Zee Classic eyes growth through new content strategy

MUMBAI: With Zee Cinema and &Pictures well entrenched in their respective space, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) is giving a big push to its segmented classic Hindi movie channel Zee Classic through a series of programming innovations and an aggressive marketing campaign led by Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor.

In order to build appointment viewing and appeal to a diverse set of audiences, the channel will be launching five distinct programming slots for each decade of Hindi cinema.

The four programming blocks that will form the content strategy of the channel include ‘Best of the ’80s and the ’90s’, ‘The the ’70s Mix’, ‘Shaandar Sixties’, ‘Black and White’ and ‘India’s Finest Films’. The new programming blocks will come into force on 3 October.

Through these programming initiatives, the channel hopes to gratify viewers with different mindsets, which include connoisseurs of golden cinema, middle-aged adults, the new-age classic viewers and the contemporary young adults.

‘Best of the ’80s and the 90s’ will showcase hits from decades that saw the emergence of more than 10 superstars ranging from Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol, Mithun Chakroborty, Anil Kapoor to the three Khans, Govinda, and Akshay Kumar. This segment will air from Monday to Friday at 4 and 7 pm.

‘The ’70s Mix’ will showcase blockbusters from the 1970s, an era that reflected the nuances of the society, but pre-eminently turned out to be a decade of the ‘angry young man’, action movies and melodious music. It will air from Monday to Friday at 1 pm. ‘Shaandar Sixties’, which will present romantic movies of the 1960s, will air Monday–Friday at 1 pm.

‘Black and White’ will include masterpieces of the Hindi cinema. This slot will air on Saturdays at 7 am. Additionally, the channel has an ongoing block called ‘India’s Finest Films’ in which it curates critically acclaimed films from recent times. This block is scheduled at 10 pm on Saturdays. The channel has kept Saturday and Sunday open for high-impact properties and original shows.

The programming has been backed by an aggressive acquisition of movie titles. Zee Classic has an exclusive 500+ movie titles in its library.

“We have been acquiring movies over the last three years. NFDC library is one acquisition we have done. We have also acquired Bimal Roy films and bought an assorted library of Manoj Kumar films. We have a very strong Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Kapoor and Subhash Ghai library,” said ZEEL Hindi movie cluster business head Ruchir Tiwari.

He further stated that certain Zee Cinema library films such as ‘Gadar’, ‘Lagaan’ and the Govinda films will be moved to Zee Classic in the next couple of years.

To promote the new programming initiative, the channel has launched a marketing campaign with the theme ‘Aaj Ka Classic’. The face of this campaign is Arjun Kapoor. The campaign will be run across print, TV, digital and outdoor.

According to Tiwari, Zee Classic has seen a reversal of fortune since it was launched.

From being a 6 GRP channel available only on select digital platforms, Zee Classic has steadily moved up the ladder to reach 40 GRPs with 35% reach of the C&S universe. In fact, there was a time when the company was mulling shutting down the channel.

“After 2010, we have got a good response from the viewers. It has created a distinct space for itself. Cable TV digitisation also helped in increasing reach. It is not a niche channel because it has a market share of 6% with potential to reach 10% in the future. It’s already on a par with &Pictures, UTV Movies and Movies OK,” Tiwari said.

Unlike other channels that have a core target audience, Zee Classic caters to different kinds of mindsets. Therefore, the channel has designed its programming to cater to each mindset. “Instead of having random and scattered viewing, we have dedicated slots that give audiences a visibility of what movie they can expect,” he added.

The channel plans to tap younger audiences through films of the ’80s and ’90s.

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