Deepti Rajan 2015-08-17

Putting an end to much speculation, Zee Media Corporation — the news arm of the Zee Group — today announced its intention to enter into English News Broadcasting with the appointment of Rohit Gandhi as Editor-in-Chief – English News Broadcast and Related Content.

Zee had been expected to make this announcement for almost a year. The group had, late last year, bought a big 20 lakh square feet commercial space in Marathon Futurex complex at Lower Parel in Mumbai for over Rs 400 crore.

The move was seen as a precursor to the starting of English news channels — one for ‘general’ news and one for business news.

Zee is already present in the Hindi news genre, as well as in nearly every language market in the country with its entertainment channels.

It is expected that the new channels will balance out the ‘left liberal’ tilt of Indian English language media. It could play the role that Fox news played in the US in terms of making the reporting of news more diverse.