The media and entertainment powerhouse, Zee Media Corporation Limited has expanded its regional footprint by virtually launching the digital versions of its four South Indian news channels – Zee Tamil News, Zee Telugu News, Zee Kannada News and Zee Malayalam News on Tuesday.

The four new digital news channels were virtually launched by Dr Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Essel Group and founder of Zee Media Corporation.

Initially, the four channels will broadcast in digital form, as a live stream on YouTube and other digital platforms, as well as on their respective websites.

With this, Zee Media also plans to launch satellite versions of these channels in the coming months, which will pose a stiff challenge to existing news broadcasters in an already crowded regional news media landscape, the company said in a statement.

These channels’ social media pages were originally known as Zee Hindustan Tamil/Telugu/Kannada/Malayalam, the company added.

Zee Media is a 26 years old news network with 14 News channels in 6 different languages, touching more than 220 million viewers and over 362 million users across its digital properties.

It is one of the fastest-growing news channels in the country, with news bureaus and correspondents with a pan-India presence, equipped with updated technology in content creation, packaging and broadcasting.

The Zee Media is also the No. 1 news network in India, digitally according to Comscore (digital data analysis company) in the general news category.

With this launch, Zee Media hopes to expand its outreach among every south Indian household and connect with them in their language bringing them news from not only the country and world at large but from every corner of their states.

The launch of these new digital news channels will greatly augment the nationwide reach of Zee Media Corporation, which has a vast presence in North, West and East Indian states but thus far lacked a presence in the South Indian market.

This ambitious project will help Zee make inroads into the largely untapped news market in the South of the Vindhyas. Zee Kannada News, Zee Malayalam News, Zee Tamil News and Zee Telugu News are the latest offerings from the Zee Media Corporation umbrella.

The Zee Media aims to present to its users comprehensive and impartial news coverage on social, political issues along with varied entertainment and lifestyle programs from the South, nationally and worldwide.

The revenue possibilities are immense as the purchasing power of the users on average will be higher than the rest of the country. With huge local brands in each of the 5 states and national brands looking for new avenues for growth, Zee Media hopes to be in a pole position to exploit this opportunity.