MUMBAI: From Zee-ro to hero, India’s private satellite television industry has come a long way since Zee TV first flickered onto screens in 1992. Thirty-three years later, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (‘Z’) is celebrating not just its own journey, but the meteoric rise of an entire industry that now fuels a ~Rs 2.5 trillion economy and supports 2.8 million livelihoods.
Back then, the story began with a single satellite channel. Today, India boasts 908 private satellite channels, 70 plus OTT platforms, nearly 40,000 artists, lyricists and music directors, and more than 3,400 feature films churned out each year, a content explosion that has transformed living rooms and lifestyles alike.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. CEO Punit Goenka marked the occasion with pride, “The journey of ‘Z’ is inseparable from the story of India’s M&E industry. Collectively, we have entertained and empowered our Nation, engaging and inspiring billions of consumers on every screen. Our success over the last 33 years is not defined only by numbers but by the immense value we have generated and the moments of togetherness we’ve created. As pioneers, we view this celebration as a stimulus to power ahead and nurture an ecosystem of creativity and growth.”
Over the decades, Zee has mirrored the M&E sector’s transformation from being a catalyst for authentic, multilingual storytelling to enabling a networked ecosystem spanning TV, film, music, digital, and live entertainment. Its latest move: venturing into short-form content to capture evolving consumer habits.
The industry’s economic footprint is only set to expand. With nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in FDI already attracted and an expected 7 per cent growth to Rs 3.07 trillion by 2027, India’s entertainment sector is being hailed as one of the country’s strongest instruments of soft power.
As Zee celebrates 33 years of keeping audiences glued, its story is more than a corporate milestone, it’s a chapter in how India learned to tell, stream, and scale its stories for the world.
Leave a Reply