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One of India’s first channels dedicated to Bollywood, youth and trends content, Zoom, from the Times Network stable, will be donning a revamped look form June 26. While it will continue to have content led by Bollywood, the format of the content will shorter (1.5 minutes to 20 minutes per property) so that is can be seamlessly integrated with the digital platform.
MK Anand, MD and CEO, Times Network, “Zoom is different from our other channels like Times Now, ET Now, Romedy Now and Movies Now in that it is an Indian language channel. Secondly, the content it deals with, predominantly Bollywood and related subjects, has seen immense proliferation on new media, through websites and through celebs themselves. We realised that in order to remain relevant, we will need to have content that lends well to both digital and broadcast media.”
While the content on the channel will undergo a revamp, the look of the channel will also see a major overhaul, though Anand and team have retained the red colour in the logo and on-air packaging. Harvey B Brown, an award winning film director, creative director, art director and set designer roped in along with the expert internal team to design the new look of Zoom. The tagline of the channel will also change to “Turn On”.
The channel currently has a seven per cent share in the genre (which includes channels like MTV, Channel V, bindass etc) behind peers like Disney’s bindass (13 per cent), Viacom18’s MTV (12 per cent) and Disney’s bindass Play (11 per cent) and Sony Mix (also 11 per cent). However, on social media, the brand Zoom has a significant presence. It’s Facebook page has close to 10 million likes with thousands engaging with the brand regularly on a daily basis. The new positioning is expected to translate the popularity on new media, to television.
Additionally, the channel plans to bring on three prominent Bollywood faces to spearhead the new look. Fresh off the success of their films Kangana Ranaut (Tanu Weds Manu Returns) and Farhan Akhtar (Dil Dhadakne Do) will be seen on the channel as parts of shows. Joining them will be Randeep Hooda, also as part of the new show line-up. Zoom will also feature presenters such as celebrity blogger Miss Malini -- who will bring her highly followed blog to life through ‘Kya Seen Hai@Malini’. Singer and standup comic artist Sugandha Mishra, who can mimic 25 voices and speak eight languages, will deliver her comical takes on the entertaining weekly wrap ‘Funtanatan’.
Zoom’s revamp comes less than a year after another player in the Bollywood and youth trends space – UTV Stars shut shop. Anand agrees that the category has become extremely cluttered and one of the main reasons for the revamp is to have a sharper differentiation. The channel did go a restructuring of the team last October, where many employees were given the pink slip. Anand asserts that it was not a trimming exercise since the channel is profitable, but was an effort to align the workforce with the content vision the network planned to implement at the revamp.
