ZEE5 to strengthen its foothold in eastern market

Zee5 plans to strengthen its hold in the eastern market. Particularly eyeing the Bengal belt, the platform is rolling out a content slate of originals starting 2023. The streaming platform is also one of the firsts to announce an exclusive, specially curated slate in the region.

Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5 India says, “Demand from specific language clusters in India is inherently high. Till last year, we were focused on building our Southern regional content. Bangla as a cluster already has good entertainment content available. The availability of quality creators, stories, infrastructure and good artists help us hone our strategies. We are a highly customer focused company. We will bring a lot of thrillers and suspense and traditional narratives, multiple stories between family dramas and rom-coms.”

Kalra says that the content slate includes 8-10 films, 10-12 original series in the next 12 months. “We have realised people are looking for layered characters, complex stories with twists and turns, and action thriller genres. We want to build in India.”

Samrat Ghosh, chief cluster officer—East India, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) says, “We have had a robust evolution journey for the last decade in the East market. We are responsible for the growth of channels like Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema, Zee Sarthak. We also cater to the Bhojpuri belt with Zee Ganga and Zee Biskope. East as a market is really important for us, particularly Bengal where the population is nearly 10 crore and Orissa where the population is about 4.5 crore. In the overall journey of Zee, regional markets have been very important for us and we are geared up to entice Bengali audiences via OTT content. Bengal is our priority in the East.”

Some of their original lineup for Bangla includes Shikarpur, that has actor Ankush Hazra making his OTT debut with national-award winning actor-director Kaushik Ganguly, Raktokarabi featuring Raima Sen and Vikram Chatterjee, Swetkali, featuring actor Oindrilla, making her OTT debut and so on. Talking about the widespread reach of OTTs, he says there has been an OTT revolution in India because there is internet access available, people have indispensable income and want entertainment. “We want to talk to people in the language they understand. The real and relatable stories come from languages close to heart,” he adds.

Also Read: Blockbuster business: How OTTs are cashing in on hit films with pay-per-view options

ZEE5 is not the only platform strengthening its regional penetration. OTT players across industry are introducing regional content across various languages to reach a wider audience.

A 2022 report by FICCI-EY, regional languages will account for 54% of OTT content by 2024. So far, southern languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, Punjabi and Marathi content remain popular among streamers. No doubt, OTT players like SonyLiv, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar are introducing originals in regional languages. Disney+ Hotstar recently started streaming its original Tamil series Fall, dubbed in several languages, Amazon original Tamil series Vadhandhi too recently came out on Amazon Prime Video, receiving a good response. Netflix too is gearing up to add more local content to its offerings.

While OTTs are expanding their regional reach, the traditional TV channels that offer a variety of content from reality shows to serials and films seem to be dwindling. As for the distribution of audiences between its TV channels and OTT channels, Kalra says that the section of people who watch OTTs are different from those who watch TV. “Once the broadband connections become more and more accessible, we will have enough room to grow in tier 2 and 3 cities. It is not that people have stopped watching TV after the arrival of OTT nor has TVs growth stopped. If OTTs are growing in double digits, the growth of TV channels are in single digit,” says Kalra while adding that they are also eyeing Punjabi and Southern markets in a big way.

The line-up featuring some of the most prominent names of Tollywood was unveiled at Taj Bengal in Kolkata on December 10.