Zee Odisha replaced by Zee Delhi NCR Haryana; digital-only Zee Odisha News launched

In a surprise turn of events, news broadcaster Zee Media Corporation (ZMCL) launched two new channels on Tuesday (15 March 2022), but in vastly different formats. The Odia satellite news channel Zee Odisha — which was supposed to shut down on 2 April 2022, two days after Marathi music channel Zee Vajwa’s shutdown — brought forward its shutdown to today and has now disappeared from the airwaves, but its frequency has been replaced by the new channel Zee Delhi NCR Haryana, which was launched today with barely any announcement. DTH platforms have already replaced Zee Odisha with Zee Delhi NCR Haryana and have changed the EPG name and channel number accordingly.

However, it is not that ZMCL has quit the Odia news genre altogether. Even though it has shuttered its Odia satellite news channel Zee Odisha, it continues to have a presence in Odisha by launching a new digital-only news channel, Zee Odisha News, in its place. This channel has a live-stream on YouTube and a presence on all major social media platforms as well as on the main Zee News website. This is in a similar fashion as the four digital-only South Indian news channels that ZMCL launched in late January. There exists a stark difference: those digital channels plan to launch satellite versions at some point, whereas the digital Zee Odisha News was launched after shutting down the satellite channel Zee Odisha. Still, it is a loss for traditional TV viewers, though there is no shortage of Odia satellite news channels.

As for the new channel, Zee Delhi NCR Haryana, this is the first channel launched in a long time to serve the Delhi/NCR/Gurgaon region. Similar channels in the past include NDTV MetroNation, which served only the Delhi metro region (not the entire NCR) during its brief life in the late 2000s, and Sahara Samay NCR, which was merged with Samay Rajasthan in July 2017 to create Samay Rajasthan Haryana NCR — a mouthful of a name. In any case, ZMCL has another channel with an overlong name — Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal — that serves a similar region also including Haryana. Whether the new Zee Delhi NCR Haryana channel overlaps with Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal remains to be seen. Its competitors include India News Haryana, MH One News and News18 Punjab Haryana Himachal among others.

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