- Created for school-going children in the 4 to 14 years age group, to fulfill specific need gaps
- Will foster curiosity to provide education through fun and entertainment
- Based on the principle: What is Right For the Child
Mumbai, India – 15 October 2012 – After completing 20 successful years in Media & Entertainment in India, during which period it revolutionized the space by growing from one channel to a rich portfolio of 31 channels, entertaining over 650+ million viewers across 168 countries, the pioneering ZEE today makes an important announcement that will help it make a positive impact in the lives of the school-going children of India.
Punit Goenka, MD & CEO – Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, today announced the launch of a new channel – ZeeQ – which will cater to the needs of children in India. Speaking on the launch of ZeeQ, Mr. Goenka said, “ZEE as a group stands by its principle of improvement of human capital, and so is the initiative, ZeeQ. It is a step ahead in fostering the curiosity amongst children through fun and entertainment.” ZeeQ will have mix of home produced and acquired content. Mr. Goenka also added, “For two decades, Zee Entertainment Enterprises has been making difference in the lives of millions, and now ZeeQ will sustain it further.”
The experiences of education division Zee Learn Ltd, which is the fastest growing education chain of preschools and K-12, will come handy to ZeeQ. On Zee Learn’s backing, Mr. Goenka informed, “During production and acquisition of content, we took into consideration the learnings from the 18 years that Zee Learn Limited has been interacting with as many as 300000 students, parents and teachers across India. And this has helped us make its edutainment content engaging and relevant to the needs of Indian children.”
ZeeQ will address the educational need gaps through engaging content. The 24-hour channel will be available on Leading DTH & Digital Cable Platforms as a paid-for channel.
ZeeQ is the 32nd channel from ZEE, which will manage ZeeQ’s broadcast operations, while Zee Learn will look after the content and channel management.
Navneet Anhal, COO – Zee Learn Limited, said, “ZeeQ is based on our core operating principle of ‘What is Right for the Child’. We are confident that the channel will benefit school-going children and help their parents and teachers in the collective effort to facilitate emotional, social, academic and behavioral development of the children. ZeeQ, will further strengthen the endeavor of Zee Learn to prepare children for 21st Century by inculcating much needed knowledge, life skills and values.
Subhadarshi Tripathi, Business Head of ZeeQ, said, “The programming and scheduling approach of ZeeQ’s content is geared to help children with subliminal education while keeping them engaged in never-before edu-tainment fashion.” To achieve this, ZeeQ has a mix of programs that its programming team has especially designed and produced.
Some of the shows on ZeeQ include specially produced programs like:
- Teenovation — a show in association with The National Innovation Foundation about Children innovators who display brilliance and create utility items for problems they see around them
- Wordmatch — a National level Hindi game show for children, which enhances their knowledge of English spelling, word usage, sentence construction and vocabulary
- Brain Café — a super cool café with anything and everything to do with Science, Brain Café is the perfect hang out to learn all about science theories, concepts and their applications in a fun way
Another important part of the ZeeQ programming is its acquired programs, carefully handpicked by its programming team from amongst numerous available concepts. Even the acquired programs have been adapted to the taste of Indian kids.
Speaking on the strengths of ZeeQ, Tripathi observed, “We believe that the need for and relevance of a channel such as ZeeQ with its quality content will help us in digitization post-Phase 1. The fact that it is being distributed on India’s leading DTH & Digital Cable Platforms DTH platforms that will help us reach and educates millions of potential viewers, enthuses us.”
About Zee Learn Limited
Zee Learn Limited (ZLL), founded in the year 1994, is the educational division of Essel Group. Listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) & Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 533287, it is one of the leading education companies in India. As a significant player in Core Education, ZLL is set to ride on an increasing demand for quality education and development with the fastest growing chain of preschools & K-12 schools.
About Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“ZEE”)
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEE) is one of India’s leading television media and entertainment companies. It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with an extensive library housing over 100,000+ hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,000 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, ZEE houses the world’s largest Hindi film library. Through its strong presence worldwide, ZEE entertains over 650+ million viewers across 168 countries. ZEE has been selected Business Superbrands 2010-11, Industry Validated.
Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, ZEE’s well known brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Zee Smile, 9X, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action, Ten Golf, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Jagran, Zee Salaam, Zing, ETC Music and Zee Khana Khazana. The company also has a strong offering in the regional language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Tamizh and ETC Punjabi. The company’s recently launched HD offerings include Zee TV HD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Studio HD and Ten HD.
ZEE and its affiliate companies have leading presence across the media value chain including television broadcasting, cable distribution, direct-to-home satellite services, digital media, multiplexes, amusement parks and print media amongst others. More information about ZEE and its businesses is available on www.zeetelevision.com
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Media Contacts:
Jayshree Kumar – Mumbai / Abhishek Agrawal – Delhi
Corporate Brand – ZEE
Mobile: 97692 86661 / 98114 38591