Charter adds South Asian-focused video package to Spectrum lineup

Charter Communications is enhancing its Spectrum TV content lineup, announcing today it’s adding a South Asian-focused video package – featuring a slate of India’s Zee TV channels.

The “India View” package tiers contain up to 24 new channels, including 22 Zee channels in multiple languages. Charter inked a new distribution agreement with Asia TV USA and renewed a previous agreement with Zee TV to add these channels.

For streaming viewers, India View Stream costs $19.99 monthly. While the premium tier, India View Stream Plus, is $29.99 per month. Spectrum TV customers including those opting for streaming video, can now access Zee TV titles like Zee News, Zee World, &TV, Zee Bangla, Zee Punjabi and more.

Charter and Zee have also launched a co-branded marketing campaign to promote the new programming, with a focus on the streaming packages. They’re targeting Spectrum markets with high South Asian populations, like Los Angeles, New York and Dallas.

Tom Montemagno, EVP of programming acquisition for Charter, noted the addition of Zee channels to Spectrum TV “enables us to offer our customers South Asian-focused video packages that are meaningfully more robust, with enhanced flexibility and value, and directly aligns with our commitment to provide programming that reflects our customers’ diverse interests and perspectives.”

Charter customers can access video via streaming through Android, iOS, Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Samsung smart TVs – and most recently Comcast’s XClass platform.

“Our partnership with Charter is extremely vital to our growth objectives in the U.S., and the agreement facilitates availability of a large variety of entertainment options targeted towards the South Asian audiences for Spectrum customers,” stated Ashok Namboodiri, chief business officer for international business at Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

Charter is enhancing its cable TV and streaming options shortly after reporting 240,000 video subscriber losses in the second quarter. The cable operator said those losses were partly driven from price hikes in April.

Spectrum Reach, Charter’s ad sales unit, recently introduced the ability to plan streaming TV campaigns within its platform – helping advertisers reach more targeted audiences.

With cable viewership seemingly on the decline, Charter and Comcast are gearing up to launch a national streaming platform for smart TVs. Charter is initially funding the joint venture with $900 million over multiple years.