Zee TV is an Indian

Hindi language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has bee ...

general entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousand ...

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel owned by

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Zee Entertainment Enterprises (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Essel Group. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, businesses related to mobile contents, and operates 45 ...

. It was launched on 1 October 1992, as the oldest privately owned Television channel in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. The defunct and unsuccessful Asia Television Network started earlier.

History

In 1991,

Li Ka-shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...

started his STAR satellite television network. At the end of the year,

Subhash Chandra Subhash Chandra Goenka (born 30 November 1950) is an Indian billionaire media baron. He is the chairman of the Essel Group, an Indian media conglomerate and founded Zee TV in 1992. He was also the chairman of Zee Media but resigned as Direct ...

of the

Essel Group Essel Group, (also known as Zee Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate holding company and corporate promoter headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company has had business interests in mass media, infrastructure and pac ...

finished a round of negotiations with HutchVision, after a series of rejections, and the condition that Chandra would pay US$5 million a year for the satellite transponder. Li signed the deal in India a few months later and approached interested companies, but nobody was interested in paying the transponder fees. Chandra was the last possible man to sign the contract, by gathering money from his non-resident Indian friends and in the creation of a holding company for the channel, Asia Today. Zee TV was launched on 2 October 1992, as the flagship channel of the Zee Telefilms Ltd. The channel initially broadcast three hours a day, its output consisting of movies and reruns of

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

serials. The channel's initial manager was a Doordarshan news reporter who was on leave from his employer. Three months later, the airtime had doubled to six hours. Within less than a month after its launch, Zee TV was criticised for airing mainly old Hindi films and serials that were previously broadcast on state TV network Doordarshan. A cynic reviewed the network giving "A for effort" and "Z(ee) for quality". Others within the network called it an "upbeat clone of Doordarshan". To offset such negative criticism, Zee TV began producing more original content. The channel opted to create its own pool of producers instead of using Doordarshan staff. Zee TV rejected a 1993 bid to broadcast Sun TV during the afternoons, forcing Sun TV to negotiate with competitor ATN instead. It began full-day broadcasts in 1993. After

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's buyout of Star TV, Zee TV faced some uncertainties about its future, nonetheless, Zee TV had gained rural audiences by November 1993. On 22 December 1993, Murdoch was planning to buy a 49.9% equity stake in the channel's owner,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

-based,

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

-registered Asia Today. By year-end 1995, Zee TV already had three channels, the other two being Zee Cinema, a Bollywood channel, and EL TV, which broadcast in English and regional languages. Numerous competitors had also emerged around this time. 11 million households were receiving the channel. Zee TV lost its leadership to Star Plus, which took over its role after Murdoch sold his stake in Asia Today. On 10 January 2007, Zee Telefilms Ltd was renamed into the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL.). In 2013, Zee TV, along with its sister channels, underwent a branding overhaul. On 15 October 2017, coinciding Zee's twenty-five year silver jubilee, all of its channels were rebranded. On 30 May 2021, Zee TV planned to revamp its look and air four new television series, but because of the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

, the idea was postponed and thereafter scrapped.

Associated channels

Zee Anmol

centre, 200px Zee Anmol is a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) that shows reruns of Zee TV shows. It was launched in 2013 as a free-to-air channel, similar to

Star Utsav StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, ...

Sony Pal Sony Pal (stylised as Sony पल) (Hindi for Moment) is an Indian pay television channel that was launched on 1 September 2014. It was initially aimed at women with women-oriented Hindi-language programming, now focused on family-oriented progr ...

and

Colors Rishtey Colors Rishtey is an Indian pay general entertainment television channel that mainly broadcasts re-runs of programming from Colors TV and also airs shows from NDTV Imagine & DD National. International Feeds Of ‘Colors Rishtey’ Also Air Dubb ...

. However, in 2019, it stopped being free-to-air.

Zee Zindagi

Zee Zindagi is an Indian General Entertainment Television channel owned by

, that airs Pakistani TV shows (and previously also Turkish and Korean shows dubbed into Hindi). Originally launched as a satellite channel on 23 June 2014, it closed down on 30 June 2017, when its content was moved to Ozee (now

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Andr ...

). On 23 May 2022, Zee Zindagi was relaunched on Indian DTH platforms as a service channel airing predominantly Pakistani content. It continues to be available on

Zing

Zing is a youth entertainment channel in India owned by the

Zee Entertainment Zee Entertainment Enterprises (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Essel Group. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, businesses related to mobile contents, and operates 45 ...

, similar to

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Bindass Bindass is an Indian pay television Hindi-language Music channel owned by Disney Star, targeted at young people. It was launched on 24 September 2007. History UTV Software Communications launched Bindass as a youth-oriented entertainment chan ...

and the erstwhile Channel V. It was launched in 1997 as Music Asia, then rebranded to Zee Muzic in 2000, and adopted its current name in 2009. Besides youth programming, it also shows music shows, like its sister channel

Zee ETC Bollywood Zee ETC Bollywood Channel was a Bollywood trade television channel. The channel caters to audiences in the Asia Pacific region and has shows that are hosted in English and Hindi. The channel features reviews, previews, box office collections, de ...

, which shut down on 17 October 2020.

Programming

The channel mostly airs content intended for family and coming-of-age audiences ranging from comedy to drama. It also aired reality shows such as ''En Vidya Nokki'', ''

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'' is an Indian Hindi-language reality singing television show. It started airing on Zee TV in 1995 as ''Sa Re Ga Ma''. It is the oldest running game show in India as well as the oldest show on private television in India. The ...

'', '' I Can Do That'', ''

India's Best Cinestars Ki Khoj ''India's Best Cinestar Ki Khoj'' is an Indian television series that premiered on Zee TV in 2004. It is a talent show for aspiring actors, and the first prize is the lead role in a film. Two winners, one male and one female, are crowned at the ...

'', and ''

Dance India Dance ''Dance India Dance'' (also called by the acronym ''DID''; tagline: ''Dance Ka Asli ID D.I.D.'') is an Indian Hindi-language dance competition reality television series that airs on Zee TV, created and produced by Essel Vision Productions. It ...

''.

Zee Rishtey Awards

Since 2007, the channel has presented an annual award show, the Zee Rishtey Awards, to performers on its show based on popularity. Nominations for the awards are declared by the channel. The winners are selected through voting done via online and through SMS.

International versions

Europe

The European version of Zee TV traces its origins to

TV Asia TV Asia was the first Asian TV channel to be founded in the UK. Launched in 1990, and originally broadcasting overnights during Sky One's downtime, it was Europe's first entertainment and information channel for the South Asian community from ...

, which was set up by non-resident Indian and Pakistani immigrants in the United Kingdom and started broadcasting in July 1992. It was the first channel in Europe targeting Indian, Pakistani and Bandlageshi immigrants. By 1994, the channel was facing financial difficulties, forcing Zee TV to take over the channel in March 1995. The channel also had local community programming as well as content targeting viewers of different religions (Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam). The network produced special programmes for the

1997 United Kingdom general election The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority. T ...

, the first with candidates of South Asian origin.