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The stars of Zee have never been bright after its break-up with Rupert Murdoch's Star Network three years ago. India's first private satellite channel has been losing out to its rivals like Star and Sony in recent times. The big question, therefore, is: Will its new moves redeem its media mogul's status, it once enjoyed?
Blame it on competition (or shall we say Star TV), but Zee Telefilms (ZTL) has been in the limelight for one reason or the other. And, perhaps, most of the times for all the wrong reasons. Ever since its greatest fiasco, Sawaal Dus Crore Ka (which was Zee's reply to Star's hugely successful game show KBC), happened, life has never been so easy at India's first private satellite channel. The Subhash Chandra promoted TV network has kept reshuffling its program portfolio for almost two years now, without much success. On the popularity chart, both its competitors, Star and Sony have been climbing up at Zee's cost. And, there was no respite in the news programming business either, where Aaj Tak, a relatively new entrant, made Zee News take a severe drubbing in terms of viewership. Even the move to give a new look to the channels such as Zee TV and Zee News has not boosted the overall viewership base of the Network.
But what has surprised markets, of late, is the recent move by the promoter group to talk to some foreign media companies for a possible stake sale. Though rumors about such moves had been doing the rounds in the past, this time it is about the all out sale by the original promoters that has taken the markets by surprise. And, this time those rumors do not look to be totally unfounded. The two major moves, which the group has taken recently, could lay the ground for any major player, possibly from abroad, to run the show at India's first television family. The first one is the restructuring of the business operations of ZTL, and the second, stake acquisitions in the television software making company, Padmalaya Telefilms Ltd. (PTL).
The ZTL board recently cleared a corporate restructuring plan of the company. This involves pruning the number of subsidiaries to a more manageable level, that is, reducing the number of its subsidiaries from the current 23 to 11 within the next six to eight months. This would see eleven of ZTL's subsidiaries, such as E-connect India, Zee Multimedia Worldwide, BVI and Asia TV, USA, Elzee Television, Kaveri Entertainment and Dakshin Media ceasing to exist. Some of the foreign arms of the company, which would also be axed are Winterhealth Company, Mauritius, Hokushan Trading, Hong Kong, Expand Fast Holdings, BVI, and Zee TV SA (Proprietary), South Africa.
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