Breaking ZEEL and Sony merger approved by ZEEL board; definitive agreements signed

[Aiscat]

I'm glad the merge passed the courts. Now Sony can officially go behind the scenes and get its networks rebranded into Zees, also it means the end of Liv.

 

[CloudCraze]

I'm glad the merge passed the courts. Now Sony can officially go behind the scenes and get its networks rebranded into Zees, also it means the end of Liv.

I think the opposite is going to happen. That means the ZEE5 era will end ...

 

[CloudCraze]

I'm glad the merge passed the courts. Now Sony can officially go behind the scenes and get its networks rebranded into Zees, also it means the end of Liv.

Bro ... let me add one more doubt .. Suppose Sony goes behind the curtain and the zee brand comes forward as Bro said. So will the existence of the Sony Sports Network itself disappear? With the exception of the word Sony, isn't everything just the old "Ten Sports Network"?

 

[Shantanu]

Both ZEE and SONY are well established brands with distinct identity. It's next to impossible to shelve whole brand.

Max they'll merge the OTT platforms like disney+hotstar but that still contains hotstar. So there is very less possibility of combining everything under one brand.

But they'll definitely review all non performing channels and take some action.

 

[iDJ]

Bro ... let me add one more doubt .. Suppose Sony goes behind the curtain and the zee brand comes forward as Bro said. So will the existence of the Sony Sports Network itself disappear? With the exception of the word Sony, isn't everything just the old "Ten Sports Network"?

Absolutely not. In future except a full rebrand with TEN brand being dropped. You wouldn't believe it. It's there now because of crazy obsession with 3 letter names. Just look at names of all pan India channels SET, SAB, MAX, WAH, PIX, SIX, MIX, ROX and AXN. TEN suits them. Except for 2 regional channels of out of which one was a acquisition of other network. And another 2 niche channels Le Plex HD and Animax. Every channels are of 3 letter words.

 

[asgworldindia]

Some Observations :-

It will be interesting to Review What exactly the TV Broadcast Pattern will be observed by the Merger Entity (Sony+Zee)
When "Ten Sports Network" was handed on 'Sony' immediately Sony Sports Network renamed the Property with Prefix 'Sony'.

After Merger there are 3 Possibilities
1) The Entire TV Network gets a New Name (of their New Company Name which they will get Listed with various Legal Authorities)
2) The Entity will be Rebranded with Prefix "Sony" to all Channels following "Zee" Name. Example:- "Sony Zee TV" or "Sony Zee Cinema" or "Sony Zee Max". But it will look very Odd to Pronounce as well as to emerge before Subscribers.
3) The Entity will Continue as like of Now with Same Channel Name without Disturbing each other just what Star / Disney mutually does. They have not renamed or abolished the "UTV" Brand but sharing the Star India Content on "UTV".
As per Market Speculation No.3 Option will most probably be carried by the Merger Entity.

Rerun GEC / Channels :-
Now the Merge Entity possess 3 Rerun GEC in their Port Folio
1)Zee Anmol
2)Sony Pal
3)Big Magic
The Programing Head of the Channels will now have a Challenge to rearrange the Content and Program Schedule on each and every 3 Channels as all 3 are available in DDFD as well as Pay Platforms.
Repetative Contents on these 3 Channels will now Mark the Exit Gate of that very Channel.
Most probably "Big Magic" will be Shutdown and 'Anmol' with 'Pal' will share the Both Libraries accordingly.

As @Shantanu Bhai said earlier now "&" Brand will receive More Challenges on Both GEC and Movie Channels.
'&tv' requires a Severe Rebranding with More Variety of Program in terms of Serials / Reality Shows / other Sitcoms.
Or else the Merger Entity can utilise their OTT Contents on "&" Brand.
Both "&pictures" and "&xplor" can merge into one Movie Channel or otherwise "&pictures" can be utilised with Hollywood Dubbed Library of Sony and Zee whereas "&xplor" can be utilised with Specific Select Bollywood Titles (like SGS) of both Sony and Zee.

So more Exciting Library / Content Sharing is Upcoming in and after 10 months.

May be at that time Trai will enforce NTO 3.0 and "Sony-Zee" will Publish New RIO with all Available Channels.

 

[Mylanji]

Most probably "Big Magic" will be Shutdown and 'Anmol' with 'Pal' will share the Both Libraries accordingly.

Big Magic was supposed to rebrand as ZEE JOSH. They have now probably abandoned their plans.

They have done the same with 9X (FYI 9X was acquired from INX Media in 2008 by ZEEL) earlier. It was believed to be later Rebranded to Zee Anmol/Zee Lamhe. But they abandoned the plans and shut 9X down. Later on, they launched Zee Anmol as a brand new FTA channel

 

[CloudCraze]

Big Magic was supposed to rebrand as ZEE JOSH. They have now probably abandoned their plans.

They have done the same with 9X (FYI 9X was acquired from INX Media in 2008 by ZEEL) earlier. It was believed to be later Rebranded to Zee Anmol/Zee Lamhe. But they abandoned the plans and shut 9X down. Later on, they launched Zee Anmol as a brand new FTA channel

There was an FTA channel called ZEE SMILE. Programs of ZEE TV were re-run on that channel which was once available on DDFD. But I don't know what happened to this channel later.

 

[JollyLNB]

There was an FTA channel called ZEE SMILE. Programs of ZEE TV were re-run on that channel which was once available on DDFD. But I don't know what happened to this channel later.

There is a different version of Zee Smile in the US. The Indian one shut down but the US one is still there.

 

[iDJ]

I thought Zee Smile was rebranded to Zee Anmol.