Sony Pictures Networks India And Zee Entertainment Enterprises Are Set To Merge

Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) announced that they have entered into an exclusive, non-binding Term Sheet to combine both companies’ linear networks, digital assets, production operations and program libraries. The non-binding Term Sheet provides an exclusive negotiation period of 90 days during which ZEEL and SPNI will conduct mutual diligence and negotiate definitive, binding agreements. The combined company would be a publicly listed company in India and be better positioned to lead the consumer transition from traditional pay TV into the digital future.

The merger of ZEEL and SPNI would bring together two leading Indian media network businesses, benefitting consumers throughout India across content genres, from film to sports. The combined company is expected to benefit all stakeholders given strong synergies between ZEEL and SPNI.

Under the terms of the non-binding Term Sheet, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the parent company of SPNI, would invest growth capital so that SPNI has a cash balance of approximately USD $1.575 billion at closing for use to enhance the combined company’s digital platforms across technology and content, ability to bid for broadcasting rights in the fast-growing sports landscape and pursue other growth opportunities. Sony Pictures Entertainment would hold a majority stake in the combined company. Current ZEEL Managing Director & CEO Punit Goenka is to lead the combined company.

About Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI):
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, Japan. SPNI has several channels in Africa including Sony Entertainment Television (SET and SET HD), one of India's leading Hindi general entertainment television channels; MAX, India's premium Hindi movies and special events channel, the digital entertainment.
SPNI reaches out to over 700 million viewers in India and is available in 167 countries.

About ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.:
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is a media & entertainment powerhouse offering entertainment content to diverse audiences. With a presence in over 173 countries and a reach of more than 1.3 billion people around the globe, ZEEL is among the largest global content companies across genres, languages, and platforms. The company operates brands such as Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee World.

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Zindagi Ki Mehak To Travel To South Africa; Karan Vohra To Be Part Of The Shoot

The fans of Mehak will get a reason to rejoice as the show has been chosen to air original episodes for a new channel of Zee TV to launch in South Africa.

Producer Saurabh Tewari helmed banner, Parin Multimedia has given the TV viewing audience in India the entertaining concept of Zindagi Ki Mehak. The show which starred Karan Vohra and Samiksha Jaiswal garnered huge popularity and reached its closure recently after a good run.

Now, the fans of Mehak based outside India, especially in South Africa will get a reason to rejoice as Mehak has been chosen as one of the latest shows of Zee TV to air original episodes for a new channel of Zee TV to launch in South Africa.

Yes, you heard it right!!

This only means that in addition to the 500 plus episodes of Mehak, the viewers in South Africa will see nearly 150 plus original episodes.

News coming to us is that Karan Vohra has agreed to be the face of the channel, and will shoot for the original content that will be shot in South Africa.

A source states, “Karan has been offered huge money for this shoot in South Africa while Samiksha Jaiswal has not taken the offer. She will not be seen in the original content.”

With this, Parin Multimedia will be producing the South African series and become the first production house to shoot original content for South African network.

We hear that Karan Vohra along with Sharma family and new South African actors will shoot for the original content.
We buzzed Karan, Producer Saurabh Tewari and channel spokesperson but did not hear from them.

Are South African viewers ready to watch Mehak?

I Think Gupta-Linked Zee Edged Us Out, Says Glow TV Boss

On Saturday, 31 March 2018 Glow TV was still a glow on DStv channel 167 and by Sunday, 1 April at midnight, the channel was snuffed out and now it looks like this:

The channel itself hasn't shut down because it's still available on OpenView HD and StarSat so what's going on?

TVSA has been receiving a blitz of queries from Glow fans asking what's going on and why the channel's soapies are no longer airing on DStv so we've been trying to find out - which has been easier said than done!

When only one channel doesn't get renewed.

The story starts last month when DStv published a press release stating that Glow TV would stop airing on DStv, with no reason given. All the release said was that Glow's contract has come to an end and the rest was an extended plug for other channels that also feature Indian soapies. This from the release:

Glow TV’s contract with MultiChoice is coming to an end, which means the channel will stop airing on DStv from 31 March 2018.

Fans of Indian-specific content needn’t worry - DStv has ensured that there are plenty more telenovelas, talk shows, music and movies to watch on Zee World (DStv channel 166), Zee Bollywood Movies (DStv channel 114) and eBella (DStv channel 159 from 5 March 2018).

Three things happened after this:
1. Glow TV launched an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court against DStv, disputing the shutdown of the channel. The court ruled that Glow and DStv should resolve the dispute through arbitration.
2. The Glow TV soapie teasers disappeared in the crisis. TVSA has tried to get them from the channel but they haven't been available.
3. TVSA sent this query to MultiChoice:

"Please can we get comment from MultiChoice on why Glow won’t be on DStv anymore? We‘ve carried the Glow soapie teasers for years so we’d like to find out why to give readers insight."
We received this one line response from the MultiChoice Corporate Communications department which didn't answer the question:

"The contract has come to an end."
D-Day looms

On Thursday, 29 March, Nazeer Noormohamed, CEO of Glow and Managing Director of Nis Media (the South African-owned company who own Glow) launched an urgent court application to try to keep Glow on air until the arbitration between DStv and Glow has been completed.

The arbitration hasn't happened yet so Glow applied to stay on DStv until this has been done. The court refused the application, stating that the channel is on air because of its availability on OpenView HD and StarSat.

On Thursday evening, TVSA spoke with Nazeer after the court judgment. He told us that Glow would still be proceeding with the arbitration but he was concerned about the amount of time it will take.

"We're still going to continue an arbitration," Nazeer told us, "but these guys could now delay, delay, delay and before you know it it's six months or a year that we've been switched off.

"If we were switched on and then there was a delay, we wouldn't mind but now we're switched off and you know, a court process, so we could go for two years and then say, 'Yes, you're right, they can't switch you off,'but is there any point to that?" W.H.Y.

We asked Nazeer what reason DStv gave to Glow management for the switch-off and this is what he said:
Nazeer: "They first told us that we're not performing well so we said, 'Show us our stats, show us how we're not performing,'but they refused to show us how we're not performing, where we were not performing".

We think they're promoting Zee TV. We came to find out that they're paying Zee TV to be on air and they're not paying us so Zee TV's got an advantage over us. Zee TV owns a share or owned a share with New Age, which is the Gupta family and there was a link between the two.

"We feel that that was done through those kind of schemes you understand, to say, 'Listen here, get this guy out,' because if you say we're not performing...if I say your kid is not performing in school, the first thing you're going to ask is, 'Show me the report,' You can't just say he's not performing..how much did he get out of 10, out of 100? How much did he get? They're not prepared to show us that.

"I think Zee was behind it."

"You know, MultiChoice didn't want encryption on the government set boxes, and the minister, who was the last minister, was the one who was supporting DStv, you know that, politically, although the ANC was against it".

"The ANC said they wanted encryption but the minister himself and the president was supporting MultiChoice/DStv and that's what we believe, it is our belief that the Guptas influenced whoever to say "Support DStv" and DStv in turn supported the Guptas with Zee TV and now all this has to come out and how and when - do we have the energy to take it on? I don't know.

We're going to go for the arbitration, even if it's just academic, it's fine. But wait, the plot thickens...This isn't the first time that Nazeer and the Guptas have made the headlines when it comes to matters of TV.

In September last year City Press reported that Nazeer and a consortium that he headed-up (Southern Star Mega Investors Group) offered the Guptas R600-million for their Infinity Media (which includes ANN7), which the Guptas sold to Mzwanele Manyi for R450-million instead...what about e?

Interesting to note is the shutdown of Glow comes in the same month that eBella launched on DStv, which, as DStv's press release emphasises, also has Indian soapies. The launch of eBella takes the e stable of channels on DStv to five.