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Zee Telugu
Channel Name: Zee
Telugu
Launched:
May 18, 2005
Owned by:
Zee Network
Country:
India
Broadcast area: India
Network:
Zee Network
Headquarters:
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Sister channels:
no data
Language: Telugu
Website:
http://www.zeetelugu.com/
Zee Telugu is a Telugu-language cable
television channel in India. It is offered by Zee Network, part of the Essel
Group.
By
2004, the Zee Network already had a strong presence in northern and eastern
India, with channels in Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Punjabi; their proposed
Telugu-language channel marked their first venture into the southern India
entertainment market. In June 2004, they expected the channel to launch by
August. Their actual launch finally arrived in September. Initially this
channel is launched with the name Alpha TV Telugu.Later they renamed as Zee
Telugu.They initially featured a large amount of American films dubbed into
Telugu; in August 2005, they also dubbed popular Bollywood film Sholay from
Hindi into Telugu as an experiment.
By
December 2005, despite having some popular programmes such as game show Gold
Rush, hosted by popular female anchor Udayabhanu, as well as soap opera
Nishabdam, overall Zee Telugu had only achieved a 1.24% weekday and 1.86%
weekend market share in Andhra Pradesh. As a result, they re-launched
themselves in order to shift their target market segment from mass market to
that of upwardly mobile young professionals. They suffered a loss of Rs. 460
million in fiscal year 2005.
In
late 2006, Zee Telugu began work on Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa, a Telugu-language singing
competition. Anchored by Nandi Award winner Suneetha, the judges panel included
renowned Telugu music figures Koti and Ramana Gogula, and was scheduled to run
for 35 episodes. The show was so successful that by February 2007, they
announced plans to launch Little Champs, a version of the show aimed at the ages
six to thirteen market, hosted by former Indian Idol runner up N. C. Karunya.
Additionally,
Mee Inti Vanta, a cookery show has also ran successfully for more than 1000
episodes. It is hosted by the famous anchor Sumalatha. This program was a huge
hit with the women audience and had grabbed the market share in the afternoon
slot. Eventually all the other channels started their own cookery shows.
Another
program introduced recently was Sreekaram Subhakaram. It's an astrology based
program with astrologer Vakkantham Chandramouli and popular anchor Sumalatha.
This is a live program and the many other channels are trying to follow suit.
In
September 2007, the channel announced after months of deliberations that Sanjay
Reddy would be their new chief executive officer, succeeding Ajay Kumar, who
had left several months previously. Reddy had previously worked at The Walt
Disney Company and Pearl Media.[8] Reddy's plan in 2008 includes new soaps and
children's programming......More
>>
