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Tag: Punit Goenka

  • Zee Cine Awards hops on to Zee Cinema & Zee Anmol; regional categories introduced

    Zee Cine Awards hops on to Zee Cinema & Zee Anmol; regional categories introduced

    MUMBAI: In its 16th year, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (ZEEL) awards property – Zee Cine Awards 2016 has made several changes and introduced new elements.

    Zee Cine Awards 2016 will be held on 20 February in Mumbai and will be simulcast on 5 March across the Zee Network channels like Zee Cinema, Zee Cinema HD and its free-to-air channel Zee Anmol. Pertinent to note here is that previously, the awards were aired on the network’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. However, this time round it has been put on its Hindi movie channel – Zee Cinema as well as its FTA channel Zee Anmol, which has been doing well on ratings front ever since the BARC rural inclusive data was released last year.

    “The reason why we shifted Zee Cine Awards from Zee TV to Zee Cinema is because initially it started from Zee Cinema itself. As it’s an award of cinema, it should belong to its home on Zee Cinema and now onwards we will be airing it on Zee Cinema,” ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka tells Indiantelevision.com.

    ZEEL chief business officer Sunil Buch added, “ZEEL comes alive in a synergistic way to deliver Zee Cine Awards 2016. Zee Music Company continues to be our music touch point in the fraternity. This year’s Zee Cine Awards has been conceptualised, created and produced by Zee Studios, our state-of-the-art film and TV production arm. And there is a goodness of fit to a film awards show being premiered on Zee Cinema rather than on a GEC. Zee Cinema with an average weekly base of 184 million viewers is higher than any other channel across Hindi Speaking Markets (Source: BARC-Urban + Rural India, Average of Week 41’15-Week 3’16, NCCS 4+). The simulcast of the awards on India’s leading FTA GEC channel, Zee Anmol also adds to its reach in rural India.”

    Moreover, for the first time ever, the awards, which until now lauded the best of Hindi cinema, will also award Marathi, Bangla, Telugu cinema this year. ZEEL will also showcase the regional awards content on its regional channels namely Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi and Zee Telugu.

    Goenka added, “Keeping the Zee’s ethos, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World Is My Family, into consideration we have introduced a few new elements this year in Zee Cine Awards 2016. For the first time on the national award stage, regional content will be presented awards this year. Renowned personalities from Telugu, Marathi and Bengali cinema will perform on stage and that exclusive content will be telecast on Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi and Zee Telugu respectively, so that people can see the talent that regional cinema has.”

    Apart from that ZEEL has also introduced the Jury Awards this year, which will be adjudged by a panel comprising Rakesh Roshan, Resul Pookutty, Ravi K Chandran, Anurag Basu, Leena Yadav, Prasoon Joshi and Shantanu Moitra.

    The 15th edition of Zee Cine Awards was telecast on Zee TV in 2014 and a no show in 2015. Talking about the same, Goenka said, “We missed the awards last year because we were in the process of launching new brands from our network. However, we will ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future.” 

    To authenticate the voting mechanism of both, the Jury Awards and the Viewer’s Choice Awards, Zee has appointed the Ernst & Young.  

    This year the award ceremony will be hosted by Shahid Kapoor and Karan Johar.

  • Zee Cine Awards hops on to Zee Cinema & Zee Anmol; regional categories introduced

    Zee Cine Awards hops on to Zee Cinema & Zee Anmol; regional categories introduced

    MUMBAI: In its 16th year, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (ZEEL) awards property – Zee Cine Awards 2016 has made several changes and introduced new elements.

    Zee Cine Awards 2016 will be held on 20 February in Mumbai and will be simulcast on 5 March across the Zee Network channels like Zee Cinema, Zee Cinema HD and its free-to-air channel Zee Anmol. Pertinent to note here is that previously, the awards were aired on the network’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV. However, this time round it has been put on its Hindi movie channel – Zee Cinema as well as its FTA channel Zee Anmol, which has been doing well on ratings front ever since the BARC rural inclusive data was released last year.

    “The reason why we shifted Zee Cine Awards from Zee TV to Zee Cinema is because initially it started from Zee Cinema itself. As it’s an award of cinema, it should belong to its home on Zee Cinema and now onwards we will be airing it on Zee Cinema,” ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka tells Indiantelevision.com.

    ZEEL chief business officer Sunil Buch added, “ZEEL comes alive in a synergistic way to deliver Zee Cine Awards 2016. Zee Music Company continues to be our music touch point in the fraternity. This year’s Zee Cine Awards has been conceptualised, created and produced by Zee Studios, our state-of-the-art film and TV production arm. And there is a goodness of fit to a film awards show being premiered on Zee Cinema rather than on a GEC. Zee Cinema with an average weekly base of 184 million viewers is higher than any other channel across Hindi Speaking Markets (Source: BARC-Urban + Rural India, Average of Week 41’15-Week 3’16, NCCS 4+). The simulcast of the awards on India’s leading FTA GEC channel, Zee Anmol also adds to its reach in rural India.”

    Moreover, for the first time ever, the awards, which until now lauded the best of Hindi cinema, will also award Marathi, Bangla, Telugu cinema this year. ZEEL will also showcase the regional awards content on its regional channels namely Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi and Zee Telugu.

    Goenka added, “Keeping the Zee’s ethos, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World Is My Family, into consideration we have introduced a few new elements this year in Zee Cine Awards 2016. For the first time on the national award stage, regional content will be presented awards this year. Renowned personalities from Telugu, Marathi and Bengali cinema will perform on stage and that exclusive content will be telecast on Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi and Zee Telugu respectively, so that people can see the talent that regional cinema has.”

    Apart from that ZEEL has also introduced the Jury Awards this year, which will be adjudged by a panel comprising Rakesh Roshan, Resul Pookutty, Ravi K Chandran, Anurag Basu, Leena Yadav, Prasoon Joshi and Shantanu Moitra.

    The 15th edition of Zee Cine Awards was telecast on Zee TV in 2014 and a no show in 2015. Talking about the same, Goenka said, “We missed the awards last year because we were in the process of launching new brands from our network. However, we will ensure that it doesn’t happen in the future.” 

    To authenticate the voting mechanism of both, the Jury Awards and the Viewer’s Choice Awards, Zee has appointed the Ernst & Young.  

    This year the award ceremony will be hosted by Shahid Kapoor and Karan Johar.

  • Siju Prabhakaran to head the Zee Tamil business

    Siju Prabhakaran to head the Zee Tamil business

    MUMBAI: Zee Kannada business head Siju Prabhakaran, will now take over as the business head – Zee Tamil. He replaces N S Easwaran who has decided to move out of ZEE.

     

    Prabhakaran has been with ZEE for over 15 years now and has experience in sales as well. He will report to ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka.

     

    Elaborating on his new role Prabhakaran said, “Tamil Nadu is a market with huge potential. This is one market where television viewing is a habit that is quite difficult to break. I’m looking forward to bringing the necessary changes to this habit that will benefit Zee Tamil and help us grow in leaps and bounds.”

  • Zee Entertainment forays into theatre; plans 100+ productions

    Zee Entertainment forays into theatre; plans 100+ productions

    MUMBAI: In an attempt to be present across all verticals of entertainment content, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has now forayed into theatre under the Zee Theatre brand name.

     

    Zeel has taken this initiative so as to make theatre content available through various viewing platforms like online, on-air, on-ground, in-transit for global audiences to consume at their convenience as well as archiving the productions for future generations.

     

    Zee Theatre will partner with renowned playwrights and theatre stalwarts to produce over 100 plays over the next three years.

     

    Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, “Theatre has been a part of our DNA for centuries. With Zee Theatre our vision is to preserve this heritage and take these timeless stories to audiences across the country and the rest of the world. It is a very proud moment for us to be able to bring theatre to mainstream entertainment and give the industry its due.”   

     

    “After television and cinema, theatre will be the next content vertical for us at Zee. With Zee Theatre, we are opening up a new genre for multiple screen consumption. This is in line with our strategy of offering differentiated content to our discerning audience base,” he added.

     

    Zee Theatre will bring together works of some of the most acknowledged and renowned playwrights like Mohan Rakesh, Jaywant Dalvi, Vijay Tendulkar, Surendra Verma, Mahesh Dattani, Ranjit Kapoor, Shafaat Khan and many others from Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and English theatre.

     

    Stalwarts such as Ranjit Kapoor, Mahesh Dattani, Usha Ganguli, Vijay Kenkre, Dr. Vijaya Mehta, Atul Kumar, Ishan Trivedi, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Chandrakant Kulkarni, Rajan Tamhane and many more will be bringing alive some of their best stories on this platform with plays such as Rudali, Sandhya Chhaya, Piya Behrupiya, Janpath Kiss, White Lilly Night Rider, 30 Days in September, Doll’s House and Ma Retire Hoti Hai amongst others.

     

    Zeel chief creative – special projects Shailja Kejriwal added, “The beauty of theatre is that it takes you into a fascinating world of stories across genres from drama and suspense to social issues, musicals, classics and satire in a manner not dealt with on any other medium. With Zee Theatre we aim at nurturing this rich content for present and future generations to continue the legacy, which has been cherished by veterans for decades. I would like to thank the entire theatre industry for extending their support for this initiative.”

     

    Zee will leverage its ability to make theatre available across multiple platforms such as the internet, mobile, DTH, television, in-flight, screenings at multiplexes and educational institutes in addition to existing on-ground performances making theatrical content available to the widest possible audience at their convenience.

  • Q2-2016: Ad & subscription revenue growth drives Zee net up 9%; income up 24%

    Q2-2016: Ad & subscription revenue growth drives Zee net up 9%; income up 24%

    BENGALURU: Riding on the back of higher advertising and subscription based revenues in the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2016), the Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (Zeel) net income was up nine per cent at Rs 247.40 crore (17.9 per cent margin) than the Rs 229 (20 per cent margin) in Q2-2015. This was also 1.5 per cent more than Rs 243.76 crore (18.2 per cent of consolidated total revenue or TR) in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    The company’s total revenue in Q2-2016 increased 23.9 per cent to Rs 1384.90 crore from Rs 1117.82 crore in Q2-2015 and was 3.4 per cent more than the Rs 1339.86 crore in Q1-2016.

     

    Advertising revenues saw a 34.7 per cent hike in Q2-2016 to Rs 843.31 crore (60.9 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 625.94 crore (56 per cent of TR) and was 8.1 per cent more than the Rs 779.93 crore (58.2 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

    Subscription revenue in the current quarter also increased 12.9 per cent to Rs 479.14 crore (34.6 per cent of TR) from Rs 424.45 crore (38 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter and rose 3.6 per cent as compared to the Rs 462.53 crore (34.5 per cent of TR) in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Zeel’s total revenue during the half year ended 30 September, 2015 (HY-2016) increased 25.4 per cent to Rs 2724.76 crore from Rs 2172.88 crore in HY-2015.

     

    Advertising revenue increased 30.1 per cent to Rs 1623.24 crore (59.6 per cent of TR) in HY-2016 from Rs 1248.04 crore (57.4 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago period. 

     

    Subscription revenue in HY-2016 at Rs 941.67 crore (34.6 per cent of TR) increased 12.6 per cent from Rs 836.58 crore (38.5 per cent of TR) in HY-2015.

     

    PAT for the current half year increased to Rs 491.16 crore (18 per cent margin) from Rs 438.12 crore (20.2 per cent margin) in HY-2015.

     

     

    Other results reported by Zeel for Q2-2016 and HY-2016:

     

    Total Expense (TE) in Q2-2016 at Rs 1050.05 crore (75.8 per cent of TR) increased 29.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 810.75 (72.5 per cent of TR) in Q2-2015 and was 0.4 per cent more than the Rs 1045.47 crore (78 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

    Zeel’s operating cost increased 28.3 per cent to 603.62 crore (43.6 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 470.30 crore (42.1 per cent of TR) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but was 1.2 per cent lower than the Rs 610.76 crore (45.6 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

    Other expense in Q2-2016 fell 18.3 per cent to Rs 179.05 crore (12.9 per cent of TR) as compared to the Rs 219.11 crore (19.6 per cent of TR) and was 2.3 per cent lower than the Rs 183.24 crore (13.7 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

    Employee Benefit Expense increased 17.4 per cent to Rs 126.70 crore (9.1 per cent of TR) than the Rs 107.96 crore (9.7 per cent of TR) in Q2-2015, but was 8.2 per cent lower than the Rs 138.01 crore (10.3 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

    Advertisement and Publicity expense in the current quarter was 64.6 per cent more at Rs 120.90 crore (8.7 per cent of TR) in Q2-2016 as compared to the Rs 73.45 crore (6.6 per cent of TR) and was 25.1 per cent more than the Rs 96.65 crore (7.2 per cent of TR) in Q1-2016.

     

     

    Company speak

     

    Chandra said, “Zee has seen an impressive performance during the second quarter. The improvement in advertisement industry and improved performance of our network has helped us grow ahead of the market. We continue to see the positive results of our investments. We will endeavour to continue on this track going forward and pursue new opportunities that will yield long term growth. Our effort is to entertain audience across the world.”

     

    Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka added, “We are quite pleased with our quarterly performance and it continues to remain on track. We have grown as a network on the back of superior programming on our new and existing products. The improvement in the overall advertisement market has further aided our strong growth. The domestic subscription market has also seen steady growth.”

     

    “Zee is the leading content player in the Indian TV industry offering maximum hours of content for audiences both home and abroad. Going forward, our endeavor would be to further enhance our offerings and be ahead of the market in delivering innovative and high quality entertainment to our viewers across consumption platforms. We believe that in this fast evolving media and  entertainment space delivering excellent content will remain key for monetising revenues, from both advertising and subscription standpoint,” said Goenka.

  • Zee pledges to go green

    Zee pledges to go green

    MUMBAI:   ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) once again leads the way by pledging to go Green with the launch of its ‘ZEE is Green’ initiative today. As a pilot project, ZEE has successfully transformed the set of &TV’s Gangaa as a ‘Green’ set.

     

    Speaking on this initiative,  ZEEL MD& CEO Punit Goenka said, “Every industry has environmental responsibilities and the Media & Entertainment Industry is no exception. Film making and content creation is like any manufacturing activity with high fuel and electricity consumption, raw material and manpower usage, and production of landfill waste. With ‘ZEE Is Green’ we aim to translate our environmental commitment into action by integrating sustainability across our organization, in front of the cameras as well as behind it.”

     

    Elaborating further,  Goenka said, “Since the last three months, we have been working closely with all the stakeholders, from the production houses to the studio owners to our vendors. We have tried to study their problems, their needs, and their work processes. After doing an in-depth analysis, we have devised eco-friendly systems which do not disrupt their normal processes drastically but will still make a significant impact in the reduction of carbon emissions and production cost, over a period of time.”

     

    Discussing the initiative,  ZEEL chief brand officer Roland Landers commented, “In line with our corporate brand philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, ZEE has been embracing the world as One Family. As a caring corporate, we want to touch people’s lives, not just through our entertainment but by building a sustainable enterprise that fosters action towards a better world. Our ‘ZEE is Green’ initiative aims at developing the next generation of production practices that puts people and profits in sync with the planet.”

     

    The mission of ‘ZEE is Green’ is to raise awareness, build capacity and foster the widespread adoption of economically viable, environmentally restorative and socially constructive processes. The pilot project under this initiative was the successful greening of the set of &TV’s popular show ‘Gangaa’. Green measures introduced on the set include the installation of colour-coded bins for waste segregation, an organic waste converter to transform wet waste into manure and a plastic shredder that prevents wrongful reuse of plastic bottles and also saves on the fuel associated with their transportation.

     

    Other measures adopted include the use of eco-fonts to print scripts which will reduce ink consumption by approximately 35%, the installation of water coolers with RO purifier to eliminate the use of 20 liter plastic water jugs, the use of rechargeable batteries in sound recording and the commissioning of solar street lights in the studio complex.

     

    In the next phase, these policies will be extended to other productions with the aim of cutting carbon emissions by 10% in the coming year. Further, ZEE will also be launching Zeeisgreen.com, a portal which will host unique green guides, the green experiences on different sets and useful information which will be easily accessible to all stakeholders. The site will host a unique module which will list vendors who provide environment friendly goods to be used in production.

     

    By creating eco-wealth, ZEE is confident of building a stronger business and a more sustainable world in the process.

  • Zee TV completes 23 years on Indian television; creates 1 million jobs

    Zee TV completes 23 years on Indian television; creates 1 million jobs

    MUMBAI: Twenty-three years ago to this date, one man changed the face of Indian television forever.

     

    We’re talking about none other than the czar of television in India – Dr Subhash Chandra, who began beaming Zee TV on 2 October, 1992 as the first Hindi language cable channel in India.

     

    Over the last 23 years, Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Zee TV has expanded its reach to more than 169 countries and has viewership of over 956 million across the world. What’s more, with the advent of Zee TV, the industry has created one million jobs, according to Dr Chandra.

     

    On 23 anniversary of Zee TV, Dr Chandra took to Twitter to say:

     

     

    Following his father’s tweet-steps, ZEEL MD and CEO Puneet Goenka also tweeted:

     

     

    Since launch, the channel has aired hundreds of fictional show, which while providing entertainment have also raised multiple social issues of the country. Some of its impactful dramas have been series like Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, Apki Antra, Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyaan and Afsar Betiya amongst many others.

     

    A pioneer in many aspects, Zee TV was the first to introduce India’s first musical reality show called Antakshari, which ran successfully for over ten years. Hosted by Anuu Kapoor, the show was viewers’ staple diet across age groups.

     

    Zee also went on to launch Zee Khana Khazana, the first 24 hours food channel in India. Aap Ki Adalat hosted by renowned journalist Rajat Sharma, was among the most loved show of 90s that the channel has ever produced.

     

    In the fiction space, the channel gave a landmark show like Tara – the first show on contemporary urban women by Vinta Nanda that ran for about five years on the channel. Some of the other shows that have managed to make a mark areAastitvaa Ek Prem Kahani as well as the endearing and inimitable Hum Paanch.

     

    In 1995, the channel launched first singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, which has given some of the finest singers to the industry. After producing the first singing reality show, the channel came up with first India’s largest dance reality showDance India Dance in 2009, which is currently running in its fifth season.

     

    On the occasion of its 23rd anniversary, Zee TV is also running a contest on social media. On Twitter, the channel is running a #Zeeturns23 contest, where several questions related to Zee are posed and people are asked to tweet their answers.

     

    As was earlier reported by Indiantelevision.com, the latest offering from Zee TV is the new reality show called I Can Do That. The show is an adaptation of an international series by the same name and will be hosted by Farhan Akhtar.

     

    Additionally, Zee TV is also planning to launch the second season of India’s Best Dramebaaz in the coming months. On the fiction front, the channel is readying a new series called Kaala Teeka. However, the launch date of the show has not yet been revealed.

  • Uday Shankar re-elected as IBF president

    Uday Shankar re-elected as IBF president

    MUMBAI: Star India CEO Uday Shankar has been re-elected as the president of The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) at the Sixteenth Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the second term running.

    The AGM was held in New Delhi today (29 September, 2015).

    The IBF Board also re-elected Zee Media Corp managing director Punit Goenka, Multi Screen Media CEO N P Singh and India TV chairman Rajat Sharma as IBF vice presidents, and Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific executive vice president and general manager, South Asia Rahul Johri as IBF treasurer.

    On being re-elected IBF president, Shankar said, “I am humbled by IBF members’ confidence in re-electing me. The broadcasting sector is going through a transition due to changes in technology and business environment and I hope to work with the government, industry and other stakeholders for realisation of the sector’s potential.”

  • Zee to extend language subtitles on channels to support educational initiative

    Zee to extend language subtitles on channels to support educational initiative

    MUMBAI: Quality education is the right of every child. Keeping this in mind, Zee Entertainment, in association with USAID, PlanetRead and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is planning to extend its Same Language Subtitling (SLS) initiative across more of its regional channels. Two years back, the SLS initiative was launched on Zee Talkies and Zee Marathi with the aim to improve the basic functional reading competency of children in Maharashtra. 

     

    The initiative is in line with the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) – ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’.

     

    Speaking on this initiative Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) MD & CEO Punit Goenka said, “Television, being an effective medium of mass communication, is an excellent platform for children to improve their reading skills. We, at Zee, had undertaken this pilot project of Same Language Subtitling on our regional channels, Zee Talkies and Zee Marathi with the objective of improving literacy in children in Maharashtra. Over the span of two years, SLS has been activated for songs in over 250 frequently aired movies in our library. Seeing the successful results of this study, we plan to extend this project to our other channels as well.”

     

    IIM Ahmedabad and co-author of the SLS report Brij Kothari stated, “In the pilot project, for nearly two years, from June 2013 to May 2015, Same Language Subtitling was added on all the songs of 10 weekly Marathi movies telecast in prime time on Zee Talkies. The song-subtitled movies were further repeat-telecast in other slots on Zee Talkies and Zee Marathi. Together, this resulted in an unprecedented scale up of SLS in Maharashtra, far more than the project had even planned for or anticipated. The study has shown tremendous impact on school children’s reading skills, especially in Classes 1-3, with the results showing 10 to 14 per cent more children becoming good readers in each grade.”

     

    Conceived in 1996, SLS is simply the idea of subtitling mainstream TV content in the “same” language as the audio. What you hear is what you read. Several research studies have found that SLS causes automatic and inescapable reading engagement among viewers. Especially on song-based content, regular SLS exposure is known to contribute to reading skill improvement.

  • Subhash Chandra’s Living Ent. to launch 5 channels; eyes Rs 1000 crore revenue in 4 years

    Subhash Chandra’s Living Ent. to launch 5 channels; eyes Rs 1000 crore revenue in 4 years

    MUMBAI: Essel Group’s Living Entertainment is looking at launching five new channels in the Indian market.

     

    The first channel to go on air will be an international food and lifestyle channel christened Living Foodz. Hitting Indian airwaves on 11 September, 2015, this foodtainment channel will have dual feed in Hindi and English.

     

    Additionally, the group also plans to launch Zee Living in India, which is already an established channel in the US. Apart from this, channels that will be launched under the Living Entertainment’s umbrella are: Living Rootz, which will concentrate on the rich civilization of the country, Living Homez focusing on home décor and Living Travelz, which will emphasise on the traveling aspect. The launch dates of these four channels have not yet been decided. 

     

    What’s more, the Living network, which has generated revenues of Rs 80 crore from global operations, is eyeing global revenue of Rs 1000 crore in the next four years.

     

    “In the next six months, we will add Rs 30 crore from India operations, which will take our business to around Rs  110 – 115 crore. In next four years, Living network will reach the Rs 1000 crore mark,” informed Zeel and Essel Group chairman Dr Subhash Chandra.

     

    According to him, 12 – 13 per cent of the global television viewership comes from the lifestyle category, while in terms of revenue generation the percentile goes up to 18 to 20 per cent, hence offering a huge space to explore.

     

    “This is yet another endeavour from our group to bring the world closer through entertainment. Living is all about global mindsets and experiences. This is also in line with our group philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – The world is my family. Our group has always believed in creating not just great content but building genres and brands that are milestones,” he added.

     

    According to Dr Chandra, the American market, where Living network’s Zee Living has already established itself, is the most closed economy. “I have no hesitation in saying that, though people say US is the father of market economy, it’s the most closed economy I have ever seen in my life. We had to tussle hard to get distribution and even today out of 110 million homes, we managed to reach only 30 million homes,” he asserted.

     

    Zeel MD & CEO Punit Goenka added, “With Living, we intend to make global content for global audiences. This will be for the first time ever  that original content from India will be available to audiences across the globe. We are very proud to present this new form of entertainment to our audiences.”

     

    Drawing light to the business aspiration of the first channel to be launched from the bouquet, Goenka said, “Living Foodz will be a profitable from year one. Given the quality and content we have, I am sure of the fact that Living Foodz will go a long way.”

     

    Living Foodz will specialise in exploring the evolving social status of food: moving out of the confines of the conventional kitchen into a world of entertainment and adventure with food. Having food at its core, Living Foodz will explore different perspectives towards food and the way it touches people – from lifestyle, travel, wellness to food infotainment and reality.

     

    “Living is our endeavour to showcase audiences with great lifestyle content. Growth of digitisation is leading to fragmentation of audiences, thereby creating an opportunity for differentiated and genre specific content. Moreover, increasing digital households are giving rise to increased audience expectations and demand for more diverse viewing opportunities. Under this scenario we are providing Living Foodz to people who love exploring and knowing more about food,” opined Zee Living – India & APAC CEO Piyush Sharma. 

     

    Sharma further informed that the network will launch an app in six months’ time as well as a website in the next two months. “The channel will have 100 per cent original content,” he added.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Living Foodz business head Amit Nair said, “We will have 80 per cent of Indian content, while 20 per cent will be English. The entire programming will be in-house. We have a very good in-house team who will handle that part.”

     

    In terms of marketing, the channel will emphasize more on digital platforms while there will be a 360 degree presence.

     

    For the Indian market, Living Foodz will be the international food & lifestyle channel that will have a universal feel and will appeal to new age groups in digital households. The core audience set will comprise the well travelled and connected people with high interest level of food. 

     

    The launch of Living Foodz will also mean curtains down for Zee’s Khana Khazana channel. “We are proud of the achievements and accolades Khana Khazana has garnered so far but now we believe audiences’ taste has changed and hence we decided to come up with Living Foodz. We will use Khana Khazana content and re-package it for our digital platforms, but since Living Foodz is going to have 100 per cent fresh content we cannot have its content on television,” said Sharma.

     

    The shows that Living Foodz is launching with are: Food Xpress: Rocky & Mayur, Chef on Wheels, Vickypedia, with Chef Vicky Ratnani, The Great Indian Rasoi with chef Ranveer Brar, Good Food America and Peggy’s Kitchen Cures.

     

    The channel will be available across all direct-to-home (DTH) platforms like Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon d2h as well as leading cable networks.

     

    Living Entertainment in India will be an extension of the Living network belonging to Essel Group, which already exists in international markets.