With their merger looming, here’s a look at how Zee, Sony fared on key parameters in FY23

Zee’s and Sony’s combined revenue stood at Rs 14,772 crore in FY23.

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Media majors Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), which are set to merge shortly, faced some pressure in FY23, particularly because of a weak advertising environment.

While Sony India’s advertisement revenue declined 4 percent year-on-year (YoY) in FY23 to Rs 3,300 crore, Zee’s ad revenue fell 8 percent YoY to Rs 4,100 crore, according to an Elara Capital note.

Last financial year turned out to be a challenging period for the media and entertainment industry given the weak ad spending environment, the Zee management had said during its Q4 FY23 earnings call.

Inflationary pressures and cuts in ad spends by new-age and e-commerce verticals had weakened advertising spends, noted analysts.

Subscription revenue also remained under pressure in the last financial year because of a prolonged delay in the implementation of New Tariff Order 3.0 (NTO), which put pressure on linear TV subscription revenues, Zee said. Zee’s subscription revenue was up 3 percent in FY23 whereas Sony’s grew 15 percent YoY. “Sony outperformed Zee (in FY23) due to strength in the urban genre, sports properties, and OTT (over-the-top platform) price hikes,” said Karan Taurani, senior vice-president, Elara Capital.

How the numbers stack up

In the television vertical, Sony and Zee had a market share of 9.1 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively, in FY23. Hence, the combined entity recorded a total market share of 19.4 percent.

Sony’s ad revenue market share stood at 10.7 percent and its subscription revenue market share was 8 percent. As for Zee, its ad and subscription revenue market share stood at 13.3 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.

The subscription market share of the combined entity stood at 16.4 percent in FY23. The merged entity, with 24 percent market share in advertising revenue, is only behind Star-Disney, which has a 33 percent share.

On the streaming front, Sony India’s OTT platform SonyLIV currently has 33.3 million subscribers, while Zee’s streaming arm Zee5 reported 112 million average monthly active users (MAU) and 11.3 million daily active users (DAU) in FY23. According to industry estimates, Zee5’s subscriber base is pegged in the range of 5-10 million.

In terms of financials, Sony recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1,042 crore in FY23, up 6 percent YoY, whereas Zee’s PAT stood at Rs 251.4 crore, down 76 percent YoY. “Zee faced pressure mainly due to the content cost and its investments in digital,” Taurani noted.

Zee’s and Sony’s combined revenue stood at Rs 14,772 crore in FY23.

The combined entity’s annual revenue is estimated to be about $2 billion, said Mihir Shah, India head at Media Partners Asia, an advisory and consulting group. He added that the merged entity has an opportunity to scale in sports and streaming, especially with the $1.5 billion funding that will come after the merger.

Merger cleared

Zee and Sony received approval for their merger from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on August 10, after seven months. Within 30 days of the NCLT order, Zee will have to intimate the registrar of companies, after which the company’s shares will be delisted from stock exchanges and re-listed in another six weeks, said legal experts.

The combined entity’s board of directors will also need clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is expected that the merger of Zee and Sony is likely to be completed by mid-November.