The importance of Arab viewers, and the massive audiences possible from the Middle East, has prompted India’s Zee TV owners to commit to spending $100 million on a second Arabic-language channel.

Its first effort, Zee Aflam, is already operationally profitable showing movies. The second channel, Zee Alwan, is the first of a planned quartet of new channels promised by Subhash Chandra’s Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL).

Zee Alwan is promising more than 180 hours of original content each month, including a trio of Arabic drama series as well as popular Indian series dubbed into Arabic.

Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka said, “As a part of our global strategy, Zee Alwan is a step towards strengthening our presence in the Middle East. After the success of Zee Aflam, this new channel will help us to further consolidate our share and enhance Zee’s reach.”

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