ZEE Entertainment intensifies its fight against COVID-19

Company commits to offer financial relief to ~5000+ Daily Wage Earners

April 8, 2020

ZEE Entertainment intensifies its fight against COVID-19

Leveraging its reach urges 1.3 Bn viewers to contribute and join the battle against Coronavirus

Media & Entertainment Powerhouse ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE) intensifying its fight against Covid-19, today committed to offer a financial relief to over 5000 daily wage earners, working directly or indirectly for the Company in its overall production ecosystem. Gauging the unprecedented impact caused to all daily wage earners due to the lockdown, as a responsible player in the media & entertainment sector, ZEE has taken this step ensuring that the families of daily wage earners do not get impacted during the ongoing challenging phase.

In order to further support Prime Ministers’ Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), ZEE will leverage the strength of its media network across the Nation and World at large, encouraging over 1.3 Bn people to contribute. Over and above this step, ZEE has also provided an opportunity to all of its 3500 employees to offer voluntary contributions towards PM CARES Fund through an intranet portal. The Company will match the corpus collected from the employee contribution and the collective amount will be donated to PM CARES Fund.

Speaking on this announcement, Mr. Punit Goenka, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ZEE said, “We stand committed to financially support all the daily wage earners working in our production ecosystem. We firmly believe in the extraordinary power of coming together and fighting against a situation. In these challenging times, it is extremely critical for India Inc. to come together and support the National level initiative undertaken by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi. Apart from the financial support, we will also contribute in creating nationwide awareness about the noble initiative. Leveraging our strong reach across the Nation and World at large, we are urging our esteemed viewers to join this movement. This is a time where the entire Nation needs to come together as One Family.”

The collective strength of all consumer touchpoints of the Company, including its television channels, digital platforms and social media platforms will be leveraged to urge people across the globe to join this movement. As a Company which has always been obsessed about its consumers, in order to keep them informed and sensitized about the safety and precautionary measures, ZEE had implemented a first of its kind initiative, titled as #BreakTheCoronaOutbreak. Under this initiative, content across 40+ channels was paused for a 30 second break throughout the day, encouraging viewers to wash their hands. In line with the decision undertaken by Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), television channel Zee Anmol was also made available free of cost to all viewers across all DTH platforms and cable TV networks for a period of two months.

On the Company’s digital side, ZEE5 ensured that the internet bandwidth across the Country was optimized by replacing High Definition (HD) content to Standard Definition (SD) content. ZEE5 also ensured that the viewers remained calm and composed during the lockdown phase with its #BeCalmBeEntertained initiative.