MxMIndia

Tag: Zee Entertainment Enterprises

  • CJI N V Ramana to felicitate 31 awardwinning journalists

    RedInk Awards for excellence in journalism at virtual event today

    By Our Staff

     

    The RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism is to be held at a virtual event this evening. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana will deliver the keynote address and will honour the 31 awardwinning journalists.

     

    The awards will also showcase a discussion on ‘Covid, and its impact on news media’, which will be coordinated by journalist Faye D’Souza. Other participants include Siddharth Vardarajan, Co-Founder and Editor of The Wire, and L P Pant, National Editor of Dainik Bhaskar. The winners’ list in the print/digital and video categories in 12 competitive categories will be declared.

     

    Meanwhile, the coveted RedInk Awards for Lifetime Achievement has been bestowed on senior journalist and author Prem Shankar Jha for his “long and distinguished career of incisive and analytical writing”. Danish Siddiqui, who was the Reuters Chief Photographer based in India, has been posthumously awarded the ‘Journalist of the Year – 2020’ for his spectrum of investigative and impactful news photography.

     

    The RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism, instituted by the Mumbai Press Club, have special significance this year as they mark their 10th edition of peer recognition for excellent writing and good journalism. The RedInk Awards were instituted a decade ago to recognize good investigative and feature writing and raise the bar of journalism in the country.

     

    The title sponsor for the event is Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL). Other supporting sponsors include Indiabulls Housing, L&T Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, Adfactors PR, Viacom18, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.

     

    The virtual event will be hosted on Facebook from 7pm, and one can register at https://experiencenext.in/RedInkAwards2021/login.html to gain access to the event venue as well as to a variety of archival material and sidelights. The event can also be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/mumbaipressclub.

     

  • Appointment to further strengthen the integrated content team

    Zee Entertainment appoints Nimisha Pandey to head originals for Zee5

    By Our Staff

     

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises has roped in the National award winning writer and director, Nimisha Pandey, to head Hindi originals for its digital entertainment platform, Zee5. She will report to Punit Misra, President – Content and International Markets, ZEE.

     

    Noted a communique: “In line with the ZEE 4.0 Strategy, creating extraordinary entertainment content will continue to be a key area of focus for the company. The appointment of Nimisha is in line with this approach. In this leadership role, Nimisha will be responsible for creating quality original content for Zee5.”

     

     

  • This is being billed as one of the largest protagonist-led initiative to unite India in its fight against Covid-19

    Zee unveils new anthem in collaboration with SBI Life

    By A Correspondent

     

    Zee Entertainment has joined hands with SBI Life Insurance and Mindshare to produce the ‘We Can, We Will!’ anthem, which involves 27 TV artists singing the anthem in their local languages to invigorate the nation to fight against Covid-19.

     

    Expressing his views on the collaboration, Ashish Sehgal – Chief Growth Officer, Advertisement Revenue, Zee Entertainment Enterprises said: “As a network, Zee has always believed in ‘Customer First’ and this venture of creating an anthem of collective unity for SBI Life with Zee is truly one such classic example from our Content & Partnership team. Similarly, SBI Life with the thought of the anthem to inspire the collective willpower of the nation, hit a synergy with Zee when they during difficult times thought of creating this anthem to rally our nation’s battle against the corona outbreak. The anthem has been executed with 27 powerful influencers of Zee in nine languages from their homes and edited remotely to take it live across the network through a roadblock, truly exemplifying Zee’s philosophy of Extraordinary Together through an extraordinary feat.”

     

    Talking about this association, Ravindra Sharma, Chief of Brand & Corporate Communications, SBI Life Insurance, added: “The Coronavirus outbreak has thrown up multiple, unprecedented challenges for people from all walks of life, the entire nation is exploring solutions to tide through this crisis. In current times of self-isolation, the anthem is our humble effort to lift the spirits of every individual and remind them that as a nation we need to stay together, as with our collective will power we will overcome the biggest of challenges.”

     

    Said Amin Lakhani, Chief Operating Officer Mindshare South Asia: “These are indeed challenging times for mankind. People from all walks of life have been affected in some way or the other. There’s massive uncertainty, anxiety and boredom that is impacting our morale. This initiative is our humble effort to help uplift the spirit of our nation. We Can, We Will! is a unique anthem. For amplifying this message, Zee was the perfect partnership. It deployed its huge network presence throughout India and with the help of 27 celebrities in nine languages reinforced the belief that together India can, and India will win!”

     

     

  • Gurdas Mann to mentor Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Sara Gurpal to play the title character in Heer Ranjha

    Zee Punjabi to go live on Jan 13, Lohri Day

    By A Correspondent

     

    Zee Punjabi, the newly announced Punjabi GEC by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, is scheduled to go on air on Lohri Day next year, that’s January 13.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Amit Shah, Cluster Head – North, West and Premium Channels, ZEEL said: “Zee invests in understanding the pulse of middle class India and what drives people across different regions. We have had very successful regional channel launches across the country. With our consumer understanding and the innate ability of creating magic with our stories, we are now looking at the launch of Zee Punjabi. Despite the highest TV penetration (88 per cent) in the country, Punjab has a significantly low ‘time spent’ and that is a factor of not having dedicated Punjabi content that does justice to the region and the culture. Zee Punjabi is being launched by understanding the viewer’s need gap; for a culture that is so powerful, Punjab definitely needs its own authentic Punjabi channel. Intensive consumer work in the market has helped us understand the potential and craft the strategy for our content and brand. We are certain the audiences will resonate with the stories and fall in love with the characters.”

     

    Speaking of the launch, Rahul Rao, Business Head Zee Punjabi added: “We look forward to bring shows that are inspired from the region and its culture. Punjabis have a jazba and junoon which is very unique to them and our content is a reflection of that spirit. We have a strong line up of stories with themes familiar to Punjab, characters that people will fall in love with and faces like Gurdas Mann, Jazzy B, Jaidev Kumar, Sonu Kakkar and Sara Gurpal who are respected here! With over 20 hours of original content every week and a strong line up of World TV Premieres every month, we are certain of being wholeheartedly accepted by the Punjabi audiences.”

     

     

  • Premium British drama brand, BBC First will premiere as a block on the territory’s leading English GEC channel

    BBC First makes its debut in India on Zee Cafe

    By A Correspondent

     

    BBC Worldwide has announced a deal that will make award-winning and highly rated BBC dramasavailable toZee Café’s viewers throughout India during primetime.

     

    “We are very excited to be working with Zee Café, a leading channel in the English entertainment genre,” said Myleeta Aga, SVP South & South East Asia. “Through this BBC First block, discerning Indian viewers will now have access to top-rated, premium dramas from the BBC.  We are confident that the block will be popular with Zee Café’s viewers.”

     

    The block will launch on Monday, June 26 and will air every week night at 10pm. It will give audiences access to some of the best BBC dramas – unforgettable stories that challenge, immerse and entertain, from a distinctly British perspective.

     

    Said Aparna Bhosle, Business Cluster Head, Premium & FTA GEC Channels, Zee Entertainment Enterprises:“Availability of premium British content has been limited thus far in India .Who better to  partner with other than the BBC to make quality shows from the region available to our viewers?”. “The addition of the BBC First block will strengthen the channel’s proposition of the best of English language television programmes to its fans.”

     

  • The 17th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) was held in New Delhi last week

    Punit Goenka is new IBF President

    By A Correspondent

     

    Punit Goenka

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Managing Director and CEO Punit Goenka was elected  President of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) at the AGM held New Delhi last week.

     

    The IBF Board also elected Rajat Sharma (Chairman, India TV), N P Singh (CEO, Sony Pictures Network), Sudhanshu Vats (Group CEO, Viacom 18), K Madhavan (Managing Director, Asianet Communications) as Vice-Presidents; and KVL Narayan Rao (Executive Vice-Chairperson, NDTV) as the Treasurer of the Foundation for a period of one year.

     

    Said Goenka, who is also chairman of joint industry body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC): “I am delighted to lead the Indian broadcasting sector at a time when there is a lot of churning and India is being looked upon as global destination for investments. In the ensuing and continuing efforts of making India as a broadcasting superpower, I wish to work in a most collaborative manner with the Government, Industry and other stakeholders for realisation of the sector’s value chain to the optimum.”

     

    Uday Shankar

    Outgoing IBF President Uday Shankar said, “I cannot think of a more suitable person than my dear friend, Punit Goenka to handover the leadership of IBF.  Over the years, Punit has eminently helped me in navigating IBF through these volatile times.  He is also the primary architect of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).  His intelligence, dynamism and maturity will be great assets for IBF and the Indian media.”

     

     

  • This is the third Marathi entertainment channel launched by Zee but the content will be contemporary rather just mainstream drama

    Youthfulness, not just youth for Zee Yuva

     

    We reported earlier this month that Zee is coming up with a new channel which will be launched in August and will be called Zee Yuva. With more than half of the population being youth in our country Zee Yuva will portray various emotions from the point of view of the youth. The channel will be positioned as Zee Yuva -Nave Parva..YuvaSarva!

     

    Speaking to MxM India about the USP of the channel, Bavesh Janavlekar, Business Head, Zee Yuva and Zee Talkies, said, “First of all I am calling it a youthful GEC and not a youth GEC. We are talking about youthfulness and not youth as an age. To borrow Bob Dylan’s line ‘Forever Young’.” In the recent past, we have seen regional content making it big at the national, the success of the Marathi movie Sairatproves it. So, what can the audience expect in terms of content? “A lot of experimentation happens and the kind of content that Marathi films are generating, that kind of variety and scale is not seen on Marathi television.  There are only three Marathi GECs and they are more women centric. Even though there have been experiments that have worked well on Zee Marathi and other channels also. Through this we are trying to provide contemporary content which are not necessarily women centric. That is going to be a huge difference. One of the primary principles is that the content is going to be light hearted, fun, humourous and refreshing,” says Janavlekar.

     

    Even though Janavlekar does not want to quantify anything right now in terms of viewership targets and wants to do a good job in terms of content, he expects Zee Yuva to be among the top channels in the Marathi genre.

     

    “We are going full throttle on marketing; it is going to be one of loudest launches in the Marathi genre. So, we are going to cover everything. The digital campaign has already been rolled out and we are getting amazing traction. We trended number one in Mumbai and number three nationally couple of days back on Twitter,” said the Business Head. And, they are working on formulating the availability of the content on Ozee, the VOD (Video On Demand) platform and Ditto TV, the over-the-top (OTT) TV distribution platform offering live television and on demand content by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. But eventually the content will be available digitally.

     

    “We are targeting the mass of Maharashtra. I would not want it to be classified as an urban or rural channel. The heart of Maharashtra should get captured in this. Hence, in terms of charactarisation and background we have characters from all over the place,” adds Janavlekar.

     

    In conclusion, Janavlekar says that by design they are not getting in to the saas-bahu drama at all.