MUMBAI: The Covid2019 pandemic has changed consumers’ viewing habits, with a lot of people migrating to the OTT space for at-home entertainment in the last few months. Zee5 has seen over 3X growth in its consumer base and it is now looking to expand beyond the traditional DTH and Cable TV. To this end, Zee5 has partnered up with Meghbela Broadband to ensure access to OTT entertainment even at the grassroots level.
Meghbela Broadband is a popular internet service provider in the eastern part of the country. Under this new alliance, customers on selected internet plans from Meghbela will get complimentary access to all of Zee5’s premium content, movies, and live channels. To get access to Zee5, Meghbela consumers need to login on Meghbela Android TV using an OTP generated on their mobile app.
Zee5 India senior vice president & head SVOD, Rahul Maroli said, “In a connected world, the role of ISPs is critical to connect the household to the world. The strategic alliance with Meghbela Broadband enables us to provide our bespoke entertainment experience to an even wider audience. With consumers now looking at digital platforms to fulfil their entertainment requirements, we wanted to ensure that consumers get a seamless experience with the best content to choose from. The alliance will leverage Meghbela’s reach and Zee5’s content and technology to deliver seamless entertainment to the whole India’s Eastern region.”
Tapabrata Mukherjee, director, Meghbela Broadband said, “We will surely break into the unchartered territory of the East by providing Meghbela Android TV Box bundled with Zee5 premium subscription backed with high speed internet up to 250mbps.”
With an array of carefully curated range of offerings Zee5 has become one of the leading entertainment platforms among Indian consumers. The alliance with Meghbela will allow a wider set of diverse consumers to discover a super digital entertainment experience with these bespoke offerings.
KOLKATA: ZEE5 today announced the launch of ‘ZEE5 Club’, a unique proposition for every Indian at Rs 65/year. This is in line with its commitment to democratise access to bespoke content for diverse Indian audiences across genres, languages and a spectrum of devices.
ZEE5 Club, a complete OTT television entertainment pack is set to delight the consumers with exclusive access to most popular shows before telecast on TV, apart from select ZEE5 and Alt Balaji shows, – 1000+ blockbuster movies, ZEE Zindagishows and over 90+ Live TV channels. With ZEE5 Club, subscribers will be able to enjoy-engaging entertainment content without any intrusive ads and across devices.
Speaking about this new offering, ZEE5 India SVOD senior VP and head Rahul Maroli said, “We are a customer obsessed OTT platform and the launch of ZEE5 Club is a result of the feedback we received from our consumers. Furthermore, democratising access for all Indians to their favourite entertainment content, at a value price, was brewing as an idea for the longest time. With a strong consumer value proposition, ZEE5 Club will help us to board every Indian and provide them with a hyper-personalised and a seamless content viewing experience all at Rs 365/year.”
The launch of ZEE5 Club would enablemillions of Indianstosample their favourite TV shows and OTT exclusives at their convenience at an affordable price. The Club Pack has been created keeping in mind the platform’s diverse user behaviour, regional preferences and viewership patterns.
Some of Zee’s popular TV shows like KumumBhagya and KundaliBhagya in Hindi, Sembaruthi in Tamil, JotheJotheyaliin Kannada and MazyaNavryachiBayko in Marathi and many more would be now available on ZEE5 Clubbefore telecast on Television, making anytime a new prime time for consumers to catch up on their favourite shows.
Follow Tellychakkar for the consumer facing news & entertainment
KOLKATA: Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have come a long way in the country now. Around 2015, these services were mere apps to catch up on favourite television shows and stream live sporting events. Cut to 2020 and the discussion has evolved to whether OTT is a threat to TV. After a transition from catch-up content to premium originals, homegrown OTT platforms are now heading in the direction of being a one-stop shop.
In the last few months, many OTT platforms have enhanced their content catalogue, delving into segments like education and gaming. At the beginning of the year, ZEE5 announced a partnership with Eduauraa. Later, more players like VOOT also took the ed-tech road especially during lockdown thanks to the online learning boom.
While streaming services were already bullish about ed-tech and gaming, the lockdown period pushed them into health and fitness content, accelerating the next transition of those players. Disney+ Hotstar forged partnerships with Brilliant Wellness, Cult.Fit and Sarva recently. Another player VOOT also partnered with Cult.Fit and Isha Foundation.
KPMG India media and entertainment partner and head Girish Menon says that most of the OTT players were already looking at this strategy but the post-Covid2019 change has accelerated it.
“Consumers have been engaging with OTT platforms in a significant manner rather than certain hours. The idea is to increase the number of hours on the app, reduce video churn and increase retention,” Deloitte India partner Jehil Thakkar says.
“For us, constantly enhancing and improving our catalogue is important so that our existing and new consumers constantly keep seeing something new and different on the platform,” Viacom18 AVoD business head Akash Banerji says.
Banerji adds that merely enhancing the catalogue is of no value unless it is also relevant to customers and can drive higher engagement. Moreover, forging partnerships with premium partners is also an important aspect. “We wanted to give something more,” he sums up.
"For any platform, offering good content is more important rather than focusing only on entertainment. The content can educate , inform, entertain consumers. While OTT space has been largely focusing on entertainment, we have to offer more to get consumers back on the platform. Everything a person can do online, we want him to do it on ZEE5," ZEE5 SVoD senior vice president and business head Rahul Maroli says.
He also mentions that when they talk to B2B partners, the latter will partner with an entity where their customer will get entertainment, infotainment, education at the same place. Moreover, as consumer tastes evolve they start moving around new content and that leads to a stronger brand affinity.
While both Banerji and Maroli said they want to “offer more”, they also want to get more consumers.
“They are definitely looking to build an offering which is more comprehensive than pure-play content. The idea is that if you have a consumer who is coming to your app for entertainment, are there other services you can provide to them which will ensure that he continues to spend time and builds on that,” KPMG’s Menon adds. According to him, these deals make sense as an extension of offering rather than starting a separate segment.
While its an offering about consumption right now, commerce around core offering and other deals can also become the norm.
KOLKATA: Streaming services have found more relevance in the post-Covid2019 period. ZEE5, one of the leading contenders in the ‘streaming war’, has brought a new head to build its subscription business when more consumers flocking to those services. ZEE5 senior vice president and business head Rahul Maroli aspires to touch the top both in terms of subscription and viewership.
“We want to be relevant to every Indian. Content has to resonate with every Indian. An extension of that became the Atrangi campaign where we are trying to say that every person is unique, that’s what this country is all about and we respect your uniqueness. In terms of our specific goal, we want to be the largest OTT platform in the country both in subscription and viewership,” Maroli says in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com.
Maroli comes with a rich experience but not within the media industry. He worked in automotive, mobility, e-commerce and consumer businesses earlier while his last assignment was with Ola. Asked about what learnings he wants to incorporate here, Maroli says that he has mostly looked after the consumer business in Ola, so the ethos remains same.
“As long as you understand who your consumers are and how are they reacting, what is it they like, what is it you don’t like, you keep constantly going back and talking to them and trying to understand, then your ability to communicate with them, to produce good services is absolutely the same,” he adds.
The reports and high-level data are not sufficient but the teams have to keep talking to the consumer. Talking about his other lesson, he said that working very closely with the team is very important. Hence, he would try to apply these lessons in his new role.
He adds that partnership is a very important foundation of their business. “Telcos are looking at OTTs as means of building consumer loyalty. We want to go deeper into that and build more relationships. We clearly see that where you have provided access to OTT platforms there is much more consumer loyalty,” he shares.
Maroli further mentions that ISPs are also partners with strong propositions as they have direct access to last-mile consumers. ZEE5 has a deep partnership with ACT Broadband and the platform will roll out more partnerships in the coming days.
ZEE5, like other OTT platforms, has gained more users and subscribers during this period. Although lockdown is easing, Maroli states that it has not seen much change in the platform’s retention cohorts. According to him, the number remained the same for both direct consumers and b2b partnerships.
MUMBAI: ZEE5 has amassed a loyal following due to its unique premium content library on offer across genres and languages catering to diverse consumer taste clusters. With a mix of Originals, shows, music and movies in 12 languages, the platform has a bespoke catalogue of premium content for the audiences across the country.
Recognizing this very diverse, new-age audience’s choices and expressive attitude, ZEE5 has launched its new campaign for their ZEE5 Premium offering – “Atrangi Dekho. Atrangi Raho”. ‘Atrangi’ celebrates eccentricity of audience choices pertaining to their life decisions and content that they consume and as part of the campaign, ZEE5 acknowledges the persona and content choices that are unique to this new-age audience. ZEE5 through its wide-ranging, premium subscription-based content encourages the viewers to become Atrangi.
Today, content consumption is a driving factor in shaping up one’s identity and ability to connect to each other, either personally or professionally. The choices an aspiring youth makes to entertain themselves in the current digital era is also driven by the circle of influence, acceptance in peers, friends.
The campaign attempts to narrate the reality that in an increasingly connected environment, where great ideas flow each minute, all of us have access to a creatively charged world. A world where individuality and quirks are celebrated. And this change in mindset is a result of the vast spectrum of content we have. Gone are the days of the saying ‘you are what you eat’. Today, ‘you are what you watch’.
ZEE5 India senior vice president SVOD head Rahul Maroli said, “India lives in their languages and ZEE5, through its bespoke and premium content offering in 12 Indian languages want to cater to all such audiences. Our new SVOD campaign ‘Atrangi Dekho. Atrangi Raho’, celebrates the very eccentric identity that an individual parades by challenging the status quo. As India’s Entertainment Super-app, we want to reimagine content by our unique storytelling approach which reflects the intrinsic fabric of our culture. We are thankful for all the love given to us by the audiences and we aim to enhance their content viewing experience as we move ahead in our journey to entertain India 24×7.”
What’s Your Problem managing partner and COO Amit Akali explains, “When it comes to content, there’s a certain consumer who’s the pioneer and influencer, the one who always looks for different, cooler, Atrangi content, finds it and then is followed by the others. He/She is Atrangi and one of the ways this Atranginess is expressed is through Atrangi content. Which they find in abundance on ZEE5, be it original shows like Rangbaaz, or cutting-edge movies, Hindi or the best of original regional content. They are the one who others admire and wonder how they are always ahead of the curve. That’s the consumer we wanted to celebrate by saying, “Atrangi dekho, Atrangi raho.” While executing the film it was important that we captured this inherent coolness or Atranginess in every possible way; the cast, the music, the writing, the attitude. That’s where Arun Gopalan and Storytellers did their magic, making every frame look beautiful and celebrating the Atranginess in it. Like every WYP campaign, there’s a full-fledged digital burst planned across platforms. The idea is also to tie up with people connected to the large Zee family, innovatively as influencers, to reach out to the Atrangi in all of us.”
The content we watch, the characters we identify with, the stories we live through, are great factors in shaping up our identities. And the campaign encourages one to connect with these Atrangi stories on ZEE5 and encourage to be an Atrangi yourself.
ZEE5 has something to offer to everyone, right from original content, digital movies, shows, news and so on. As a new age platform, ZEE5 understands changing mindsets and trends of the changing landscape of India and the digital transformation. This campaign is a step in further in strengthening the ZEE5’s connects with their audience and giving them a space to happily be as Atrangi as they can.
MUMBAI: ZEE5 India, the digital entertainment destination of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), has appointed Rahul Maroli as senior vice president and business RM head SVOD.
In his new role, Rahul’s primary focus will be to build the subscription video on demand business through acquisition, growth and engagement of subscriber across B2B and B2C segments. He will be responsible for business development, customer success, brand and marketing functions at ZEE5.
As a business leader with 18+ years of experience, Rahul has been steering market-leading companies in the automotive, mobility, e-commerce and consumer businesses. His last assignment was with Ola where he led the enterprise business, Ola Places and Strategic Alliances. Earlier, he conceptualised and started Ola Fleet Technologies and built Ola’s cab-leasing and asset management business.
Prior to Ola, for over a decade, he led sales, marketing and operations for LeasePlan India, a leading player in the business mobility industry.
An alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Rahul holds an MBA in marketing & finance.
