ZEE TV LAUNCHES EDUCATIONAL FIRM

Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) today announced the launch of an educational company encompassing a television channel, interactive TV, cable TV, V-Sats, the Internet, videos, CD-ROMS, magazines, books, journals and learning centres. Called Zee Interactive Learning Systems (Zils), the firm is headed by CE0 Uma Ganesh, and has been spun off from ZTL's educational division Zee Education.

Zils will offer educational courses covering simple house repair to one, which could result in a management degree for those who opt for it. Investments amounting to Rs 1,000 million are to be poured into the venture over three years in setting up course contents, hardware, Cyber cafes and the infrastructure to make long-distance learning possible. Zils' business plan states that the company will be having a turnover of Rs 5,000 million in five years with profits of a neat Rs 1,000 million. Says ZTL chairman Subhash Chandra: "Our courses will be consumer, profession oriented, 50% cheaper than other regular courses currently and they will offer a degree/diploma which will be recognised by employers."

An educational television channel is to be launched by January 2000 at a cost of Rs 150 million followed by the rollout of 500 Cyber Cafes in schools and colleges all over the country. A couple of educational institutions have already agreed to be part of the entire process. Ganesh expects 50,000 to 100,000 students to enroll for the courses in the first year.

Phase II of Zils expansion will be in 2001 when it will move into other south Asian countries to be followed by South Africa, the United States and Europe. "Zee Education was an experiment to see if long-distance education can work and it has quite profitably for us. We are sure of Zils too," says Chandra.