Zee to offer separate beam for Pak, Bangla

mumbai: zee tv will offer a separate encrypted broadcast beam for markets in the middle east, pakistan, bangladesh and nepal from this month-end to enhance pay revenues. this would allow zee tv to tailor content to coincide with prime-time in different markets while concurrently valuating air-time inventory at locally relevant and competitively attractive rates.zee tv estimates airtime sales of $4-5 million per year from markets covered under this new beam, zee said in a release here on wednesday. it would also help zee tv monetise all 24 hours of its programming for airtime slots from these markets. zee telefilms group ceo sandeep goyal said, "the middle east market is very attractive and with a rate card tailored to that market, we believe we can generate substantial revenues from there while pakistan is almost virgin territory for us." currently, zee tv accepts advertising from these markets only in its late prime (post 11 pm) time slots. the current beam covers singapore to saudi arabia. early last week, zee was permitted by the government to uplink seven of its channel from india. most advertisers in these markets do not advertise on indian channels because - advertising rates in india are much higher, especially during prime time. india is one hour behind bangladesh and nepal, and 90 minutes ahead of pakistan and middle east as a result of which these advertisers do not derive maximal benefit by advertising on india prime-time, it said. zee tv went pay in all these markets in june. the separate new beam would not have any effect on the current decoder boxes already in place in these markets and would only require a quick one-time retuning of frequencies, it said. referring to government permission, zee said local uplinking would free up a lot of facilities at singapore, allowing customisation of beams for different markets. the channel may also consider some content customisation of the beam. some market relevant programming in bengali, punjabi and urdu may be added overtime to cater to viewers in bangladesh and pakistan, it said. similarly, zee tv may, at a future date, enhance some of the movie content on this beam. zee has a 3,000 plus movie library while bengali and punjabi content may be picked from its alpha channels, it added.