Essel Group-owned Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. has removed 35 live television channels and more than 200,000 hours of video-on-demand content from India's Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. after failing to agree on pricing, The Economic Times of India reported, citing sources.
The decision was reportedly made Aug. 6 and involves discontinuing a multiyear deal struck between the two companies in 2016.
The sources said the companies could not agree on a viable commercial agreement.
Several channels including Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee Marathi have already been removed from Reliance Jio Digital Services's Jio TV app, according to the report.
A spokesperson from Mukesh Ambani-led Jio quoted in the report said the company was working with all parties to create "a win-win relationship" for consumers and broadcasters, while Jio and Zee Entertainment spokespeople did not comment on the latest development.
According to the report, Ambani had earlier said Jio had 215 million users on its network within 22 months of operation. Data usage on the Jio platform was at 2.4 billion gigabytes per month while video consumption had grown to 3.4 billion hours per month.