pure content company to a content and tech company.

He said that in India, Zee wants to be a subscriber or SVOD-first platform.

“Our own expectation on Zee5 is that currently in India, you have anywhere between 45 to 50 million paid subscribers. This number in the next five years in our view is going to jump to 200 million-plus, which is a 5x jump. And as in any other business, our mantra has always been to be the number one or be the challenging brand. The 30 shows that we will talk about is actually a combination actually; the 30 shows are only on the linear side. In quarter three, we aim to launch about 17 or 18 shows and while India currently has more AVOD users, we believe that our strategy of being SVOD-first will give us the advantage to fight the competition going forward,” he added.

According to him, in the pre-pandemic era, people didn't even think that 40 to 50 million people will pay for content on digital platforms. The number is going to just exponentially grow with the advent of the end quantum of content being created on a digital platform. “Currently, the Zee DNA is to nurture the best minds in the entertainment ecosystem and push our boundaries, and we will do that in digital just as we did in television. We did vernacular language strategy much before anybody else, and being an actual player, succeeded well there,” he said.

On the broader strategy to drive viewership and advertising in the TV marketplace for Zee, he said that being leaders in the television space, Zee entered markets much before anybody could even think of.

“We were the first national prayer to go to markets like Padishah Bhojpuri, and the latest in Punjab, which, even though not a big market, we believe that we can build it to be a big market. Our learning over the years has been that the preferred language of viewing for consumers is very different from their language of communication. We have built our expertise over the last 29 years, where the teams have the real expertise in strong market insights to partner with content creators to capture that in terms of viewership, and then monetize it through advertising and subscription,” he added.