Will ZEE5’s new slate of content, regional push help it win the OTT war?

To expand its offerings, the firm has also partnered with tech startup Bullet, which has developed a micro-drama application featuring fast-paced, vertical-format episodes designed for younger audiences. 

“In FY25, we had only 60-odd launches through the year, including movies, but this coming year, you would see over 130 launches happening,” Amit Goenka, chief executive of the international broadcast business of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and head of Z5 Global, said in an interview with Mint. 

“Language is our big push and we’ve added four more languages for original content,” he added

Also Read: Regional content gains ground on OTTs even as Hindi dominates

While the focus on Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu remains, ZEE5 has now entered the Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, and Malayalam segments. It has launched language packs that allow users to pay only for specific language content. The Hindi pack (which also includes Punjabi and Bhojpuri content) and the all-access pack remain available with monthly and annual variants.

Regaining margin

Last February, Zee had said it was charting a three-pronged approach—cutting costs, reducing overlaps between businesses, and enhancing quality to regain margins—after its merger with Sony Pictures Entertainment collapsed. In line with this, ZEE5 now operates under a “leaner, meaner” model with a profitability-first mindset, Goenka said.  

In FY25, the company halved its Ebitda loss to ₹548 crore. “While we provide the consumer with entertainment and the right experience with a technology focus, it is still primarily focused on making sure it is profitable,” he said. 

To boost revenues, ZEE5 is bolstering its AVoD (advertising video-on-demand) strategy, moving some content from behind the paywall to a free tier over time, repurposing old library content into smaller versions for new viewers and curating a user-generated content or UGC slate. 

Zee Entertainment Enterprises reported a 1,305% year-on-year growth in its consolidated net profit to ₹188 crore in Q4FY25. The total revenue in the March-ended quarter stood at ₹2,220 crore, which was up 1.6% from a year ago. Total revenue of ZEE5 during the quarter stood at ₹274.7 crore.

Goenka said regional content will continue to be a growth engine. “If you look at the broadcasting industry, the real growth has come from expanding into language markets. People still want that connect with their roots, and we should give that to the audience, whether from a content or platform experience perspective,” he added.

While Goenka did not give specific investment figures for this year, ZEE5’s budget for each content typically hovers in the range of ₹5-7 crore. In the case of regional shows, the spending is even lower.

Also Read: Independent producers, boutique studios veer towards regional cinema for big gains

Tough terrain

Despite progress, challenges remain. Entertainment industry experts believe local platforms have a tough road ahead. 

“OTT (over-the-top) is a heavy investment game. While on the one hand, you have the likes of foreign giants like Amazon, whose losses are subsidized because of the e-commerce business, there is JioHotstar on the other, which is on the warpath with sports and regional content,” said a senior content studio executive on condition of anonymity.

However, Goenka is optimistic. “Our audiences know that when they come to Zee, they’re going to get family-friendly content. Being able to produce at the right cost is the second big advantage we have over any of the other players. Plus, at Zee Studios, we produce a large amount of movies every year. So we are not dependent only on the market to acquire movies and have our own slate, which gives us a steady flow of content,” he said.

He added that foreign players with deep pockets have been around in India for a while, but the real challenge remains catering to the price-sensitive Indian consumer, which even international platforms have had to take cognisance of.

According to a report by media consulting firm Ormax, the audience universe for video streaming in India currently stands at 547.3 million people, but active paid subscriptions have stagnated at 99.6 million.

The average number of platforms subscribed to per paying audience member fell from 2.8 to 2.5 in 2024, highlighting the waning need among audiences to pay to watch too many streaming services, the report said.