ZEE5’s Chief Business Officer shares the network’s pan-India approach, media and content consumption trends and more.
As Zee Entertainment’s video streaming platform ZEE5 rolled out its content slate with a line-up of over 111 titles spanning across Indian languages, its Chief Business Officer Manish Kalra said the idea was primarily to cater to customer experience pan India.
Sharing the strategy behind the content slate during a roundtable conversation, Kalra said ZEE5 wants to leverage the understanding of India and local languages.
“Our strategy behind rolling out the new content slate is customer first. It is primarily around catering to customer experience. We do see media and content consumption trends on our platform and other platforms, where is the demand coming from and where is the supply available and where is the potential? We want to play to our strength which lies in local and regional languages which we are catering to.
“We have two decades plus experience in south and east markets so we are leveraging that. All those are the inputs. Being India’s one of the only homegrown OTTs, we want to leverage our understanding of India, local languages. We want to produce content in languages they understand and the stories they want to see. It is all a mix of a lot of things.”
Commenting on the new slate, Nimisha Pandey, Chief Content Officer – Hindi Originals, ZEE5 said, “As ZEE5 reaches its 5-year milestone, we are creating ourselves, one story at a time. It is our endeavour to take our viewers on a journey where they explore multiple dimensions within themselves. It gives us immense joy in bringing stories and characters that take our audiences to new worlds and emotions, that they can sometimes relate to and sometimes escape with.”
“The new slate that we’ve curated brings forth fresh seasons of our most loved series and some new titles that we hope audiences will enjoy. We’re working with some brilliant creators who share our vision and passion for broadening the horizons of storytelling,” she said.
Talking about the financial goals of the OTT platform, which has announced 111 titles across Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Punjabi and Marathi, Kalra said the focus is high growth and profitability.
“Goals for us as a platform in high growth industry is to grow significantly higher. We want to double down on acquiring users, get more subscribers and that will happen when we have good quality content which viewers want. The goal is growth and profitability and ensuring the customers love the platform and stories we tell and at the same time improving experience across devices,” he said.
Kalra also shared that ZEE5 has been rated 4.5/5 on Google Play Store and 4.7 on IOS, which is a testament to the fact that customers are enjoying the platform.
“A lot of our customers come from smaller towns with low-end devices and low bandwidth areas. So how do we ensure that the streaming service works seamlessly without buffering? That is an ongoing improvement.
“Some data points if you see Google Play Store, our app is trending 4.5/5 which is one of the highest and even on IOS we are a 4.7. We take that as good feedback from our consumers as the ratings look good,” he said, adding that the intention is to focus on the right content and ensure a good experience to viewers across the country,” he said.
Sharing his view on direct-to-digital films which had become popular during the pandemic, Kalra said, “We are one of the few or the only platforms which is investing in direct-to-digital movies because we have tasted success with that. There are content creators who are willing to tell a story in a crisp format of 1.5-2 hours which works for the Indian audience. Everything is evaluated on merit and customer demand.”
Asked about how ZEE5 plans to expand its market share in the OTT industry, Kalra said it depends on the content that brings the viewers and how well it is marketed.
“Market trends are positive. It is a growing industry which gives us confidence. The benefits of OTT are the convenience of watching anytime and anywhere. How we bring more consumers on our platform is a function of how well we create the content which connects with them and how well we market it. That is a day-on-day challenge and a growth opportunity for us as a platform. The advantage we have is that we come from a TV network which has already established its roots in various languages.”
Kalra also said the overall willingness to pay for content has gone up in India.
“Overall willingness to pay for content is going up in India. Do we want them to pay more? Yes, because the content cost and the cost of running the platform is very high. It is a revolution. You cannot push people beyond a point. If they like the content, they will pay more,” he said.
