Just recently Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) settled its dispute with Sony over failed merger case that was going on in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, but the company’s troubles are far from over as it has been facing issues with Disney India over cricket rights deal that collapsed in January.
Disney India has sought $940 million from ZEEL that includes damages, costs, expenses and interest. The issues started to come forth when the Indian media house could not pay the first $200 million stage payment.
Earlier in 2022, Disney had acquired the rights for TV and streaming for the men’s and women’s events conducted by the International Cricket Council from 2024-2027. It had later sub-licensed the television broadcast rights for the ICC men’s and under-19 tournaments to ZEEL in return for $1.4b billion fee.
But since ZEEL could not fulfill the commitment, there began an arbitration between the two companies at the London Court of International Arbitration. In response to the damages sought by Disney, ZEEL filed a regulatory filing in which it states that the company “categorically refutes all claims and assertions made by Star including its claims for damages. The arbitration is at its initial stage and the LCIA Arbitral Tribunal is yet to determine if the Company is liable in any manner. [ZEEL] will, on merits, strongly contest all unfounded claims by Star and reserves all its rights.”
It has been a long rough patch for Indian media conglomerate ZEEL, which has been facing various legal problems. While the resolving of the issue with Sony was followed by laying off employees and blame game with market regulator SEBI for spooling its deal with Sony as it had ordered a probe into insider trading at the firm last year.
It has become rather important for Zee to come out of this whole mess soon and correct its brand image that has taken a lot of toll in addition to the obvious financial burden due to these legal battles.
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