Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal

About Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal

Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal is a bilingual Hindi and Punjabi television news channel owned by Zee Media Corporation Limited, serving the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. It is one of Indian television's oldest regional news brands: it began life on 18 October 1999 as Alpha TV Punjabi, a Punjabi general entertainment channel, was rebranded as Zee Punjabi in 2005, and was converted into a bilingual Punjabi-Hindi news channel under its present name on 1 July 2013. Broadcasting in both Hindi and Punjabi, it covers news and current affairs across the three states. Its official website is zeephh.com.

History: The Alpha TV Punjabi Era

The channel was launched on 18 October 1999 as Alpha TV Punjabi, part of Zee's "Alpha" bouquet of regional channels that included Alpha TV Marathi, Alpha TV Bangla, Alpha TV Telugu and Alpha TV Gujarati. In its entertainment avatar it offered a diverse content portfolio — news, programmes on current issues, music, devotional programmes, live chat shows, magazine shows, Punjabi feature films and live programming — and built a strong viewer base, including among the global Punjabi diaspora, for its fair reporting and news coverage.

The Alpha branding was retired across the network on 28 March 2005, when Zee introduced a new set of logos and Alpha TV Punjabi was rebranded as Zee Punjabi, in line with Zee's other regional-language channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla and Zee Telugu. As Zee Punjabi, the channel continued as a Punjabi entertainment service with a growing emphasis on news content, and plans were made to offer still more news programming to cement its image as a news channel.

The 2013 Conversion to a News Channel

On 1 July 2013, the channel was converted into a bilingual Punjabi-Hindi news channel and renamed Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal, marking a decisive shift from entertainment to 24-hour news and current affairs. The rebranding expanded its remit beyond Punjab to cover Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as well, with programmes broadcast in both Punjabi and Hindi. The channel adopted the tagline "Khabr Vi Khyal Vi" — news with thought — having earlier used the tagline "Apni Boli Apna Maan" (our language, our pride) in its entertainment era.

The conversion reflected Zee Media's strategy of building dedicated regional news services for northern India. The news channel replaced the entertainment service on its channel positions, and Zee would later revive the Zee Punjabi entertainment brand separately — a distinct channel that should not be confused with the news service.

Ownership and Network

Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal is owned and operated by Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL), the news broadcasting division associated with the Essel Group. ZMCL operates the national Hindi news channel Zee News, Zee Business, the English channel WION, and a suite of regional news channels including Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, Zee Delhi NCR Haryana, Zee Bihar Jharkhand, Zee Rajasthan, Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Zee J&K Ladakh.

Within the network's northern portfolio, the channel is the dedicated news service for the Punjab-Haryana-Himachal region. In 2022, Zee Media launched Zee Delhi NCR Haryana, which also covers Haryana; trade reports at the time noted that the older channel's coverage focus would effectively become Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, though it has continued to operate under its established name.

Language and Coverage

The channel is bilingual, broadcasting in Punjabi and Hindi — a combination that reflects the linguistic reality of its coverage region, where Punjabi dominates in Punjab and Hindi in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Its news and current-affairs programming serves audiences across the three states, from the agricultural heartlands of Punjab and Haryana to the hill districts of Himachal Pradesh.

The bilingual format allows the channel to cover stories of regional significance — agrarian issues, state politics, border and security matters, Sikh religious affairs, and hill-state governance — in the language most natural to each audience segment. This dual-language approach has been a defining feature of the channel since the 2013 conversion.

Programming and Shows

As a 24-hour news channel, Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal carries rolling news coverage through the day, with branded bulletins and debate programming in the morning and prime-time bands. Its schedule covers state politics in Chandigarh, Shimla and across Haryana, agricultural and rural affairs, crime, and cultural programming reflecting Punjabi heritage.

The channel's news agenda is shaped by the distinctive concerns of its region: the agrarian economy and farm politics of Punjab and Haryana, the drug and law-and-order debates in Punjab, development and tourism issues in Himachal Pradesh, and the Sikh religious calendar centred on Amritsar. Its on-ground reporting network across the three states supports this region-specific coverage.

The Punjabi Television Landscape

The channel operates in a Punjabi television market dominated by the PTC Network, which launched PTC News in January 2007 and PTC Punjabi in August 2008. Between 2013 — when the original Zee Punjabi entertainment channel was replaced by the news service — and 2020, PTC Punjabi was the only Punjabi general entertainment channel on air, and PTC remains the most popular Punjabi broadcaster in India and in diaspora strongholds such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Zee re-entered the Punjabi entertainment space on 13 January 2020, when Zee Entertainment Enterprises relaunched Zee Punjabi as a general entertainment channel headquartered in Chandigarh — a separate channel from the Zee Media news service, though the shared name has caused occasional confusion. The news channel Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal, by contrast, has remained a Zee Media property throughout, focused on news rather than entertainment.

Channels Not to Be Confused With

The channel's long history and the reuse of the Zee Punjabi name make disambiguation important. Zee ETC Punjabi — originally launched in 2000 as Alpha ETC Punjabi, later ETC Punjabi and then Zee ETC Punjabi — was a separate music-oriented channel that shut down in 2014. A British channel also named Zee Punjabi operated in the United Kingdom before closing in 2018. The current Zee Punjabi, relaunched on 13 January 2020, is a Zee Entertainment Enterprises general entertainment channel and a different service from the Zee Media news channel.

Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal itself has remained continuously on air since 1999 through its various identities, making it one of the longest-running regional television brands in northern India, even as its format changed from entertainment to news in 2013.

Reach and Distribution

The channel is distributed as a linear television service across direct-to-home and cable platforms in its coverage region and nationally, reaching Punjabi and Hindi speaking audiences across northern India and the diaspora markets where Punjabi channels are carried. Its long carriage history, dating to the Alpha TV Punjabi era, has given it established channel positions on major platforms.

As part of Zee Media's distribution, the channel benefits from the group's platform relationships, and its bilingual offering gives it carriage appeal in both the Punjabi-speaking and Hindi-speaking markets of the north.

Digital Presence

The channel's digital home is zeephh.com, where it publishes news from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and offers video content. The website forms part of the wider Zee News digital network, one of India's largest news web operations, and carries the channel's regional reporting in text and video form.

The channel is also available on Zee5, Zee's streaming platform, and maintains a presence on social media platforms where it shares clips, breaking news and programme highlights for its Punjabi and Hindi speaking audiences.

Headquarters and Operations

Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal's broadcast operations are run from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where Zee Media's news infrastructure is concentrated, with editorial resources and bureaus across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The network maintains correspondents in the state capitals — Chandigarh, Shimla — and in key cities across the three states, supporting the district-level coverage on which the channel's regional identity depends.

Through its Alpha, Zee Punjabi and news-channel eras, the service has been one of Zee's longest-standing regional operations. Its evolution from a diaspora-facing entertainment channel into a bilingual news service mirrors the broader maturation of India's regional television market, in which dedicated news channels have become central to the media diet of the Hindi and Punjabi speaking north.