Sony and Zee Entertainment Join Hands to Dominate India's Media and Entertainment Sector

CEO Kenichiro Yoshida stated that India is a creative country with many growth opportunities, especially in the entertainment industry

The highly anticipated merger between two of India’s biggest broadcast media conglomerates, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), would be completed by the first half of the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2024. Sony Corp. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida made the announcement during the company’s annual corporate strategy meeting on Thursday. 

The highly anticipated merger between two of India’s biggest broadcast media conglomerates, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), would be completed by the first half of the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2024. Sony Corp. CEO Kenichiro Yoshida made the announcement during the company’s annual corporate strategy meeting on Thursday.

The meeting was also addressed by Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki, and NP Singh, MD of SPNI, also presented a presentation on the opportunities in the Indian M&E (media and entertainment) industry and the progress that has been made by the company in its 2.5 decades of operation in the country.

Totoki stated that Sony began its adventure in India with electronics and eventually extended into entertainment. "In India, entertainment now surpasses electronics." "We believe this is a compelling market," he said.

He also further added that the company’s focus is to deliver its core philosophy, “Kando," meaning emotional connection to the world. He also talked about Sony Music Entertainment India's business in India, which holds more than 20 percent of the market share in the country, emphasizing the growth opportunities it holds in the future.

The merged entity previously said that they are willing to offer required pricing incentives and reductions to all channel distributors, including direct-to-home satellite operators, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms for a set period of time after the merger. To ease advertisers' concerns about the entity's strong market position, the parties proposed creating and operating "independent advertising verticals" for a set period of time. The agreement would allow the two businesses to increase their advertising revenue from streaming services and television broadcasts. The parties' combined strength is likely to be utilized to establish their presence and gain bigger revenues. This will provide advertisers and marketers with a distinct opportunity to have more advertising options at a reasonable price. There are likely to be collaborations with high-end brands, increasing the combined profits for the channels.

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