Comcast/Sony bidding for India's Zee Entertainment Enterprises

[quinnmac000]

Zee Entertainment in talks with Comcast and Sony to sell stake - cnbctv18.com

ZEE in talks with Sony & Comcast to sell 50 per cent stake | BizAsia | Media, Entertainment, Showbiz, Events and Music

Stake sale: Top management of Zee in a huddle, Comcast and Sony in fray - Moneycontrol.com

I knew Comcast was looking into Asian expansion I'm just shocked they went to India over Korea or expanding their operations in Japan fist but this is a good move to gain a new production studio in India for the streaming service.

 

[Nick]

India is in a period of HUGE entertainment growth and online presence. The country is densely packed and they now have full access to the internet. This has lead to the ongoing feud with Pewdiepie and India entertainment company T-Series for the top Subscriber count on Youtube. With Youtube now open to these entertainment companies, they are able to get a much wider reach.

 

[quinnmac000]

Sony is no longer in the running but it appears Comcast still is...

Report: Sony talks for stake in India's Zee break down - Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) | Seeking Alpha

 

[quinnmac000]

ZEE Entertainment: Deal street: Comcast-led consortium closing in on ZEE Entertainment buy

Comcast, Blackstone, and the Murdoch family are all going in together to buy this with Comcast being the main stake holder but Murdoch helping run as they have the connections in India as it will be ran by Ex-Star employees.

 

[zg44]

I'm not too surprised.

India basically has 5 large TV groups: Star, Sony, Zee, Sun, and TV18.

1) Star is already a part of Disney (via Fox) and is the clear #1 due to cricket rights for its Star Sports channel and Hotstar streaming service which has a huge first mover advantage in streaming in India.

2) Sony is already owned by its namesake.

3) Zee is a mostly pure play TV/film group that's independent.

4) Sun is a TV group that's part of a complete media conglomerate with tv/radio/newspaper/etc.

5) TV18 actually has a bunch of CNBC channels through a NBCU deal, but it's owned by Reliance which is one of India's largest conglomerates. They won't sell that, and even if they did Viacom has a joint venture with them so might be at an advantage in buying them out.


Basically, if you're Comcast then the only way into the Indian market in a big way is to make a play at Zee or Sun because Star and TV18 are off-limits now, and the only way that Sony's Indian division comes up for sale is if Sony sells its entire tv/film entertainment division.

 

[quinnmac000]

Comcast, partners make offer for stake in Subhash Chandra's Zee Ent | Business Standard News
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Comcast will hold the most of the 51% it appears and Lupa Systems can only hold 9-10% max.....