Zee Channels Headed to East Africa

NAIROBI: Eastern Africa’s Wananchi Group has signed a deal with Zee Network to carry three of the Indian broadcaster’s channels—Zee Cinema, Zee Zing and Zee Punjabi—on its Zuku cable and DTH platforms.

The three-year deal expands the Zuku triple-play brand for Wananchi as it looks to reach out to the Indian community in East Africa. Zee Network operates 25 channels, and reaches over 500 million viewers in 167 countries. Zee’s Zee Cinema, Zee Zing and Zee Punjabi are now carried across Zuku’s cable and DTH platforms in 10 African countries.

Hannelie Bekker, the managing director of Wananchi Programming, said: “Including Hindi, Gujarathi and Punjabi orientated programming in all our channel bouquets is a key part of Wananchi’s differentiation and positioning in the market, catering to all East African populations. There is a large population of East Africans of Indian descent, whose entertainment requirements encompass both Hollywood and Bollywood. The agreement with Zee will ensure that Zuku caters to these viewers at a price that represents excellent value for money. In addition, channels like Zee Cinema—which is subtitled in English—and Zing (a Bollywood music channel) have distinct cross-over appeal.”

Deepak Jain, the business head of Zee Africa operations, added: “It’s important for us to have strong links to the African region, and this partnership with Zuku is a great way for us to reach a wide range of viewers in Africa. We hope to expand on the agreement as time goes on, so that we can broadcast more of our channels through Zuku’s platforms.”