Zoom to change packaging and programming

The Bollywood entertainment channel has appointed Kangana Ranaut as its brand ambassador.

Zoom, the Bollywood entertainment channel from Times Network, will soon unveil a brand new look and revamped programming line-up. The channel has also appointed actor Kangana Ranaut as its brand ambassador. The new look of Zoom has been designed by Mayur Tekchandaney of Briefcase and the internal team at Zoom.

As per an official statement, the new Zoom will go beyond dishing out Bollywood news and enhance consumers' social quotient, by connecting them to the latest trends, which are curated straight out of Bollywood. The channel will unveil new packaging and a slate of new Bollywood focussed content under its new logo and tagline 'Turn On'. The channel is being positioned as 'fresh, frank and sexy'.

MK Anand, MD and CEO - Times Network, says, "We are delighted to reveal Zoom's fresh programming and exciting style of presentation. Times Network is a unique bouquet of channels which cater to the top two per cent of Indian television viewers. Zoom's innovative new media inspired format, and its revamped and truly world-class on-air packaging, will reflect this. We have always been close to Bollywood and will continue to do so with content that reflects the latest and trendiest that Bollywood has to offer with our own twist."

Sunder Venkatraman, vice president and product head, Zoom, says, "Content strategy on Zoom centres around 'trends' and 'youth', which are the hottest genres on social media today. The new offerings on Zoom will be of shorter format - more like the T-20 of entertainment. They will vary in duration from a minute-and-a-half to seven or eight minutes to longer formats of 20 minutes; there is no fixed duration. But, what is certain is that the content will really be Bollywood through fashion, gossip, style, humour, news, music, relationships and more."

Describing the new look of the channel as "fresh and young," he says, "It's about small innovations with great impact. For instance, a progress bar has been used for the first time ever on television."

In an industry where marketing content is the norm, Zoom decided to leverage its superior content to drive a marketing blitzkrieg. The first step was a foot-tapping music video shot by global expert Harvey Brown, the award-winning film director, creative director, art director and set designer, who has worked on several top Hollywood projects, and also specialises in larger-than-life musicals. The song composed by duo Sachin-Jigar has been sung by Anuskha Manchanda. The video, titled 'Hotel Zoom', will be unveiled on the launch day across platforms and will also drive engagement on social media.