Broadcasters Zee and Star India on Friday announced that they will dismantle their distribution joint-venture ? MediaPro Enterprises India ? set up in May 2011, following a recent order from the sector regulator.
In February, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) issued a regulation prohibiting distributing houses to bundle channels of multiple broadcasters into one bouquet.
“In the light of the new regulation, both partners have decided to build independent affiliate sales (network),” Zee Entertainment Enterprises MD and CEO Punit Goenka said in a statement on Friday.
MediaPro was established as a 50:50 JV between Zee Turner and Star Den Media. After the dismantling of MediaPro, both Zee and Star will establish independent affiliates for sales of their channels, the statement said.
The creation of MediaPro was not without its share of controversies. Based on a complaint, the fair-trade regulator investigated the allegations of abuse of market dominance by MediPro. However, in April 2013, the Competition Commission of India rejected the charge after finding no evidence of that.