&Prive HD to strengthen English cinema cluster on Indian TV: Officials (Lead, correcting channel name)

Indian content conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has come out with a new channel &Prive HD. The aim is to fill the void of the "under-served segment" of nuanced Hollywood movie viewing on the small screen, say top executives.

With the proposition of 'Feel the Other Side', the new HD channel will go live on September 24.

"We want to service the requirements of all the viewers in this country... Looking at the way market has evolved in the English movie segment, (it is for sure that) it will keep on growing and that is why for us coming out with this channel seemed like a logical thing," Punit Misra, CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Derived from the French word Prive, which means a personal or private place, the channel aims to become the 'personal favourite destination for good cinema'. They have curated a library of niche movie titles that have won prestigious awards all over the world.

The channel will launch with the Academy Award winning movie "Moonlight" and will also premiere 40 critically acclaimed movies along with over 350 other celebrated titles.

"We are trying to fill the niche gap... We have put the consumer first," said Aparna Bhosle, Business Cluster Head - Premium and FTA GEC Channels, ZEEL.

The target segment as mentioned by Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Marketing Officer, ZEEL, is the non-conformist consumer.

"We were working on this for a while and we did an analysis of what are the segments within the HD space that are under-served... So the target segment is non-conformist, and in terms of demographics, it is urban male and female," Agarwal said.

Talking about the growing competition, Misra said: "This category is under-served. It is good that we are coming with lots of choices. It is more about consumption (than business)."

--IANS

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