Comments
Pocketing a whopping ₹2,600 crore from the sale of Zee-owned Ten Sports to Sony Pictures Network in an all-cash deal, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd MD Punit Goenka outlines his future plans to make Zee a formidable media company. Zee had acquired Ten Sports from Dubai-based Taj Group for $57 million in 2006.
What was the thought behind selling your sports channel, especially when sports is the second most watched genre followed by the general entertainment category (GEC)?
We were looking to sell our sports business as the cost of acquiring content is extremely high. Besides, we wanted to concentrate on five core verticals — broadcast, digital, films, live events and international business. Sony approached us and offered a good valuation. It gave a 15-plus internal rate of rate (IRR) on our investments. So it made good business sense.
By when is the deal expected to be completed?
Post regulatory approvals, we expect the deal to be completed in four-five months.
How exactly will you be using the proceeds from the sale?
As I mentioned, we will be focusing on five key verticals. We will be strengthening GEC, pushing our might in the film production business, and live events including music and theatre through our platform Zee Theatre. We see a huge potential in live events and are going to scale it up. Broadcast, however, will be our biggest business.
Film production is a tricky business and several firms have burnt their fingers. How much of an investment are you making there?
We believe we have the ability. We have allocated a corpus of ₹125 crore to increase the pipeline of our film production. We recently invested in two productions including the critically acclaimed Marathi film Saairat and Akshay Kumar starrer Rustom. Both have paid off. Our aim is to invest in 18-20 films a year, both Bollywood and regional. Currently, we are doing about eight films.
What about digital media?
We have already rolled out digital media platforms.
We are looking to create content for the same. Kids is one category we will be focusing on in the digital space.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.