Mumbai: Expanding its footprint across South India, Zee Group on Tuesday announced the launch of four digital news channels - Zee Tamil News, Zee Kannada News, Zee Malayalam News and Zee Telugu News to cater to the tech-savvy young viewers in the southern market.
“It is a great feat for us to enter the South Indian market with digital news channels that aren’t just selling debates. We see a gap in honest, unbiased, and extensive on-ground reporting in these markets, and hence these channels will cater to fulfilling that gap. We aim to be the most trustworthy news brand of these markets,” stated CEO of South channels Purushottam Vaishnava.
According to the data cited by the company, the internet penetration of South India is much higher compared to the rest of India. The time spent watching videos per day has also increased by 60–70 per cent over 2018–20, where 85 per cent of content viewed is non-English and 30 per cent in languages other than English or Hindi. “With 68 per cent of the population consuming news through digital platforms, Zee plans to address the need for a voice which can focus on the real on-ground situations,” it said in a statement.
Zee Media founder and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra said, "It is indeed a great pleasure for us that we are launching four digital news channels in South India. Helmed by Purushottam and very capable editors - Manjesh Gopal, Ravi, Sebi Stanley and Bharat Kumar - I believe that we will be one of the most trusted news sources and set new benchmarks in the news media. We will soon be launching a news channel in Kashmiri language too."
The channels which will fall under India Dotcom Private Ltd have also launched a marketing campaign with a focus on the digital platform along with radio and TV.
Udaya Kumar, who was appointed as the sales head for the south digital channels said, “We have carefully curated programming that caters to all the needs and wants of an educated viewer. Our focus is not just politics but includes a plethora of other genres like crime scene investigation, political satire, lifestyle, health, etc. Looking forward to some great work with this dynamic team and contributing to the revenue growth across all four south Indic languages."
The channels – Zee Tamil News, Zee Kannada News, Zee Malayalam News, and Zee Telugu News – will be available on the respective websites as well as YouTube platforms, social media platforms such as Facebook, OTT streaming platforms like Zee5 and others along with news aggregators like Dailyhunt, etc, said the company.
