GECs
Zee brings English fare to viewers
Zee Telefilms’ is set to enter the English movies and English general entertainment segment with its two channels Zee Movies and Zee English which are slated for launch on 15 March, 2000. Both the channels are to be encrypted and will be beamed from AsiaSat-3. “Television for the dot com generation” is the slugline for the two channels.
The channels are expected to cater the Category “A” audience and claim to have a huge library of popular movies and other software. Zee English which is the general entertainment channel claims to have rights of popular serials like “Friends” and “The Benny Hill Show”. The channel boasts to have the last four year programming of the most popular serial in the US “Friends” while competing channel Star World has only the earlier three years of the popular sitcom.
Zee Movies has acquired around 700 titles of English films from various houses like CBS, Warner Brothers, Pearsons, Carlton, Freemantle, Diskovery and Passport International. It would telecast five new movies everyday which would then be repeated.
HBO, which undoubtedly is among the biggest cable movie channels in the world, will enter the Indian skies soon and could be a threat to Zee Movies. It already has drawn a huge line-up of popular Hollywood movies and would begin its test runs from 15 March, 2000 and is slated to be officially launch on 22 March.
Zee Telefilms apparently has fixed the rates for Zee Movies and Zee English at Rs 5 and Rs 4 per subscriber. HBO’s sticker price is Rs 5.45. The network is slated to price its set-top boxes at around Rs 12,500 each which is way below that of the competing HBO which will price its boxes above Rs 25,000. This is likely to work in favour of Zee Movies in Indian cable TV homes. Zee would stand at an advantage due to the strong distribution network of SitiCable.
Zee English and Zee Movies are expected to fill in the vacant space in the Zee Telefilms’ bouquet which lacked English programming.
GECs
Samsung TV Plus launches Kings of Comedy channel
New free FAST channel brings iconic Hindi comedy shows to millions of Samsung Smart TV owners.
MUMBAI: Samsung TV Plus has just turned up the laughter volume and it’s completely free. The leading free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service in India has launched Kings of Comedy, a premium comedy channel featuring some of the country’s most beloved primetime shows. Available exclusively on Samsung TV Plus, the channel delivers back-to-back hits including Comedy Nights with Kapil, Khatra Khatra Khatra, and Comedy Nights Bachao, with no login or subscription required.
The launch marks a milestone for free streaming in India, offering audiences a dedicated comedy destination directly from their Samsung TV home screen. It arrives as Samsung TV Plus India celebrates its 5th anniversary, during which the service has grown its monthly active users by 42 per cent and more than doubled its total viewing hours. The platform now offers over 180 free channels across 14 languages.
Samsung TV Plus India general manager and head of business development Kunal Mehta said, “Comedy is the heartbeat of Hindi entertainment, and Kings of Comedy brings together the shows Indians already love, completely free on their Samsung TV. Our focus remains the same take the content people know and make it effortless to access.”
Globally, Samsung TV Plus has surpassed 100 million monthly active users across more than 4,500 channels, solidifying its position as one of the world’s leading free streaming services.
Kings of Comedy is now available on all compatible Samsung Smart TVs. For viewers seeking non-stop laughter without any cost, this new channel delivers a royal treat proving that sometimes the best entertainment really does come with no strings (or subscriptions) attached.
