Zee Network to bring Pakistan TV shows on small screen in India

MUMBAI: The Indian most prominent media group ‘Zee network’ is going to launch its newest channel, called ‘Zindagi’, which will bring Pakistani TV shows on the small screen, ARY News has learnt.

The channel ‘Zindagi’, which goes live on June 23, will show some hit Pakistani TV series believing that it will click with the local viewers, Indian sources revealed.

To test this hypothesis, five-minute clips of these shows were shown to families across socio-economic backgrounds. The feedback reinforced the belief that Pakistani TV shows will work with the ‘premium mass’ audience (the growing body of premium viewers).

In the initial phase, the channel will have four hours of new programming every day; later, it will pick up content from other parts of the world as well and commission new programmes that will be produced both in India and Pakistan. Several novels are also being converted into soaps and 12 telefilms have been commissioned.

Memories of shows like Dhoop Kinaare and Ankahi are still strong with the Indian audiences of the 1980s. Will young viewers connect with this genre? Come June, we will know.

Targeted at the niche premium Indian audience, the channel intends to bring shows from Latin America, Turkey and Egypt in future.

However, to begin with, the target is to cash in on Indian the audiences’ liking for Pakistani shows that are still most watched on YouTube. Zee Network has reportedly pumped in Rs 100 crore to establish the new niche channel, which is targeted at the audience in Northern India, Jammu-Kashmir and Hyderabad.