MUMBAI: Zee is pulling down the shutters on its radio business after a year’s presence in the UK market. Hit by recession and deciding to focus on the group’s core television business, a senior company executive said Zee Radio would cease broadcasting from 30 April.
“We wanted a 24-hour radio station on air. We thought we would get the licence in a year’s time. That didn’t happen. Zee Radio would stop transmission from 30 April,” Zee Network UK and Europe head Govind Shahi told Indiantelevision.com in a telephonic conversation from London.
Zee Radio had the licence to operate on the AM radio broadcast band for six hours while its DAB digital radio was round-the-clock.
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Zee, Shahi said, would concentrate on expanding its business in Europe and grow organically even under such tough market conditions. “We are exploring opportunities in genres that are lacking in the European territory. The bouquet of channels may also grow,” he added, while refusing to elaborate on the plans due to competitive reasons.
Zee has been streamlining its operations and has decided to close down Zee Gujarati and Zee Next. The UK operations would also be impacted as Zee Gujarati was available to viewers in that market. The other four channels operating in UK are Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Alpha ETC Punjabi, and Zee Muzic (rebranded to Zing).
“We are shutting Zee Gujarati as it discontinues in India from 30 April. We haven’t found it feasible to run it in UK by sourcing content from outside,” said Shahi.
