Zee TV ties up with South Asian Entertainment Network

Zee TV, the premier South Asian entertainment network has announced a pioneering agreement with The Nielsen Company to monitor its television ratings and trends in top U.S. markets. The agreement is the first-of-its-kind in the South Asian entertainment industry and is yet another example of Zee TV's exceptional standards in programming, technology and, most importantly, research.

Based off the June 2010 LPM sweep period, Zee TV garnered a 4.6 Live rating among Persons 21+ in primetime viewership (Monday-Thursday, 7-11 p.m.) in Asian Indian households in New York, which translates into a 16.5% share of viewing in New York. South Asians comprise 3.8% of the total population in New York.

"We're very excited to be the first and only South Asian network to be rated by Nielsen in the U.S.," says Bharat Ranga, Zee TV's COO of International Business. "As the dominant market leader in South Asian entertainment, this is a groundbreaking moment for Zee TV's growth and expansion in the U.S. and once again reinforces our research-oriented approach to high-quality programming. Nielsen's ratings will not only enable us to deliver exceptional programming to the millions of South Asians who tune into Zee TV every day, but will also provide advertisers with deeper insight into audience behavior and TV trends."

While Americans spend an average of 5 hours throughout a full day watching television across all U.S. networks, viewers tune into Zee TV for an average of 57 minutes each day simply during primetime viewership (Monday-Friday, 7-11 p.m.) in New York.

As television networks compete to capture viewers' attention for an extended period of time, Zee TV once again sets itself apart from competitors among South Asian and U.S. cable networks. More notably, Zee TV has more primetime viewers (Monday-Thursday, 7-10 p.m.) among all 18-34 year olds in New York during the June 2010 LPM sweep period than many top U.S. cable networks such as Lifetime, Oxygen, Style, BBC America, CNBC, CNN, Home and Garden, MSNBC, Weather Channel, Univision, Travel Channel, WE and VH1.

"Delivering greater accountability is an overarching mandate for all aspects of our industry," says Rich Gagnon, Chief Media Officer and leader of Draftfcb's efforts for the 2010 Census. "Zee TV's commitment to audience measurement marks an extremely positive opportunity for advertisers to better understand the growing potential of emerging segments. Clearly, the cultural mosaic of our country is shifting and measurement needs to be on the forefront of understanding this evolution."