ZEEL to begin ZEE5’s international roll-out in FY19 with Asian markets: Amit Goenka

ZEEL plans to launch its video on demand (VoD) platform ZEE5 in international markets in FY19. The media conglomerate will initially focus on the Asian market followed by roll-out in other markets.

The company also plans to increase the reach of its existing channels in the international markets. It will also ramp up original programming initiatives in international markets for local Indian population as well as the native audience. The company will focus on key markets like USA and UK.

“In the coming year, we plan to further increase the reach of our existing channels through distribution and creation of localised content. On the distribution side, we are developing strategies for each market to ensure maximum reach of our content. On the content front, we are increasing our local programming for the Indian audience in select markets, which will be on an ad-funded model. We also plan to ramp up our programming initiatives for the native audience in select markets. In FY19, we will continue to further enhance our local programming initiatives in markets like USA and UK,” said ZEEL International and Z5 Global CEO Amit Goenka.

Goenka said that the ZEE5 roll-out will allow the company to address the challenge of expensive distribution channels in select markets.

“Another major goal for the coming year is the rollout of ZEE5 in the international territories. There are a few territories where traditional distribution channels are expensive. The launch of ZEE5 in these markets will help us reach the consumer in an economical way. Initially, the plan is to launch in Asian markets where there is a high affinity for Indian content, which will be subsequently followed by launch other markets,” he added.

Talking about the response to the platform, Goenka said that the response has been encouraging so far. He also said that ZEE5 benefitted from both OZEE and dittoTV, with a majority of existing subscribers upgrading to ZEE5.

According to Goenka, the launch of original content backed by extensive marketing campaign will help in growing the traction. ZEE5 is also exploring partnerships with telecom operators for a wider reach.

ZEEL will evaluate ZEE5 on three key parameters namely monthly active users (MAU), engagement (time spent), and the paid subscriber base. “In the next few quarters, we will start disclosing operating metrics followed by the financial performance of our digital business,” he said.

Goenka said that the biggest differentiator between ZEE5 and other VoD platforms is the former’s extensive content catalogue. “The sheer depth and the breadth of our content offering is overwhelming and is significantly ahead of all other OTT platforms in India. Launched with more than 1,00,000 hours of content in 12 languages spanning original content, movies, international content, music, kids content, lifestyle content and other niche segments, ZEE5 will be a one-stop entertainment destination for the diverse Indian audience,” he stated.

ZEE5 will be producing original content in six Indian languages and plans to have more than 90 Originals by March 2019. “This will be the most extensive offering of exclusive digital content created for Indian audiences by any OTT player. Our expansive catalogue of over 3,500 movies across languages will be another big draw for audiences,” he added.

The platform has also curated content from countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Spain, China, Korea, etc., dubbed in multiple Indian languages in addition to 200+ English movies and 25+ English shows. It also boasts of kids, health & lifestyle, and music content.

“Additionally, viewers will have access to 90+ channels that they can stream live, along with around 500 hours of content that we produce every week for television, minutes after broadcast. Unlike most existing platforms that are either focused on the English-speaking audience or the youth segment, ZEE5’s vast content catalogue and customised technology features are designed with the objective to cater to all segments of the video-viewing audience,” Goenka averred.

He also feels that the OTT business must be subscription driven. ZEE5 has a freemium model with both AVOD and SVOD with catch-up content and movies available for free to the users while the rest of the content sitting behind the paywall.

“We feel OTT has to be a subscription-driven business. Globally, wherever the SVOD model has become popular, consumers were already used to paying for content on TV and ended up saving when they moved to online platforms. In India, however, where an average consumer pays around `200 for a month’s cable subscription, there must be a compelling proposition if we want him/her to pay for an OTT platform,” he said.

Goenka feels that ZEE5’s closest competitors will be broadcaster-led OTTs like Hotstar, SonyLIV, Voot, and Sun Nxt. He also noted that the Indian market will not be able to sustain the number of OTT platforms that are currently available in the market. Therefore, consolidation is likely to take place in the marketplace.