Four Regional Channels will help us in expanding our market share further: Punit Misra, ZEEL

'Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has been the leading player in the regional space for decades and it started its journey in the space with Bangla and Marathi channels', says Punit Misra, CEO - Domestic Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Misra during a candid chat with Zee Business said, "Punjabi GEC is being launched because we think it has attractive culture and rich language but the irony is that there is no Punjabi language show for people to watch'. Edited Excerpts:

Q: you are launching 4 new channels, focused on regions. What is unique about these new channels and what is your strategy for them?

A: Zee Entertainment has been working in the regional market since years and the journey was started in Bangla and Marathi languages. Moving on the same line, we have been launching our channels in every market and every language and have also attained the leadership position in the domain. So, these are an addition to the same list and we are launching a Punjabi GEC (General Entertainment Channel), and three movie channels in three different languages, namely Biskope in Bhojpuri, Picchar in Kannada and Thirai in Tamil. This is the next stage of our strategy and we have been doing this. Every channel - to be launched - are unique in itself and will be different in that market. We hope that our consumers will like it.

I will talk about the Punjabi GEC first. Punjab is a land of attractive culture and rich language but the irony is that there is no Punjabi language show for people to watch. When we are launching it, we have taken special care that we will come with stories that are related to Punjab and show things that is related to that culture and deeply rooted. We have a belief that people will like the channel if we will succeed in showing things in the right way and full honesty and we are moving ahead with the same belief.

Q: Can you tell the time by when these channels will be launched?

A: These channels will be launched in the next few weeks. In short, these channels will be in the market by next quarter.

Q: What are your expectations from these four channels and how they will contribute to expanding your presence in the regional segment further?

A: If you have a look at our journey of the last three years, then our 16% overall Indian market share that we had once has gone up to almost 20% at the start of this year. Interestingly, our language market had almost 70% contribution in this gain and we hope that these new offerings will further increase our overall national market share. We work with an objective to reach at number 1 or number 2 position in every market segment at the earliest and these four channels are being launched with the same efforts will be made with these four channels. And, they will have a good contribution to our national share and its impact can be seen in the next 12 months.

Q: Tell us about the expected increase in ad revenues within a year from these four channels? 

A: As a network, we work with every major advertiser of the country. And, whenever we come up with a new offering then as partners we hope that these brands will join us. So, we have launch partners with each of these channels. As far as revenue is concerned then every market has its own market size and at this point of time, I would not like to provide any number but can say that we will focus on the viewership. If we succeed in getting the love from consumers and viewers than revenue, advertising and subscription among others will follow us automatically. 

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Q: What growth in subscription revenue is expected through these four channels? 

 A: The industry has been through a transition period of New Tariff Order (NTO). However, conversations are on which may bring some changes in it and we will have to see the kind of changes are introduced. But, we expect that the industry and consumers should be allowed to settle down and the changes should be introduced after a year or two. So, it will be difficult to say anything about how the next year will be as it will depend on the factor that is there any change in the tariff order or not.