CCI okays Sony-Zee merger with conditions

The two companies, Sony and Zee, have given no clarification on the issue yet.

Earlier, a unit of Sony Group and India’s Zee Entertainment had proposed concessions like pricing discounts to help ease concerns of the country’s antitrust regulator over their merger, reported Reuters citing sources.

They had submitted “voluntary remedies” to the deal in writing to assuage the watchdog’s concerns. Some media reports also claimed that one of the proposed changes included shutting down of a popular general entertainment channel owned by Zee.

The delay in approval can be attributed to scrutiny by CCI. In particular, the CCI was concerned over how big an impact on competition the merged entity would have in terms of advertising and channel pricing, particularly in the popular Hindi language segment.

Sony and Zee in December decided to merge their television channels, film assets and streaming platforms to create a powerhouse in a key growth market of 1.4 billion people, that will challenge rivals like Walt Disney Co.

Zee is a household TV name in India set up in 1992 by Subhash Chandra, dubbed the “Father of Indian Television”. Its founders had to dilute their stake in the Indian company to tackle debt in 2019 and the Sony deal was struck amid a 2021 boardroom conflict with an overseas shareholder.

For Sony, the merger will further its ambitions to tap more digital, TV and regional language audiences in the fast-growing Indian market, where international competitors also include the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

(With inputs from agencies)