ITV

Tag: Suresh Bala

  • Zee to sell ad inventory for Jaya channels in US

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) is making efforts to push its advertising revenues up in the international market at a time when its subscription income is flattening.

    The company is going to sell ad inventory for the Tamil-language Jaya channels in US.

    Zee Americas, a subsidiary of Zeel, has partnered with Canada-based television broadcasting, distribution and communications company Ethnic Channels Group to handle the ad sales for Jaya TV, Jaya Max and Jaya Plus.

    With this partnership, Zee will create a Deccan Pack that will give advertisers access to viewers that were previously unaddressed.

    The pack which will consist of Jaya TV services, Zee Telugu and Zee Kannada will allow businesses to target an additional 160,000 unique households. Zee will offer access to these viewers in partnership with Ethnic Channels Group based in Canada.

    Zee Americas CEO Suresh Bala said, “Tamil is spoken by 7 per cent of the South Asian population in the United States and Jaya TV has about 15 years of broadcast history behind it making it a great resource to offer advertisers. As Zee is the best platform to reach the Hindi speaking segment of South Asians in the US, we are thrilled to be the only network offer advertisers an opportunity to have dialogue with this formerly untapped south Indian market segment.”

    Ethnic Channels Group President Hari Srinivas said, “The Zee Group is one of our largest partners. The Jaya TV Group is also our main partner in the USA market. This unique relationship will be of immense benefit to the advertising community as the Jaya TV Channels are watched by many Tamils in USA.”

  • Zee Cinema, Zee Salaam and Zee Tamizh launch on Cogeco Cable in Ontario

    Zee Cinema, Zee Salaam and Zee Tamizh launch on Cogeco Cable in Ontario

    MUMBAI: Zee Americas in partnership with Ethnic Channels Group Limited (ECG), Canada’s largest distributor of third language television services, launched Zee Cinema, Zee Salaam and Zee Tamizh on Cogeco Cable on 12 December.

    Aimed at Ontario’s South Asian communities, these channels will serve to add great content to Cogeco’s third language services and help the Canadian multi-ethnic majority watch TV.

    Zee Americas CEO Suresh Bala said, “Canada is a dynamic market and we are happy to serve viewers in Ontario quality programming in the form of Zee Cinema, Zee Tamizh and Zee Salam. Ethnic Channels Group has been a pioneer in Canada bringing South Asians the kind of content that they most desire, this is a great partnership for us to offer Zee’s brand of top notch dramas, reality shows, news, Bollywood movies and music to our Canadian viewers.”
    Zee Cinema is a Bollywood channel in the US that includes a privately held Bollywood video library with more than 5000 hours of premium content.

    Zee Salaam is Zee’s first Islamic general entertainment channel targeting the Muslim community and the Urdu listening audiences, while Zee Tamizh is a general entertainment channel that offers a variety of programmes targeting the Tamil-Canadian audience.

    Cogeco Cable marketing and strategic planning VP Ron Perrotta said, “For Cogeco Cable, the second largest hybrid fibre coaxial cable system operator in Ontario, adding 23 services in 8 different languages distributed by Ethnic Channels Group allows Cogeco Cable to respond to a variety of customer tastes and needs and to enhance our already engaging multicultural TV offering.”

  • Times Now and Zoom hop on to Dish TV

    Times Now and Zoom hop on to Dish TV

    MUMBAI: The direct-to-home (DTH) platform Dish TV will now be offering two more channels, both from the Bennett Coleman stable — the lifestyle television channel Zoom and the English news and current affairs channel Times Now.

    The DTH opportunity will help spur higher penetration and create even more attractive business prospects for the two channels in the television market, an official release states.

    Essel Group additional vice-chairman Jawahar Goel says, “The availability of the hugely popular news channel from the Times Group, namely, Times Now and the lifestyle channel Zoom on Dish TV beefs up our already robust news content and lifestyle offering. We expect significant consumer response and growth in the subscriber base for Dish TV and for the DTH market in India due to this tie-up.”

    According to Times Now CEO Sunil Lulla, “The partnership with Dish TV will further augment the growing popularity of Times Now and will enhance the news viewing experience of the users.”

    Talking specifically about the synergies between viewers of Dish TV and Zoom, its CEO Suresh Bala adds, “Dish TV provides us the ideal platform for reaching a larger base of upscale consumers with interest in the lifestyle genre. Zoom prides itself in bringing the latest in trends and lifestyle to our consumers and we believe strongly that our availability on the latest technology Dish TV platform enhances our positioning.”

    At present, Dish TV, an Essel Group company with 1.3 million subscribers across the country, carries more than 160 channels, including all the popular cable channels and some exclusive channels.

  • Zoom appoints Sunil Sahjwani as chief creative & programming officer

    Zoom appoints Sunil Sahjwani as chief creative & programming officer

    MUMBAI: Lifestyle and glamour channel Zoom’s latest appointment is in keeping with the new initiatives planned for the next quarter. Sunil Sahjwani has been roped in as chief creative and programming officer for Zoom. The programming, production and on air promos (OAP) teams at Zoom will now report in to him.

    With this, Sahjwani will be moving from his current corporate role as chief creative consultant for Bennett & Coleman Co Ltd., ( BCCL) and takes charge of all creative and programming responsibilities at Zoom.

    Commenting on the appointment, Zoom CEO Suresh Bala said, “As Zoom prepares to meet the challenges of becoming a high impact channel, it needs a new dimension of creative leadership to rejuvenate its growth engines and take it to the next level. I believe Sunil Sahjwani, with his experience and expertise is the best person for this role.”

    Sahjwani says, “I am indeed very happy to take up this assignment. Zoom is at a very dynamic stage currently and I think it will be very challenging and exciting to take it forward from here. Zoom has created a unique position for itself in the television space. I’m confident that Zoom will touch even greater heights of success in the days to come.”

    With over 27 years in the areas of advertising, film, radio and television, Sahjwani has worked on several international productions which include shows for BBC’s Channel 4 and CNN.

    Amongst others, he has directed the immensely popular BPL Oye for Channel [V], for which he has won the RAPA, Lions and Screen awards. Sahjwani has also worked with ETC Networks as director of programming as well as VP Creative for Reliance Entertainment. Prior to joining BCCL, Sahjwani was the CEO of the Percept Picture Company.

  • Zoom ropes in former Channel [V] hand Suresh Bala as COO

    Zoom ropes in former Channel [V] hand Suresh Bala as COO

    MUMBAI:The Times Group’s non-fiction entertainment and lifestyle channel Zoom has roped in a former Channel [V] programming professional Suresh Bala as its new chief operating officer.

    With Suresh Bala coming in, the outgoing COO Upen Roop Rai has moved on to head Integrated Marketing Solutions Group (IMSG) and Indiatimes as the director, informs an official release.
    Bala will report to Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd’s executive president Arun Arora. He is expected to take over his responsibilities within a week or two.

    Prior to this, for the past three years, Bala was in Canada, and before that he was in the programming function of Channel [V].

    Interestingly, Rai came from Times Group’s internet division where he was the marketing head. His last day as Zoom COO would be 1 June.

    While, overseeing Zoom, Rai continued to handle Indiatimes.com in Delhi. He was completely responsible for revenue, marketing and sales. Integrated Marketing Solutions is also something he was handling.

    Under Rai’s guidance, Zoom has added various franchisees to mark its positioning of an Indian lifestyle channel. Commenting on his move to IMSG and Indiatimes, Rai said, “The experience at Zoom has been a great one. I was sent here for a year and it has been a great year. I am already looking forward to my focus responsibilities at IMSG and Indiatimes.”