International Women's Day: When ZEE paid an ode to the almost-never acknowledged women in the cable and DTH ecosystem

• For most of us, at least in our minds, any representative from the cable and DTH industry is always a cablewallah.
• Zee has tried to change this perception through its latest campaign that it has released on the occasion of International Women's Day.
• Atul Das, Chief Revenue Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited tells us more.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Zee has come up with a campaign celebrating women employees in the cable and satellite network. Whenever we think of talking to someone from the cable ecosystem, we always think of a ‘cablewallah’. However, in the past few years, many women have entered the field too and Zee, through its campaign, wanted to celebrate the contribution of these women in the industry.


As the campaign went live today, we thought it would be interesting to understand the thought behind the campaign. We spoke to Atul Das, Chief Revenue Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited who took us behind the campaign and told us why it was important to speak about the contribution of these women.

Excerpts:

Q) Your campaign is an interesting one, considering for most of us, the image of a cablewallah is almost always a man. How did you think of coming up with a campaign to celebrate the women in the industry?

The inspiration for this video campaign came from the fact that traditionally the partner operations has been considered a profession for men. Each time we think of a platform operator, whether cable or DTH, the first image that comes to our mind is that of a man. As we all know, TV subscribers commonly use the word ‘Cablewala’ to refer to distribution partners. With this campaign, we would like to change this perception and emphasize that women partners and women employees in our partner organizations are equally instrumental in delivering entertainment to every viewer household. ZEE would like to throw light on how our women partners are an important part of our industry, the multiple roles that they play and their extraordinary contribution.

Q) Is there any statistics on the number of women present in this ecosystem, and has there been a growth in the number of women in the industry?

The representation of women across industries, including the TV distribution space is increasing steadily. Women have stood at the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis as health care workers, caregivers, community organisers and effective leaders in combating the pandemic. Even in the TV distribution space, our women partners have displayed strong resolve and immense courage in managing the business despite multitude of challenges. We have several examples of women in leadership roles. ZEE believes in recognising their contribution and encouraging their endeavours and multi-tasking ability.

Q) Apart from this campaign, what larger role are you playing as a leading broadcaster to encourage more women to join the industry?

ZEEL is an equal opportunity employer and offers all employees a positive and comfortable working environment that extends the freedom to our women colleagues to do what they are capable of. We have been implementing processes to eliminate any gender biases. Our culture and policies have ensured that we attract diverse talent. Our leadership team across business segments have gender diversity. We at ZEE realize that it is important to design specific interventions to support our people as they navigate different stages of their personal and professional lives. We believe that we are doing our part in creating an equitable, balanced and fulfilling workspace which is the most ideal way to make all segments inclusive and representative.