Thursday, August 6, 2020

After launch of Zee Alem in Ethiopia Zee Africa says it's looking at further bespoke regional and language-specific channels for the continent in the future.

by Thinus Ferreira

Zee Africa, a division of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, says that it's growing collection of TV channels across Africa, is finding traction with the continent's viewers and that it's looking at possible expanding with further bespoke regional and language-specific offerings in the future.

Recently Zee Africa added Zee Alem as a new TV channel to its expanding offering on the Africa continent on 22 June 2020. Zee Alehm broadcasts in the Amharic language for Ethiopia.

"The uptake of Zee Amharic gives us the confidence to pursue more such regional opportunities.

We have tested waters in the regional space with programming in Swahili and Zulu languages and found a definite gap for Indian content," says Harish Goyal, CEO of Zee Africa & Asia Pacific.

"Zee Alem is the first channel launched in an African language and with the large amount of positive responses from our viewers, we are exploring new markets for similar launches in the future."

Zee already has two successful mainstream channels, Zee World in English and Zee Magic in French, which cater to Anglophone and Francophone viewers across the African continent.

"We have always strived to be innovative in our approach to new markets, which has opened up new opportunities to grow our local footprint on the continent," says Ratna Siriah, Zee Africa business head for Africa & Indian Ocean Islands.

Currently, there are 9 Zee channels across the continent with 6 bespoke feeds bring viewers a curated collection of the best of Indian content to Africa. 

Various Zee channels groupings are carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service in South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as on StarTimes' in sub-Saharan Africa and its StarSat in South Africa; as well as on Canal+ Afrique in sub-Saharan Africa