Colors Bangla

In order to compete with Bangladesh's ATN Bangla, which was gaining popularity in West Bengal, both Zee Telefilms and Eenadu-owned ETV Network planned to launch Bengali-language regional channels. Eenadu originally planned to launch its Bengali GEC before October 1999 as "Gitanjali" featuring a mix of entertainment and news programming.^[3] It was eventually launched on 15 April 2000 as ETV Bangla,^[4] and immediately grew to become the leading television channel among West Bengal audiences.^[5] ETV Bangla became available to audiences in the United States via DirecTV in May 2005.^[6] In May 2010, ETV Bangla collaborated with Anjan Dutt and Kaushik Ganguly for twelve telefilms under the newly launched ETV Bangla Movies.^[7]

In July 2011, Multi-Screen Media, the owners of Sony channels in India, was initially set to buy Eenadu's regional television channels, including ETV Bangla, in a INR 2,250-2,400 crore deal.^[8] However, the channels were announced to be sold to Network18 following a Broadcast Board of Directors meeting on 3 January 2012.^[9] ETV Bangla came under 50% ownership by TV18 as a result,^[10] and was eventually fully acquired after the finalization of the deal in January 2014, while retaining the 'ETV' branding.^[11] Its news counterpart, ETV News Bangla, was launched on 10 March 2014.^[12] On 22 April 2014, Sujay Raghavan was appointed head of ETV Bangla, along with ETV Odia.^[13]

ETV Bangla was rebranded under the Colors moniker on 12 April 2015.^[14][15] Its high-definition counterpart was launched in May 2016.^[16][17] The channel aired the Filmfare Awards East 2017.^[18] The last remaining 'ETV' branded Bengali channel, ETV News Bangla, was rebranded as News18 Bangla in March 2018.^[19] Viacom18 announced on 6 April 2021 that Sagnik Ghosh was appointed as the business head of Colors Bangla, replacing Rahul Chakravarti who had helped the channel's growth to become the third most watched Bengali GEC from India.^[20] On 30 August 2021, on account of Janmashtami, Colors Bangla rebranded its motion graphics and channel interface, introducing a new tagline, "Notun Shopner Rong".^{[citation needed]} In November 2024, Vivek Modi was appointed to lead Colors Bangla.^[21]