Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, and businesses related to mobile content, and operates 45 channels worldwide.
History
Independent era
The company was launched on 15 December 1991 as Zee Telefilms, a brand name retained until 2006.
In April 1995, the company launched the premium movie channel Zee Cinema, the first channel of its sort in the country. Until 1999, programming was done by Star TV. In the following years Zee Cinema has also catered to international markets like South-East America, Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia and Asia Pacific and the Rest of Africa. Zee Cinema (Canada) is available in Canada as a joint ventures with Ethnic Group.
Zee Telefilms launched a Nickelodeon-branded programming block in 1999 as part of a distribution deal between Viacom International and Zee Telefilms. It was replaced by a new Cartoon Network block in 2002.
In 2002, the company acquired a majority stake (51%) in ETC Networks. In 2003, they planned to purchase Rajshri for ₹50 crore. With the deal, Zee would have access to all of Rajshri's films, but the plan fell later on. In 2006, they acquired Integrated Subscriber Management Services Limited, and in November 2006, it received a 50% stake in Taj Television, owner of TEN Sports. In that same year, the company was rebranded as Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
In February 2010, the business acquired an additional stake (95%) in TEN Sports.
In 2008, Zee Networks launched Zee Motion Pictures and Zee Limelight (now Zee Studios) for the development, production, distribution and marketing of mainstream films in Indian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi. Some of Zee Studios's productions include Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, Natsamrat, Sairat and Rustom.
As Zee Telefilms, the company formed part of BSE Sensex from 2000 to 2005. The news and regional entertainment channel business was spun off into a separate company in 2006 as Zee News.
In May 2011, Star Den entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Zee Turner and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) to distribute and market all channels owned by the company and ZEEL, their respective affiliated channels and other third-party channels in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
It also owns a music label, Zee Music Company.
In 2015, Zee acquired Sarthak TV, an Odia-language pay television channel. One year later, on 28 July 2016, it launched Zee One, aimed at the German market. A Polish version of the channel was launched in 2017.
In 2016, Zee launched Zee Mundo, a Spanish-language Bollywood movie channel targeting Latin America.
In 2017, the company acquired the majority stake of the Reliance Broadcast Network. It also planned to acquire 9X Media in October 2017 for the cost of 160 crore, however, the plan fell through in March 2018. A partially-owned subsidiary, Diligent Media Corporation, is a publisher of Indian daily newspapers and websites. DMC is a joint venture between Zee and the Dainik Bhaskar Group.
In 2018, Zee launched Zee Theatre, which offers a collection of recorded theatre plays also called teleplay- produced in India and internationally.
Sale talks
In February 2019, media reported that Essel Group was in talks to sell their shares from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises to save from the debt.
Sony, Comcast-Atairos, a firm led by American cable giant Comcast were shortlisted for the bid. However, they were competing with technology giant Apple and Reliance Industries among others.
Top Sony officials including Mike Hopkins, chairman of Sony Pictures Television, and Tony Vinciquerra, chairman of Sony Pictures, had visited Subhash Chandra and his family at his residence shortly after Chandra announced his intent to sell half of the promoter holding in Zee Entertainment Enterprises to a global strategic investor.On April 2 reports said that some other promoters were willing to sell their shares worth 332 crore.On April 3 media reported Sony and Zee Entertainment Enterprises deal off amid valuation differences which opened the door for Comcast-Atairos.
On August 1 media reports Invesco Oppenheimer Fund to buy 11% stake in Zee Entertainment
In September 2021, it was reported that Invesco Developing Markets Funds and OFI Global China Fund LLC, who jointly holds a 17.88% stake, wanted Punit Goenka (also the son of founder) to step down as MD and CEO. It was also reported that Essel Group owns a sum of 3.99% minority stake.