MUMBAI: In 1998, Zee TV incubated the South Asian TV market in North America. Over the next 17 years the brand has not only become synonymous with entertainment but also an ambassador of Indian culture, abroad. As per Nielsen US, a typical South Asian viewer spends an average of 2 hours 13 minutes per day watching Zee TV, making it one of the most loved channels in the US, including the mainstream ones.
After being the consistent #1 TV network – ZEE US successfully ventured into the digital space in 2012 with Zee Dil Se, a video-based social media, that allows people to record a ‘Broadcast quality’ personalized video message and push it on TV at a click! The Dil Se platform was later on used to solve the local auditions problem thus allowing thousands of NRIs to participate in reality shows like DID and SRGMP.
Later in the fall of 2013, ZEE US launched a localized version of www.india.com with a positioning of ‘Proudly Indian’. In a short span of one year the site delivers 7 million unique visitors per month, just from US and Canada alone, thus making it one of the top sites for NRIs in North America. The site already has all the leading advertisers from TV with annual spend commitments. India.com serves as a one-stop destination for news from India, Community News from US and Canada, Bollywood, Cricket, blogs, event ticketing and classifieds.
Now ZEE is all geared up to get into the Radio and Event management space. Initially the services will be started in the top 5 south Asian DMAs. A respective business head supported by the operations team will head each of these verticals.
“As a market leader we have to constantly reinvent and redefine our value proposition to our consumers. We have been looking at need gaps and the two most visible opportunities sprung up that matched our strengths. A strong 55% of South Asians use personal transport 5 times a week for an average of 28 minutes per day, either for work or leisure and a strong 27% of South Asian woman are non-working (Stay at home) at any given point in time but do not have access to good Indian RJs. Of the 600 plus, small & large South Asian events that take place in USA, only a handful manage to put up a good show and attract a couple of blue chip sponsors. The rest all struggle or depend on individual donations/sponsors to make ends meet. The most worrying sign at these events is the declining footfalls of the youth. The mainstream brands completely recognize the arrival of the Indian community in USA but are hesitant to invest their dollars given the unorganized nature. These opportunities will allow us not only to bring companion like RJs or entertain the South Asian community with exciting and enriching events (like an Indian Rock concert or an Asian Indian corporate leadership summit) but also bring bigger and better sponsors to the market thus expanding the total market” states Sameer Targe, Business Head – Zee Americas.
