Did you know?: Zee to launch a channel that will air Pakistani shows only

The channel will pick successful Pakistani television soaps and dramas for its Indian viewers.

The Zee network will soon be launching a channel, Zindagi which will only air Pakistani content. The channel, slated to be launched on June 23, will pick successful Pakistani television soaps and dramas for its Indian viewers, reported Forbes India.

To test this idea, short clips of Pakistani shows were shown to families across India. The feedback reinforced the belief that these shows will work with the public.

“The market today is already being fragmented with varied classes of people opting for a variety of content. We want to make sure we have an offering for the premium mass Hindi-speaking markets. This will help us expand our audience base, tap into premium advertisers and shore up revenues in the long run,” said Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited. The audience for such content is about 40 million TV homes. India has a total of 140 million homes that watch television.

In the early stages, the channel will air four hours of new programming every day; as time will progress, it will pick up content from other parts of the world as well and commission new programmes that will be produced both in India and Pakistan. Several novels are also being converted into soaps and 12 telefilms have been commissioned.

Just like Pakistan, memories of classic shows like Dhoop Kinaare and Ankahi are still strong with the Indian audiences of the 1980s. However, the question is, will young viewers connect with this genre?

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2014.

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