Zee Not Honouring Disney TV Rights In Line With Expectations, Say Experts

Earlier this month, it was reported that Zee had missed a USD 200 million Disney payment deadline that was part of a larger USD 1.4 billion (Rs 11,000 crore)  strategic licence agreement that it had with Disney for the International Cricket Council TV broadcast rights. It is now understood that Zee Entertainment has conveyed to Walt Disney that it does not intend to move forward with a deal at all, as per media sources.

This can be attributed to some of the steps that Zee will be undertaking after the failure of its merger conversations with Sony, now Culver Max.

Zee is said to already be speaking with other large businesses in India to find its next strategic partner. 

"We believe Zee not honouring Disney TV rights contract is largely in line with expectation, as the latter could have been fulfilled or made best use only led by merger with Sony and synergies in sports genre therein. As mentioned in our report, this could lead to another legal overhang for Zee, apart from ongoing cases with Essel creditors and Sony for the termination fee. Our target price (TP) for Zee will remain at Rs 170, as honouring sports contract could have led to hefty losses in FY25, which could drag the TP towards Rs 130, as mentioned in our report," comments Elara Capital's Karan Taurani.