by Thinus Ferreira
eMedia's Openview satellite service will add the Zee One channel from Zee Entertainment Enterprises from 1 November on channel 111, with China's StarTimes that is also adding Zee One in Kenya from the same date.
The addition of Zee One comes after Openview abruptly removed the Glow TV channel from NisMedia earlier this month without any explanation.
That was followed by a Gauteng court case in which eMedia was ordered to immediately reinstate Glow TV on Openview with the acrimonious channel carriage conflict between eMedia and NisMedia moved to ongoing arbitration.
According to insiders, Openview and NisMedia allegedly had a disagreement regarding a separate advertising sales contract that Openview wanted to introduce for Glow TV that NisMedia refused to sign.
Various Zee channels are already carried on the satellite pay-TV services of MultiChoice's DStv and China's StarTimes, operating as StarSat in South Africa, across sub-Saharan Africa.
Somnath Malakar, Zee CEO for Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, in a prepared statement about the addition of Zee One says: "The corporate positioning of Extraordinary Together – with a vision to provide a unified brand experience and to delight consumers across the world by creating extraordinary entertainment and experiences that inspire to transcend the ordinary and become extraordinary. This is a driving force that enables us to bring authentic and entertaining content to global audiences".
Asked what happened to Hamish Goyal, CEO of Zee Africa and Asia Pacific, who led the territory, Zee Africa told TVwithThinus on Friday that Hamish Goyal "is now based in the USA".
Mmatshipi Matebane, Openview executive, in the statement says Zee One "is a welcome addition and adds variety to our current bouquet of entertainment".
"Openview is celebrating its 8th birthday this year and we are pleased to offer our viewers an extensive range of local and international content. Zee One adds to our positioning of catering for all audiences."
Zee One will broadcast telenovelas like Guddan, The Heir, Reach for the Stars, Lies of the Heart and Our Perfect Place.
Zee One is a general entertainment channel that broadcasts series, musicals, comedies, drama films, romantic films, family films and music videos.
A Zee One channel version ran in Germany for 4 years after which it was shuttered in May 2020, with Zee One that also launched in Poland in 2017.
It not yet clear what the exact programming positioning of Zee One will be for Openview and Southern Africa and how the content on Zee One will differ from Zee Africa's other channels on the continent.
Zee channels like Zee Cinema and Zee Magic are available on StarTimes/StarSat, while DStv subscribers get Zee World, Zee TV, and Zee Alem in Ethiopia in the Amharic language.
Zee Entertainment also announced that it's adding Zee One to StarTimes in Kenya on channel 553, where Zee One will be added together with Zee TV and Zee Tamizh as three new TV channels
Zee Entertainment has announced the launch of Zee TV, Zee One, and Zee Tamizh on StarTimes where Zee One will have content dubbed into English and with Zee TV (StarTimes 557) and Zee Tamizh (StarTimes 558) offering content with English subtitles.
