Zee plans Bollywood satellite channel for Germany


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Rebecca Hawkes

| 19 January 2016




Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment is to launch a free-to-air satellite TV channel in Germany by the middle of 2016.



The 24-hour channel will bring popular Bollywood movies and hit Indian television series to German viewers.

“Our foray into Germany is a major step as part of our international expansion strategy. The objective is to establish a lasting presence and grow in the German television market. With our highest levels of entertainment and new content, we are confident of being able to offer our German viewers an attractive enrichment to the existing range of television offerings,” said Amit Goenka, CEO, international broadcast business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL).

Neeraj Dhingra, CEO, Europe at Asia TV, Zee TV added: “The launch of the channel will signify ZEEL’s entry into one of the world’s most important television markets, in which the Bollywood genre is still barely represented as yet. With 210,000 hours of programming and more than 3,500 film titles, our endeavour is to delight the German audiences with Indian content.”

The former head of Swedish Internet TV provider Magine TV in Germany, Friederike Behrends, will handle the satellite channel’s business operations in German-speaking markets.

Speaking after her appointment, Behrends said: “Bollywood content offers a much broader spectrum than is known on German television. The aim is to enhance Germany’s entertainment offerings by introducing an entirely new genre. We intend to capture the hearts of German viewers with Bollywood. We are currently engaged in intensive talks with German TV platform operators with a view to expanding the reach as quickly as possible on a broad scale via all transmission paths.”