GECs
Zee UK to launch Alpha Gujarati early ’05
MUMBAI: Zee Network UK is planning to add a fifth channel to its bouquet early next year. The long in offing Alpha Gujarati will cater to the sizable Gujarati community in the UK.
Channel officials hope that by bringing over Alpha Gujarati from India, it will serve to further grow its subscriber base.
Zee’s subscriber base in the UK comprises 166,000 households and the overall international revenue has seen an increase of 44 per cent.
With the addition of a fifth channel to its bouquet, Zee network could be then deemed as the biggest Asian TV network in the UK. Currently the network includes the flagship Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Music and Alpha ETC Punjabi.
The new channel, coming from the network’s Alpha brand, will become the second regional language channel to be added as part of Zee TV’s European operations since the launch of Alpha Punjabi in August 2002. Alpha Gujarati is often touted as one of India’s most watched Gujarati channels.
The new business head of Zee’s UK and European operations, Subroto Bhattacharya, has been quoted in media reports as saying, “The way I look at it, the UK is a very mature market. The Hindi speaking population is coming to a saturation point. Our growth is going to come from adding local flavour, just like what we did in India.”
“We introduced Alpha Punjabi [in the UK] and it has done an extremely good job for us. We introduced it into Europe and also saw tremendous success there,” he added.
The move, according to the reports, was aimed to target the biggest section of the Asian population in the UK, along with the Punjabis — the Gujarati speaking population.
One thing that the network has made clear is that Alpha Gujarati will not be operating as a general entertainment channel like Zee TV or Zee Cinema. The aim of the channel is to provide Gujarathis their own local flavour, as well as local news from their state.
While the reports dismiss likelihood other two regional channels Marathi and Bengali, currently operational in India, to be brought over in the foreseeable future, the move despite the saturation of the Asian channels in the UK is touted as a smart move.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
