With the genre of English entertainment picking up, Zee Café is bolstering its offering to attract both advertisers and subscribers. The English entertainment channel from the Zee stable is adding new shows and has also launched a high definition (HD) version to its channel.

“The English entertainment as a genre is growing. According to the FICCI report, there are four million HD subscribers accounting for 10 per cent of total DTH subscribers. The point is that over 15 per cent of the increase in DTH subscribers has been with those opting for HD connections,” Ali Zaidi, Business Head, English Cluster, Zee Café told BusinessLine .

Zaidi also noted that wherever digitisation has happened it has led to scaling up of paid channel.

Industry watchers note that unlike analogue networks which can handle about 100 channels, digital ones can accommodate over 800 channels.

He said that as people got more English literate, it also translated into high viewership. “There is a skew towards new content as more people take on to English shows,” he said.

As per available data, the English entertainment market is estimated at 27 million.

Zaidi said as per October data released by BARC, in the English entertainment genre, Zee Cafe stood at top spot followed by AXN and Comedy Central.

Asked about the concepts of back-to-back episode and whole day or binge viewing, he said Zee Café had introduced the same as there was a demand for the same.

On simulcasts, a trend where popular series are telecast at same time as the international launches, he said, “it can be done only with highly popular shows. Indian audiences don’t like weekly concepts. They like daily soap formats. “

He also said that for Zee Café it was combination of old and new shows. Asked about advertiser’s response to niche categories, Zaidi said English as a category was picking up. Zaidi, however, did not divulge any revenue or investment details.

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