Zee Telugu

By 2004, the Zee Network had a strong presence in northern, eastern and western India, with channels in Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Punjabi. Its proposed Telugu-language channel marked the network's first venture into the southern India entertainment market. Zee Network expected the channel to launch by August 2004,[3] but the launch did not take place until September.[4] The channel launched with the name Alpha TV Telugu, but was later renamed Zee Telugu. It initially featured a large number of American films dubbed into Telugu. In August 2007, the network also dubbed famous Bollywood film Sholay from Hindi into Telugu as an experiment.[5]

By December 2005, despite having popular programs such as the game show Gold Rush (game show), hosted by well-known female anchor Udayabhanu, as well as the soap opera Nishabdam, Zee Telugu had only achieved a 1.24% weekday and 1.86% weekend market share in Andhra Pradesh. As a result, it re-launched in order to shift the target market segment from a mass market to a segmented market of upwardly mobile young professionals.[4][6] The network suffered a loss of Rs.460 million in the fiscal year 2007.[1]

In late 2006, Zee Telugu began work on Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa, a Telugu-language singing competition. Anchored by Nandi Award winner Suneetha, the judges' panel included renowned Telugu music figures Koti (musician) and Ramana Gogula and was scheduled to run for 35 episodes.[7] The show was so successful that by February 2005, Zee Telugu announced plans to launch Little Champs, a version of the show aimed at viewers ages 6–13, hosted by former Indian Idol runner-up N. C. Karunya.[8]

Mee Inti Vanta, an instructional cooking show, has aired more than 1,000 episodes. It is hosted by the famous anchor Sumalatha. The program was extremely popular among female viewers and dominated the market share in the afternoon slot. Eventually, all other channels started their own instructional cooking shows.

Another show on the network is a steamy anthology serial called Midnight Masala and it gained popularity by broadcasting all of Vishnuvardhan's hot rain songs. It aired at 12 am and aired stories which contained many promiscuous scenes. It was widely watched by adults but some people criticized that it is too racy for Telugu TV. It aired from December 2007 – December 2008 and again in 2007–2008. Its highest TRP was 2.0, an all-time high in the midnight slot in Telugu television which even networks like Maa and Eenadu Entertainment (ETV) could not beat. Another program introduced recently was Sreekaram Subhakaram, an astrology based program with astrologer Vakkantham Chandramouli and popular anchor Sumalatha. This is a live program and the many other channels are trying to follow suit.

In September 2005, the channel announced after months of deliberations that Sanjay Reddy would be their new chief executive officer, succeeding Ajay Kumar (television executive), who had left several months previously. Reddy had previously worked at The Walt Disney Company and Pearl Media.[9] Reddy's plan in 2008 includes new soaps and children's programming.[10]

ZEE launches, its sister channel Zee Cinemalu on 4 September 2016 by Megastar Chiranjeevi. It is a is a 24*7 Telugu movie channel. On 15 October 2017 Its logo was changed into red ball logo.On December 31, 2017 it logo colour and graphics was changed similar to zee cinema.On the same day Zee Telugu HD and Zee Cinemalu HD also launched.

On May 22, 2015, Zee Telugu celebrated its 10-year anniversary. On 15 October 2017, along with other Zee channels, it changed to a Blue coloured Logo. On December 31, 2017, A refresh look of Zee Telugu and Sister Channel Zee Cinemalu along with their HD channels was revealed on 31 December 2017 in Zee Golden Awards launched by Chiranjeevi while Samantha Akkineni was made as the Brand Ambassador. On this occasion it announced Zee Cine Awards Telugu in 2017.

Zee Telugu provides ardent viewers with non-stop entertainment shows and serials. Zee is programming which appeals to all audiences irrespective of their age groups or demography. The channel is well accepted as the complete family entertainer.[11]

Zee Telugu TV presents Zee Cine Awards in Telugu for honor the Tollywood personalities in every year by giving Awards.[12]

Renowned Zee Telugu television personalities are felicitated for their on-screen work and achievements for their shows. Since 2011, Zee honoring fiction stars and shows by nominating and presenting awards to them.[13]

• Official site
• Zee Telugu on Zee5