| Zee Café | |
| Owner: | Zee Entertainment Enterprises |
| Headquarters: | Mumbai |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | English |
| Picture Format: | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 576i for the SDTV feed) |
| Former Names: | Zee English (2000-2005) |
| Sister Channels: | See list of channels owned by ZEEL |
| Terr Serv 1: | DVB-T2 (India) |
| Terr Chan 1: | Check local frequencies |
| Availability Note: | - Available on all major Indian DTH & Cables. |
| Online Serv 1: | ZEE5 |
| Online Chan 1: | SD & HD |
| Online Serv 2: | Jio TV |
| Online Chan 2: | SD & HD |
Zee Café is an Indian pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel mainly syndicates popular American and British television shows to appeal to the English-speaking population of India.
Zee English was launched in the Indian subcontinent on 15 March 2000, as competition to Star World. Initially free-to-air, the channel was later encrypted as part of the Zee pay-television bouquet.[1] The launch came when Zee TV started opting for digital signals to provide better signal clarity. It launched alongside Zee Movies; ZEEL had signed agreements with MGM, Pearson, Fremantle, Carlton and Passport International.[2]
The channel underwent a rebranding on 28 March 2005 and was renamed as Zee Café, along with a new logo and promotion deals.[3]
The channel's high-definition feed was launched on 23 September 2015, for a bench test in limited markets and nationwide on 21 November 2015.[4]
Zee Café launched on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 15 July 2010. The channel originally served as the Zee's network hybrid channel, used to broadcast shows from a number of its existing channels in India.[5]
On 11 September 2012, it was repositioned as a classics channel, airing re-runs of old Zee TV programming, covering cookery, dramas, horror and mythology. At the same time the channel became free-to-air.[6]
On 10 June 2013, Zee Café UK was replaced by Zee Lamhe, another free-to-air classics channel from Zee.[7]