Zee Entertainment has on 21 November started the test run of its upcoming Punjabi General Entertainment channel Zee Punjabi on the satellite. The channel is currently being aired on INSAT 4B satellite at 83 East, first spotted by DreamDTH.
The channel is present on frequency 3978 H 3199. It is scrambled with Conax encryption. The name of the channel on the Satellite has been misspelled by the broadcaster as Zee Punjab. The broadcaster had earlier as well misspelled Ganga Biskope as Ganga Bioscope. &xplor HD was also misspelled as & Explore HD in its test run which was later rectified.
Deepak Sharma, an experienced Satellite Tracker, and DreamDTH member commented on the new test channel.
“Zee Punjabi” started from Insat 4B @83* east on Frequency 3978 H 3199. It’s scrambled with Conax encryption.”
The channel was initially reported to be scheduled for launch in January 2020. The quick launch of the test run of the channel indicates that the channel could launch officially near 23 December when the new RIO will kick into effect. The channels test run started even before the new RIO containing Zee Punjabi was notified by the broadcaster.
ZEEL had recently bagged two pro-rata MPEG 2 slots on DD Free Dish for Zee Punjabi and Ganga Biskope (soon to be Zee Biskope). The broadcaster has paid Rs 2.738 crores (approx) for Ganga Biskope and Rs 1.55 crores for Zee Punjabi to DD Free Dish. The channels will air on DD Free Dish from the period 01.12.2019 to 29.02.2020. Both are likely to exclusively available initially for DD Free Dish users.
Manjit Hans is the channel head of Zee Punjabi who was earlier the channel head of Pitaara channel. Prashant Bhatt is the Programming Head of FIction for the channel. Heer Ranjha featuring Sara Gurpal is likely to go on air on the channel soon.
DreamDTH had yesterday exclusively reported that ZEEL was ready to launch it’s Punjabi General Entertainment channel Zee Punjabi shortly. Zee Punjabi will be available to a-la-carte subscribers at a nominal rate of Rs 0.1.
The channel will be available in only four bouquets namely Zee Family Pack Hindi SD, Zee All-In-One Pack Hindi SD, Zee Family Pack Hindi HD, and Zee All-In-One Pack Hindi HD. Zee Punjabi will compete with the likes of PTC, DD Punjabi, etc in the Punjabi market.
Zee Punjabi