ZEEL revises price of 35 bouquets; revamps South offerings with 44 new bouquets

Zee Entertainment earlier this week published its new Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) which will be applicable from 1 February 2020. The broadcaster has announced the revision of a-la-carte rates of 4 of its channels along with the price hike of its 35 existing bouquet offerings. It has also launched 44 new bouquets for its subscribers in South India along with the withdrawal of 28 bouquets.

It is pertinent to note that these changes are in no way related to the TRAI Tariff Order amendment released on 1st January. The amended Tariff Order will come into action on 1st March whereas existing signed RIOs will expire on 31st January which will force DPOs to sign new RIOs for February. These rates will go live on 1st February and will remain valid until the amended Tariff Order comes into play.

A note put up on Zee Entertainment‘s website mentioned “All previous versions of Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) / Interconnection Agreement(s) of ZEEL up to 31.12.2019 stands withdrawn. Consequently, any RIO / Interconnection Agreement(s) received by ZEEL after the close of business hours on 31.12.2019 shall be invalid. However, any RIO / Interconnection Agreement(s) executed by DPO and already acknowledged by ZEEL up to 31.12.2019 shall continue to be valid.”

In this article, we bring you all the changes ZEEL has made to its a-la-carte and bouquet offerings. DreamDTH compared ZEEL’s DTH 11th version 2019 with the DTH version 1 2020 RIO. The changes are listed below.

4 ZEEL Channel A-la-carte MRP Hiked

ZEEL has increased the price of four of its regional channels out of which Zee Thirai is yet to launch. Zee Talkies and Zee Thirai will now cost Rs 5 for a-la-carte subscribers whereas Zee Yuva will cost Rs 2 and Zee Bangla Cinema will cost Rs 4. Earlier all 4 were priced under Rs 3. The price hike is in the range of Rs 2-3. The broadcaster has left the price of its HD channels untouched.

35 ZEEL Bouquets Price Hiked

ZEEL has revised the bouquet pricing of most of its HD bouquets. It has revised the price of around 35 of its existing bouquets. The price hike is in the range of Rs 5 – Rs 8. Zee Family Pack, Zee Prime Pack, and Zee All-In-One Pack are the bouquets that have received the price hike.

The broadcaster has hiked the price of at least one bouquet in each market region with Hindi, Odia, Bangla, English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and All-South packages part of the price hike.

Discontinuation of Bouquets and Introduction of 44 new South Centric Bouquets

The broadcaster has discontinued its Super pack while making major changes to its Family Pack offerings in South India. It has increased its bouquet offerings from existing strength of 86 to 102. The 44 new bouquets also include Zee Prime Movie Pack Tamil which carries ZEEL’s upcoming Tamil Movie channel Zee Thirai which is slated to launch this January.

28 existing South India centric bouquets have been discontinued along with the introduction of 44 new South India centric bouquets resulting in an increase of bouquet offerings by 16. Zee Super Pack and Zee Family Pack SD and HD variants with Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, All-South, Telugu-Kannada, Kannada-Tamil, and Tamil-Telugu suffix have been withdrawn.

In place of it 42 new Family Pack SD and HD, variant bouquets have been launched. Each market-centric bouquet has 6 new Family Packs A, B, and C at the same price with different channels. Zee Prime Movie Pack Tamil SD and Zee Prime Movie Pack Tamil HD are the two other bouquets that have been launched.

The new Family Packs compared to erstwhile Family Packs are packaged with fewer channels and at lower pricing. Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Tamil SD costs Rs 22 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil SD cost Rs 37. Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Telugu SD costs Rs 28 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil SD cost Rs 45.

Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Kannada SD costs Rs 26 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil SD cost Rs 45. Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Tamil-Telugu/Tamil-Kannada/All-South/Kannada-Telugu SD costs Rs 40 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil-Telugu/Tamil-Kannada/All-South/Kannada-Telugu SD cost Rs 65.

Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Tamil/Kannada HD costs Rs 37 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil/Kannada HD cost Rs 65. Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Telugu HD costs Rs 48 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil HD cost Rs 70.

Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack All South HD costs Rs 63 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack All South HD cost Rs 90. Zee Family (A/B/C) Pack Tamil-Telugu/Tamil-Kannada/Kannada-Telugu HD costs Rs 53 whereas earlier Zee Family Pack Tamil-Telugu/Tamil-Kannada/Kannada-Telugu HD cost Rs 80.

The broadcaster now is left with 11 days to declare the new pricing as per the revised Tariff Order which was released on 1st January. What is your opinion on the new packaging of ZEEL’s South India centric bouquets and its price hike? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.