MUMBAI: Zee Sports, which till now has been sold as an a la carte pay channel, is being bundled as part of Zee Turner's second bouquet of channels. The bouquet comprises five channels - HBO, Pogo, Zee Business, Vh1 and Awaaz.

The price of the second package will increase from Rs 25 to Rs 30 per subscriber a month with effect from 1 August. Zee Sports as a standalone channel was priced at Rs 10. "The second bouquet will now include Zee Sports and the price will increase by Rs 5 per subscriber," Zee Turner CEO Arun Poddar says.

Zee Turner's first bundle consists of channels like Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee News, Cartoon Network and CNBC. The regional channels of Zee are also in this pack. The bouquet is priced at Rs 58.85 a month per subscriber. The combined rate of the two bouquets after the inclusion of Zee Sports will now be Rs 88.85.

The strength of Zee Turner's second bouquet is led by the two Turner channels, HBO and Pogo. With Zee Sports lacking driver content, the bundling is expected to give the sports channel a boost in connectivity while allowing a rate increase for the second bouquet. Though Zee Sports was priced at Rs 10 and sold in Zee-Turner's third bouquet, cable operators in effect were asking for a carriage fee to distribute the channel.