ITV

Tag: Uma Ganesh

  • Zee Network to launch Channel Zed in April

    Zee Network to launch Channel Zed in April

    The Zee Network is to launch Channel Zed – a 24 hour educational channel – next month. This was announced today by Zee Interactive Learning Systems (Zils) chief Uma Ganesh. Channel Zed will have six hours of original educational programming and will be synchronised with www. zeelearn.com, a portal on education, which was flagged of by Zee group chairman Subhash Chandra. The whole learning concept is part of a multimedia effort that Zee Network is to gradually roll out in the coming months. It includes: television, interactive television, learning centres, E-Zee points (cyber cafes offering cheap access), Video, and publishing.

    The Internet learning portal, www.zeelearn.com, has channels targeted at students, youth, women, senior citizens and the corporate executive. Each of the channels has comprehensive news, information, career guidance, interactivity, and educational tools to help each of these segments equip themselves better to learn.

    Says Ganesh: “The portal and our education concept will allow each student to learn at his own pace and in his own style. Course content will be packaged accross these various media to give the student his own learning experience. There will be online 24-hour tutorial help for students who want to take what they have learnt in school further. Senior citizens can use it to equip themselves for the new economy at an age when they feel extremely lonely. Women can also log in and look at the career options they have during their mid-life when they feel like they have to contribute something.”

    Chandra says some Rs 600 million has already been invested in the multimedia learning project. “We expect the investment to finally touch Rs 1,000 million. We at the Zee Network consider education as an important part of the new economy.”

  • Zed TV launched at glittering function in Mumbai

    Zed TV launched at glittering function in Mumbai

    The much delayed launch of the education channel Zed TV from the Zee TV stable finally took place late last evening at the hands of Indian information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj. Other attendees at the function were Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Himachal Pradesh chief minister, and the edication minister for Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh.

    Swaraj said that she was delighted to launch the educational channel, because it was something that India needs at a time when parents are tearing their out because children are tuning into television to watch movies, soaps, series and normal TV pulp programming. The other political leaders echoed that sentiment and went out of their way to praise Chandra for his venture. “You are doing what we should be doing,” they all said.

    She however cautioned that the channel’s fate will be decided by its programming. “A 24 hour educational channel is a bold initiative; it’s a promise you will have to live up to,” she said.

    The channel is however starting with just five hours of original programming going up to eight hours daily, says Chandra. Initially to be aired in English it will be made available in six languages altogether, he added.

    The channel will have programming targetd at various age groups right from toddlers to to school children to youth to professionals to women to senior citizens, disclosed Zee Interactive Learning Systems CEO Uma Ganesh. “It will whet Indian’s appetite for learning and will drive viewers to the zeelearn.com web site, the Zee Career Academy and Zee LiveWire centres,” she said.

    “We expect to do a revenue of Rs 5,000-7,000 million per annum from our entire education business in the next five years,” she added.

  • Zed TV to launch tomorrow

    Zed TV to launch tomorrow

    After a number of postponements, Zed TV, the education channel from the Zee TV group is to be launched on 12 October. The channel is being beamed off Asiasat 3S. It will initially be digital free to air but will be converted into an encrypted and paid service in the near future.

    The launch is slated to take place at the hands of information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj. Zed TV CEO Uma Ganesh says the channel is expected to tot up an annual revenue of Rs 1,000 million per annum in five years.

    At start up, it is offering programming bands targeted at toddlers, school going children, youth, women, IT professionals, and shows targeted at lay consumers.

    “We have talk shows, quizzes, cookery, and game shows – to make education fun,” says Ganesh. “There are also shows to make consumers aware about law, finance, parenting.”

    Students will also be taken through tutorial programmes around entrance exams to specialised courses such as management, engineering, hotel management etc.

    Ganesh says the channel is going to be the star of the Zee TV pay bouquet. “It will be a must carry channel on cable TV networks because of its content,” she says.

     

  • Zee TV lets go of MD Vijay Jindal by partnering him; promotes new team

    Zee TV lets go of MD Vijay Jindal by partnering him; promotes new team

    When ZTL chairman Subhash Chandra brought in R.K. Singh as chief executive and created a caucus of senior executives like Deepak Shourie, Dev Naganand, Uma Ganesh, everyone said that managing director Vijay Jindal had fallen out of favour with the mediapreneur and his days were numbered with ZTL. However, Jindal stayed put and the wags stopped wagging their tongues.

    Today, it become clear that it was only a matter of time. The company sent out a press release saying that “it has now been decided between the Company and Mr.Vijay Jindal that in order to harness his entrepreneurial capabilities the Company will support him to set up his own media investment company.”

    Jindal is slated to hold 60 per cent of the Rs 100 million equity capital of the new company with 40 per cent being held by ZTL. The press release additionally states that “following this Mr.Vijay Jindal will be relieved from the executive responsibilities of the company and would be Advisor to the promoter shareholder for a period of next three years.”

    The release quotes Chandra as saying “that the Group encouraged executives to graduate and become entrepreneurs. We are with them in their pursuit to realise their dreams.”

    The press release quotes Jindal as saying that he was “looking forward to getting into film production and various media related activities which will not be in conflict with the business interest of ZTL.”

    The decision was taken at the board meeting held yesterday to decide on the company’s Q2 results. Following the acceptance of the new order, the board abolised the post of managing director with Deepak Shourie, R.K.Singh and Dev Naganand being appointed as wholetime Directors.

  • Zee Interactive launches virtual classroom distance education

    Zee Interactive launches virtual classroom distance education

    Zee Interactive Learning Systems Ltd (ZILS), in a pioneering effort which integrates video and television with the interactive capabilities of the Internet, today announced the launch of I-Cell.

     

    A “broadband based interactive learning technology,” I-Cell aims to bring the best of expertise to thousands of students at different centres connected via a dedicated V-SAT (very small aperture terminal) network that will help them to see, hear and speak to their teachers live.

     

    The network uses a sophisticated interactive management system customised for the learning applications. It incorporates state-of-the-art features, which ensures both students comfort and teacher control over the virtual classroom environment.

     

    Speaking at the press conference in Mumbai to announce the launch, Uma Ganesh, president & CEO, ZILS, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Zee Telefilms, said: “The V-SAT based interactive systems is yet another initiative of ZILS to achieve our vision of delivering a unique learning experience through technology to multitudes of Indians. ZILS intends to bring about a quantum change in the quality of education in the country, which is facing the constraints of expert faculty and inadequate rigour in academic delivery. An estimated 100,000 students will be able to benefit by this technology in the first phase,” Ganesh said.

     

    Besides providing a rich learning experience to the students who enroll in the over 300 Zed Career Academies, ” I-Cell ” will also be used to support distance education programms of leading universities in the country. “This will transform correspondence courses into collaborative learning actively facilitated by expert faculty in the closed subject,” Dilip Mahapatra, director, Learning Centres, said.

     

    The Interactive Learning Technology services of ZILS will also enable high-speed Internet access and download of educational content even in remote parts of the country. ZILS has built a comprehensive portal ‘zeeleam.com’ with verticals for school, colleges and corporate which will be integrated with the V-SAT network.

     

    ZILS with this technology plans to offer unique training solutions for employees of corporates, with multiple locations which will not only make the training more effective, it will also save cost of time, travel & other resources, Mahapatra said.

     

    All operations will be coordinated from a central hub in Noida, outside New Delhi, Ganesh said. Initially there will be 30 centres which will go up to 100 within a year and the aim at present is to have 300 centres, Ganesh added.

     

    ZILS organised a real time exercise with an instructor sitting in Noida for the press to show how the concept worked. The potential is certainly immense. There is however, still the problem of broadband delivery. If that issue can be resolved, ZILS is definitely a project which may prove invaluable in the furtherance of education.

     

    There are also statutory issues that have to be clarified. VSNL can take issue with ZILS over its using the Net for voice telephony. VSNL does not condone the independent use of voice on the Net at present.