Zee expands footprint with four new regional channels

Broadcasting major Zee Group on Thursday announced four more regional channels--a Punjabi GEC (general entertainment channel), and three movie channels--Thirai in Tamil, Picchar in Kannada and Biskope in Bhojpuri.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has been the leading player in the regional space for decades with more than two-thirds of its audiences coming in from non-Hindi languages.

Currently it is present in 10 regional languages (Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, and Bhojpuri in HSM and all four Southern languages), with 12 SD and 8 HD channels, reaching almost 200 million every day.

Over all, Zee has presence in 173 countries reaching over 1.3 billion people around the globe.

Announcing the new channels, Punit Misra, chief executive of domestic business, said over the past 27 years Zee has been reaching out to over 800 million people across the country, and 650 million of them come through its non-Hindi offerings.

"Our new offerings are designed to add to our growth trajectory, further cementing our belief in winning hearts across many Bharats," he said, adding these new channels will go live from January.

Zee Punjabi is the first GEC in that language offering over 20 hrs of original weekly content, while Zee Thirai has a library of over 400 titles from Tamil Cinema; Zee Picchar will offer over 350 Kannada movies and Zee Biskope in Bhojpuri will be offering over 300 movies.

With these channels, Zee will be present in 11 languages and further strengthening its presence in Kannada, Tamil and Bhojpuri. It has a portfolio of 42 SD and HD channels across various entertainment genres and 11 languages.

Zee's regional portfolio contributes to over 50 per cent of its overall share, with GECs contributing almost 90 per cent of the regional pie. It is the dominant market player in Marathi, Bangla and Kannada with over 50 per cent market share in Marathi and Bangla markets.