Zee Entertainment

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (formerly Zee Telefilms Limited) is an Indian mass media company owned by Essel Group. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, mobile content and allied businesses.

The company was launched on 02 October 1991 and was previously known as Zee Telefilms until 2006, when it was renamed and the news and entertainment units were spun off into four smaller divisions. ZEEL currently operates over 34 different television channels, record label Zee Music Company, a production company (Essel Vision Production Limited as Zee Studios) and other businesses as well. It has expanded operations abroad, with several of its channels available in the UK and US as well as Africa and Asia.

In 2002 ZEEL acquired a majority stake (51%) in ETC Networks. In 2006, they acquired Integrated Subscriber Management Services Limited, and in November 2006, ZEEL acquired an interest (50%) in Taj television TEN Sports. In February 2010 ZEEL acquired an additional stake (95%) in TEN Sports.

As Zee Telefilms, the company formed part of BSE Sensex from 2000-2005. The news and regional entertainment channel business was spun off into a separate company in 2006 under the corporate banner Zee News Ltd (ZNL).

In May 2011, Star Den entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Zee Turner Limited and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (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 2008, Zee Networks launched Zee Motion Pictures and Zee Limelight (now Zee Studios), for development, production, distribution and marketing of mainstream films in Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi. Some of the productions of Zee Studios include Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, Natsamrat, Sairat and Rustom.

In 2015 Zee acquired Sarthak TV, an Odia language GEC. Zee Entertainment Enterprises launched the Bollywood movie channel Zee One dedicated to the German market on 28 July 2016. A Polish version is scheduled to follow in 2017. In 2016, Zee launched Zee Mundo, the first ever Spanish-language Bollywood movie channel. In 2017, ZEE acquired the majority of Reliance Broadcast Network and got the Big Magic, Big Ganga, Big FM, etc. from Anil Ambani's Broadcasting Network. It also acquired 100 percent stake in two media entities, 9X Media and INX Music.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises operates favourite 14 news channels and 65 entertainment channels. A partially owned subsidiary, Diligent Media Corporation, is a publisher of Indian daily newspapers and news and entertainment websites. DMC is a joint venture between Zee and the Dainik Bhaskar Group. Recently, Zee Entertainment acquired US patent for a new digital technology, where the platform will offer immersive content, satisfying all five senses.

Sun TV Network

Sun TV Network Limited is an Indian mass media company headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is a part of Sun Group and is Asia's largest TV network. Established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanidhi Maran, it owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages. Its flagship channel is Sun TV, which was the first fully privately owned Tamil channel in India. Sun Group has owned Hyderabad-based IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad since 2012.

Television channels

Sun Group currently owns and operates 32 TV channels (24 SD + 8 HD) across Indian languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam Marathi and Bengali. Sun Group will be launching 7 new HD channels and 3 new SD channels including network's first channels in Marathi language, marking the entry of the company into North Indian market after Sun Bangla. After this, Sun Group will have a total of 42 channels in their bouquet.

Print media

Sun Group owns two daily newspapers and five magazines in Tamil. Dinakaran was founded in 1977 by K. P. Kandasamy and was acquired from K. P. K. Kumaran by Sun Network in 2005. It is the second largest circulated Tamil daily in India after Dina Thanthi. Tamil Murasu is an evening newspaper. The group owns the magazines Kungumam, Kumguma Chimizh, Kungumam Thozhi, Aanmigam, Mutharam and Vannathirai.

Radio stations

The group owns 48 FM radio stations across India broadcasting under the names Suryan FM and Red FM.

OTT Platform

Sun NXT is a global online audio/video streaming platform owned and operated by Sun TV Network Ltd.

Tata Sky

Tata Sky is an Indian direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, using MPEG-4 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT-4A and GSAT-10 satellite. Incorporated in 2004, Tata Sky is a joint venture between the Tata Group, and The Walt Disney Company with Temasek Holdings as a minor partner. It was started as a joint venture between Tata Group and 21st Century Fox.

It currently offers total 601 channels, 495 SD channels and 99 HD channels and services, along with other many active services. Tata Sky entered into an agreement with French firm Technicolor to supply 4K set top boxes from early 2015.

History

Tata Sky is an equity strategic alliance in the nature of a joint venture between the Tata Group and 21st Century Fox, which own 70% and 30% stake respectively. In 2008, Singapore-based Temasek Holdings picked up 10% stake in Tata Sky from the Tata Group. Tata Sky was incorporated in 2001, but launched services on 8 August 2006.

STAR’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, formerly owned an international group of DTH businesses that include Sky Italia in Italy and Sky UK in United Kingdom. The company uses the Sky brand under a license from Sky. Tata Sky has partnered with Ericsson to launch the first Video on Demand (VOD) Services ever in India in 2012.

On 9 January 2015, Tata Sky became the first Indian DTH operator to offer 4K set-top-boxes to its consumers. On 19 March 2019, The Walt Disney Company completed acquisition of 30% stake from 21st Century Fox.

Tata Sky was the second operator to launch DTH or direct-to-home services in 2006. At that time, the company decided to use an ISRO satellite. In 2005, Tata Sky signed a contract with ISRO for provision of satellite space on the INSAT-4A satellite. In 2007, one year after the launch of the DTH player, Tata Sky asked for more space to increase the number of channels they telecast. The extra space was promised in 2009 on the GSAT-10 satellite, a then to be launched satellite inducted into the INSAT system. The GSAT-10 was launched in September 2012, Tata Sky has started utilizing those transponders in March 2015.