Disney Star may take legal actions against Zee Entertainment Enterprises for backing out from a $1.4 billion sub-licensing agreement for TV broadcast of international cricket matches in India, a report said.
Zee Entertainment has reportedly informed Disney Star that it won’t honor their $1.4-billion deal for International Cricket Council’s TV rights from 2024-2027.
Following this, Disney Star, which is the Indian arm of The Walt Disney Company, is said to be working on the next move, news agency PTI reported. If the rescinded agreement contained an arbitration clause, then Disney Star would have to resort to arbitration proceedings for the resolution of the dispute and if the agreement is short of the arbitration clause, then Disney could initiate legal proceedings to sue Zee for damages.
On August 30, 2022, Zee Entertainment announced that they had entered into a strategic licensing agreement with Disney Star under which it was given the television broadcasting rights for the ICC Men’s and Under-19 global events for a duration of four years.
Zee Entertainment is already facing an arbitration plea by Sony Group at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre for not fulfilling the conditions of their merger agreement. It has claimed $90 million for the failure of the deal. As per the merger agreement between ZEEL and Sony, the Japanese entity was supposed to invest $1.575 billion in the merged entity and have a majority stake.
