NEW DELHI: Zee TV, which has among the largest number of Indian channels being telecast in foreign languages in different countries, is shortly launching a channel in France.
Zee founder and Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) Member of Parliament Subhash Chandra told indiantelevision.com that the group, which had recently launched a channel in Germany, Zee One Germany, is aiming to launch in France to expand reach and target the Indian programme loving French and people of South Asian origin.
“The French channel could be launched within six months or so,” he added without giving a fixed time frame or outlining whether the channel may also at some point of time carry original French content.
Zee, which through a plethora of TV channels (some of which are dubbed in local languages in various countries) was already reaching 200 million viewers overseas, aims “to increase that reach to 500 million”. Speaking on the sidelines of the SATCAB meet organized here by the All India Dish Antenna Aavishkaar Sangh here yesterday, Chandra said that France was until now receiving the channel launched by the group for the United Kingdom.
Zee at present has channels in foreign languages running in UAE/KSA (Arab), Russia, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Africa/Mauritius, the Caribbean, United States, Canada and Brazil.
According to Chandra, content from Hollywood dominates the world and it earns 65 per cent from overseas markets, while only 35 per cent from within the US market. “India with its content of feature films and appealing television programmes can also make a mark overseas,” he added.
While pointing out that in the international market, Zee had “successfully” taken popular domestic content in the original as well as repurposed form to focus not just on the South Asian diaspora, but on a wider cross section of global audiences, Zee Entertainment Enterprises MD and Chandra’s elder son Punit Goenka had said in the company’s annual report for FY 2015-16, “This strategy is working for beyond boundaries and being true to our philosophy of `The World is My Family’. Our popular channels in this context like Zee World, Zee Aflam and Zee Magic have witnessed substantial viewership growth in their respective markets. ZEEL expanded its reach to the Asia Pacific region through channels like Zee Bioskop and Zee Nung.”
Zee Bioskop reaches approximately two million homes in Indonesia and Zee Nung caters to about 2.5 million homes in Thailand.
Launched in April, 2015 as a GEC pay channel for the local Indonesian audience, Zee Hiburan, for example, is completely dubbed in Bahasa Indonesia and is also available in Hindi. Zee Sine, a 24/7 Bollywood movie channel, customised and packaged for local audiences, was launched in the Philippines in April 2016.
ALSO READ:
ZEEL launches new movie channel in Germany
