Zee expands in Africa with Mali DTT launch

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) is moving into Mali, launching its Zee Magic and Zee Cinema channels on digital terrestrial TV network TNTSAT Africa.

The move is part of a wider push by Zee into the African market, with Zee Bollymovies – an English-dubbed Bollywood movie channel for the African market – also expanding its reach by launching on DTH platform DStv.

“Zee will be making further inroads into the vast continent of Africa with our entry into the French-speaking country of Mali,” said Amit Goenka, CEO, international broadcast business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited.

“Sharing our existing channels – Zee Magic and Zee Cinema with new audiences is a huge achievement for us and we thank TNTSAT for allowing us to bring the best of Bollywood to all their viewers in Mali.”

Harish Goyal, CEO of Zee TV Africa added: “In another major deal, within just four weeks of its launch, our 24-hour dedicated English-dubbed Bollywood movie channel, Zee Bollymovies will now be available on DStv, the largest DTH platform in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“ZEE has already witnessed tremendous success over the past two years on DStv with Zee World, its English-dubbed General Entertainment channel and with the addition of Zee Bollymovies on this platform, we hope to further raise the level of entertainment for our dedicated viewers.”

ZEEL launched two new channels, Zee Bollymovies and Zee Bollynova, on new African pay TV network Kwesé TV in January. French-dubbed general entertainment channel Zee Magic first went live in October 2015 while Zee Cinema is a 24-hour Hindi Bollywood Movie channel catering to South Asians on the continent.