NEW DELHI: Zee Telefilms chairman Subhash Chandra today announced his group's entry into the English news channel space.

Zee will be launching an English news channel for the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and the channel will be headquartered in Dubai, Chandra said, at a media briefing in New Delhi.

“The news channel for the GCC countries should be on air in the first quarter of 2007, Chandra said.

The Gulf foray with a news channel follows Zee Telefilms’ forays into Russia, China and Indonesia in recent times.

Chandra also admitted that work is continuing on a global news channel that will present to international audiences the Asian/Indian perspective.

“The same way CNN and BBC present the American and British perspective, it’s my dream to have an English news channel to present the Asian and Indian perspective,” he added, reminding all that he had announced the initiative two years ago.

In Indonesia, the Zee channel's content is sourced from the flagship channel Zee TV library and localised with Bahasa Indonesia dubbing and Bahasa Melayu subtitling, to reflect the different language, lifestyle and viewing habits of audiences in the three countries Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.