Mumbai: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZeeL) has announced the launch of its second Marathi movie offering – Zee Chitramandir, to further consolidate its presence in the Maharashtra market.
Maharashtra is considered one of the key drivers for its regional growth housing popular TV content brands – Zee Marathi, Zee Talkies and Zee Studios Marathi. The network recently forayed into the regional music space as well, with the launch of music channel Zee Vajwa, which established its place within just four weeks of its debut.
According to the company, the addition of Zee Chitramandir will further boost its reach by targeting four million Free Dish households in the category.
Zee cluster head – north, west, and premium channels Amit Shah said, “Zee’s Marathi portfolio features strong content brands that have become a part of our consumer’s day to day life. The launch of Zee Chitramandir will further enhance our offering to the Marathi audiences, with the cluster covering 70 per cent reach in the market.
The new channel boasts one of the largest movie catalogues in the category and aims to entertain audiences with some never-seen-before movie titles offering quality entertainment to the audiences in their native language. Marathi is the mother tongue of 80 per cent of the households in the region, and one in every three rural households has a Free Dish connection. The category is currently underserved with only three language channels, leaving a huge untapped potential available to capture, said the company in a media statement on Friday.
Zee chief growth officer – advertisement revenue Ashish Sehgal said, “With the rural economy growing, income levels across strata are improving thereby leading to high consumption in the FTA markets. This is further attracting advertisers, who want to capture the potential in these markets. We are excited to bring a new Free Dish offering to cater to the large audience segment available in the Marathi free market.”
With a rich library of 600+ popular movie titles, the channel Zee Chitramandir hopes to address the need for a quality Free Dish offering in the Marathi movie segment. It will be available to all Free Dish users starting Friday.
