Zee to re-enter sports after Sony merger says CEO, Punit Goenka

The Ten Sports franchise which Zee Entertainment sold to Sony five years ago will come back to Zee after the merger with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), Punit Goenka, MD, and CEO of Zee said.

"The digital landscape has created an ecosystem for monetization of sports. And therefore, this represents a good opportunity for the combined entity to really re-enter the (sports) space. This merger brings us the opportunity of the kids and sports bouquet which we did not have earlier," added Goenka.

After the merger, Zee will get access to Sony's 10 sports channels which includes the recently launched regional channel Ten 4. Other sports channels include Sony Six, Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 2, Sony 3 along with the HD versions of all these channels.

SPNI offers sports properties such as WWE, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), football championship EURO, cricketing properties like this year's India tour of Australia, England tour of India.

"Sports will continue to be one of the most important verticals for the combined group entity as Sony has been entrenched in that vertical for more than a decade, said Vivek Menon, Co-founder of NV Capital, a media and entertainment financing group.