MUMBAI: Having completed one year of operations, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s over-the-top platform ZEE5 is now taking rapid strides as the battle among streaming services continues to heat up. According to the Q4 numbers released by the company, ZEE5’s monthly active users (MAUs) grew to 61.5 million in March ’19.
“We have significantly stepped up the pace of our new launches and the content pipeline for the next one year is firmed up. Over the last three months, ZEE5 further expanded its telecom partnerships and is now available on all the major telecom networks. We will continue to scale up ZEE5 on the three pillars of content, technology and partnerships," said ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka.
The numbers suggest that ZEE5 India CEO Tarun Katial’s two-pronged strategy of aggressively building a content portfolio and collaborating with strategic partners in the digital eco-system seems to have paid off.
ZEE5 users spent an average of 31 minutes per day on the platform, almost similar to the last quarter. Apart from consistently ranking amongst the top five free and grossing entertainment apps in India as per the Google Play store rankings, ZEE5 also witnessed tremendous traction on Amazon Fire Stick and smart TVs.
Through the year Katial has not taken his foot off the pedal, building a strong original content catalog delivering more than 60 shows and original movies across six languages launched.
ZEE5 also experimented with new genres - horror, procedural crime drama, book adaptations - with shows like Parchhayee - Ghost Stories by Ruskin Bond, Abhay, and The Final Call.
The platform also retained its focus on regional languages through shows like Sharate Aaj (Bengali), Auto Shankar (Tamil), High Priestess (Telugu) and Hutatma (Marathi).
ZEE5 partnered with Vodafone Idea during the quarter and the platform is now available to their consumers through an app embedded within their own video platforms. A customized ZEE5 app was also launched on KaiOS for Reliance Jio feature phone users.
During the quarter, Gaana and ZEE5 partnered to launch a bundled package which offers consumers both the subscription services at the price of one. ZEE5 continued to expand payment options for its consumers and added Amazon Pay as a payment partner. ZEE5 also tied-up with Nestaway and Qwikcilver to expand its footprint in the digital eco-system.
After the soft launch across the globe, ZEE5 commenced the roll-out in priority markets of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia during the quarter. It launched #SharetheLove campaign for the neighboring countries and saw great traction from the Tamil and Bengali speaking audience. ZEE5 is locking in partners across the region for telecom bundling, connected device integration, and direct billing.
