ZEEL Announces New A-la-Carte Channel & Bouquet Pricing in Compliance with New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0

by Suman Gupta

Reaffirms its commitment to offer highest value to subscribers across India with maximum flexibility and unlimited entertainment

Mumbai, October, 2021: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), the leading Indian media and entertainment powerhouse, released its new a-la-carte channel and bouquet pricing in line with the Bombay High Court order dated 30.06.2021 with regard to New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0, to serve the diverse entertainment preferences of the millions of viewers across India. The said pricing is being released without prejudice to ZEEL’s rights and contentions under all petitions pending adjudication before the Hon’ble Supreme Court w.r.t. New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0.

Right since its inception over nearly three decades, ZEEL has built a strong and deep-rooted bond with its viewers across the country. ZEE offers the finest variety of entertainment across multiple viewer segments and genres, with the widest network footprint of 67 channels in 11 languages. With a pan India network encompassing a weekly reach of 606 million viewers and weekly consumption of 163 billion+ minutes*; it has one of the highest viewership bases across Hindi and regional language markets, including Marathi, Bangla, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi and English in the GEC, movies, news, music, lifestyle and HD genres.

Speaking about the new channel pricing, Rahul Johri, President – Business, South Asia, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said, “ZEEL’s unparalleled success is an outcome of its strong bond with viewers spread across India and the deep relationship it has built with the entire stakeholder community. These extraordinary partnerships have led to our leadership across multiple markets for nearly three decades. We will continue to create value for the entire ecosystem by presenting the most entertaining and highest quality content, enriching national and regional channels and through innovative solutions for revenue monetization. We are confident that post implementation of NTO 2.0, ZEE channels will continue their growth momentum across markets and create higher value for the company.”

Commenting on the announcement, Atul Das, Chief Revenue Officer – Affiliate Sales, said “At ZEEL, we are committed to providing the best entertainment to our consumers. The new pricing regime in 2019 brought in a major shift in the way television was consumed in India. On one hand, it brought in transparency about MRP of channels, while on the other hand it offered freedom to consumers to select channels they wish to watch. With NTO 2.0, consumers will get even more flexibility in selection of channels. We will continue to provide multiple bouquets to consumers across the country at different price points. Premium English channels like Zee Café and &flix will continue to be available in a separate bouquet. Each bouquet constitutes a mix of channels, including GEC, movies, news, music and lifestyle genres. We look forward to working with our Distribution Platform Operators (DPO) partners for a smooth transition.”

ZEEL’s expertise in creating pathbreaking and entertaining original content that resonates with millions of viewers has led to its compelling leadership. On average, it produces 419 hours of new content every week, making it one of the most invested consumer brands in India. Gearing up for the festive season, it has lined up to launch 40 fiction, 20 non-fiction new shows across multiple languages. Having the largest movie channel portfolio in Hindi, English, and regional languages, it will present 40 World Television Premieres across its channels over the next few months, making it a compelling entertainment option for the millions of consumers.

Besides holding a strong position in the Hindi speaking markets with household brands like Zee TV, Zee Cinema, &TV, &pictures and Zee Anmol; it enjoys long-standing leadership in Bangla and Marathi markets with Zee Bangla and Zee Marathi. It has a wide presence in the southern states with Zee Kannada, Zee Telugu, Zee Tamil and Zee Keralam and has further built leadership in fast-growing language markets like Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Odia with Zee Biskope, Zee Punjabi and Zee Sarthak, respectively. The company also has a very strong movie channel portfolio, with Zee Cinema, &Pictures, Zee Bollywood, Zee Action, Zee Anmol Cinema and Zee Classic in the Hindi speaking markets; Zee Talkies and Zee Chitramandir in the west; Zee Cinemalu, Zee Picchar and Zee Thirai in the south; and Zee Bangla Cinema and Zee Biskope in the east. Further, it also offers a select range of English movie, entertainment and lifestyle channel portfolio including Zee Café, &Flix and &PriveHD, music and youth channels Zing, Zest and 20 HD channels offering the finest viewing experience for the discerning audience.