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MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra promoted Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) and Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio have initiated talks to break a monthlong deadlock over pricing of content on the telecom operator’s platform, according to people aware of the development.
ET had reported on August 9 that ZEE has removed all its content from Reliance Jio, including 35 live TV channels and more than 200,000 hours of video-on-demand content, after the two companies failed to agree on content pricing.
Last weekend, the promoters of the two companies decided to sort out the matter and talks are on to get ZEE content back on Jio this week, the persons cited earlier told ET, requesting not to be named.
Email queries sent to ZEE and Reliance Jio remained unanswered till as of press time on Monday, but an executive of Reliance Jio said, “The talks are going on at the promoter level and both ZEE and Jio seem to have arrived at an agreement.
We have been told to provide data on subscribers’ consumption, etc on an urgent basis.
So in all probability, the deal should be signed this week.”
A top executive at ZEE said a formal announcement in this regard was likely before Thursday.
On August 6, the management of ZEE had decided to withdraw all content from Reliance Jio Digital Services, terminating a multi-year deal signed in mid-2016.
This included live channels as well as library content — non-air shows and movies — offered to Jio subscribers via the Jio Cinema mobile application.
Incidentally, within a week of snapping ties with Jio, ZEE announced a three-year multi-layered deal with rival telecom player Bharti Airtel, where the two companies decided to work closely on creating exclusive video content for Airtel’s video-on-demand app, Airtel TV, and ZEE’s over-the-top (OTT) app, ZEE5.
The deal with Airtel also allowed ZEE to push ZEE5 to over 50 million Airtel TV app users with the option to bundle in subscription cost under Airtel TV’s plan.
According to sources, what helped seal the deal was the fact that Airtel agreed to share consumer insights and data of the users with ZEE as part of the deal.
Punit Goenka, managing director of ZEE, had told ET in an interaction after the announcement that consumer data was critical for a long-term partnership and it was one of the key negotiation points for the Airtel deal.
He had also mentioned that ZEE was not getting fair value for its content in the existing deal with Jio, while maintaining that the exit from Jio and partnership with Airtel were two separate decisions.
“This doesn’t mean that we don’t want a deal with Jio.
I would love to offer our content on Jio, provided we get a fair value.
But going ahead, we will ask for consumer insights also to be part of the deal,” Goenka had told ET.
Sector experts point out that since its commercial launch, Jio has grown to have over 215 million subscribers, and with many of the subscribers consuming live TV on their phones, broadcasters are looking at renegotiating their deals, seeking better commercial arrangements.
