Zee News Ltd Ventures Into Regional Web Space

NEW DELHI, February 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

After having established a strong English internet brand with its flagship Zeenews.com, Zee News Limited is spreading its wings to the fast growing regional web space.

As a logical step, the company announced its arrival in the Hindi market with zeenews.com/hindi. The website, which was launched at India's first eco-friendly concert in Delhi, will complement the already hugely successful Hindi news channel, Zee News.

The Bengali website is an extension of the group's No. 1 news channel in West Bengal - 24 Ghanta. 24ghanta.com was launched during the festive season on Mahalaya in the presence of football legend PK Banerjee and other celebrities like Riya Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Gautam Ghose and Abhijeet.

The Marathi website that was launched symbolically on Republic Day was given thumbs up by Sharad Pawar, besides other prominent Marathis like Raj Thackeray, RR Patil, Narayan Rane, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mrinal Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, and Ankush Choudhary.

Talking about the new ventures, Zee News Limited CEO, Barun Das said, "The idea is to tap the vast and rapidly growing vernacular market and establish the websites as premier news sources in their respective regions. Hindi was the first and the most obvious choice due to the prominent position Zee News channel occupies in our bouquet. But, I am equally optimistic about our regional brands with increased web penetration and the panache with which Tier II cities are taking to the internet."

"That is the reason why we would be looking at aggressively expanding in other regions like Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh in the next phase," he added.

The websites would provide not only a mix of national and international news, but focus on local developments including in the fields of politics, sports and entertainment.

Interactivity would be a major attribute with a plethora of blogs, opinion polls, forums and bookmarks like Facebook and Twitter. Comments and contributions from readers would also be welcome.

Safikul Islam
Zee News Limited
Internet Marketing Executive
safikul.islam@zeenetwork.com
+91-9873342730