MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited has called for a creative and media pitch for its operations in sub-Saharan Africa. The size of the business is expected to be in the range of $10-12 million annually. The pitch will be divided into four phases starting December 2012 going up to February 2013.

Until now, Zee TV has been catering mainly to the Indian Diaspora in Africa, as a result of which its ATL presence and spend has been limited. In the coming fiscal, Zee plans to relay content from Bollywood as well as popular local African content to TV HHs in Africa by launching customised GEC TV channels to suit African tastes.

Zee has been present in Africa since 1996, via the Multichoice digital platform and South Africa was one of the first international markets Zee TV forayed into. It later expanded its reach on the continent via other platforms like Canal Plus. Zee TV is the only Indian Hindi General Entertainment Category broadcaster that has a separate beam for Africa.

Zee is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with over 100,000 hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,000 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, Zee houses the world‘s largest Hindi film library. Through its strong presence worldwide, Zee entertains over 650 million viewers across 168 countries.

Zee celebrated 20 years of its launch in the Indian market on 2nd October 2012 and has embarked on an aggressive expansion drive across the globe, with Africa being a focal point. On the occasion, Zee Chairman Subhash Chandra said, "we are at an inflexion point, a position from where we have to leapfrog and move into the next growth trajectory."