Zee5 Global, the streaming service for South Asian content from the Zee Entertainment conglomerate, has announced an aggregation of multiple South Asian streaming platforms within the Zee5 Global platform with the launch of ‘add-ons’ in the US market. With this, offer subscribers in the US will get a single-window to access variety of South Asian entertainment platforms on the Zee5 Global platform. The add-ons pricing starts from $1.49 onwards.
These were unveiled by Amit Goenka, President, Digital Businesses and Platforms and Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, Zee5 Global at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Said Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global: “The launch of Add-ons on Zee5 Global is a significant milestone, further cementing our leadership position as the No.1 South Asian streaming platform in the US market.”
ZEE5 Global Add-ons currently offers content across languages from streaming platforms like Simply South (all South Indian languages), Oho Gujarati (Gujarati), Chaupal (Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi), NammaFlix (Kannada), EPIC ON (Hindi) and iStream (Malayalam) with at least six more being onboarded. originals across languages.
Added Amit Goenka, President – Digital Businesses & Platforms, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd: “As digital entertainment consumption and delivery models evolve in the global landscape, addressing the growing consumer demand for engaging content and a seamless, personalized experience that combines accessibility and affordability is the need of the hour. With the launch of our aggregator platform Zee5 Add-ons, we aim to unite the entertainment ecosystem for the discerning viewer to build a robust monetization opportunity for multiple players in the global markets. We are pleased to have on board some of the most renowned names offering South Asian content to the diaspora audience, and we look forward to building a healthy partnership by enhancing capabilities in the realm of content creation and distribution by establishing ZEE5 Global Add-ons as the single destination for all South Asian content.”
Meanwhile, an India to US referral programme will also be rolled out soon. Subscribers in India will be able to share a referral link with friends or family in the US and earn Rs 500 for each successful referral. There will be no capping on the number of referrals, so there is no upper limit to how much one can get.
At the launch event, a panel discussion titled the Coming of Age of South Asian Entertainment: The Time is Now was conducted. The panel discussion, moderated by Anupama Chopra, featured actors Manoj Bajpayee, Guneet Monga, Vishal Bhardwaj, Pratik Gandhi, and Archana Anand from Zee5 Global.
ZEE5 marks its fifth brand anniversary. It is celebrating the occasion with a week-long campaign in India titled ‘5xThankYou’ from 13th to 19th February, featuring exciting offers on annual plans, Indian and international blockbusters and exclusive titles.
Sharing his views on the milestone, Amit Goenka, President – Digital Businesses & Platforms, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) said: “ZEE5 was launched five years back with a vision to take Zee into its next phase of growth through leveraging the rapidly growing digital ecosystem to bring audiences extensive content choices and enhanced viewing experiences across screens. Today, I am happy to see ZEE5 emerge as India’s largest homegrown multilingual platform and the leading global platform for South Asian content representing the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of the region to the world. The journey has been enthralling with many learnings as we strengthened our presence across international and local markets in the last few years, and our teams have a lot to be proud of. The appetite for digital content with advancements in emerging technologies has catapulted the demand for OTT content, paving the way for us to step into our next phase of growth with a robust content-led digital-first strategy.”
Added Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India: “As a leading player in India’s OTT industry, we at ZEE5 have helped in expanding the contours of entertainment business over the last 5 years owing to the large appetite of Indians for quality content across languages. We, as a customer focused platform, believe in delivering high quality content for consumers, as well as engage with creators that could propel sector’s growth and address the demands of the culturally diverse and discerning audiences. With innovative storytelling, evolved character arcs, compelling narratives and content that transcends all barriers of languages and geographies we have grown remarkably over last 5 years across SVOD and AVOD. Our investments on content development increased significantly as well, as we strengthened our regional presence making inroads into the smaller pockets of India. Charting the next course for ZEE5, we will focus on producing good-quality stories, enhanced viewing experiences, creative collaborations, and increased choices for our viewers.”
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has announced the launch of its Metaverse Onboarding Programme. The programme will induct 100+ campus graduates from top tech institutes at its Technology and Innovation Centre in Bengaluru. The centre is focused on building the metaverse platform by leveraging Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and relevant data models for its digital platforms.
Speaking about the initiative, Amit Goenka, President – Digital Businesses & Platforms, Zee said: “At Zee’s Technology and Innovation Centre, we are imbibing a sharp strategic focus on enhancing our tech capabilities through a confluence of technology, data and talent. As we break new grounds and redefine entertainment by providing robust experiences across platforms, we are delighted to converge Zee’s collaborative and entrepreneurial culture in the physical and digital realms through an immersive environment such as the metaverse. We aim to provide intuitive experiences across all aspects of an individual’s consumption, creation and transactional journey, and the first-ever metaverse induction program at ZEE, will not only help enhance our employee experience by boosting innovation and productivity, but also our consumer experience by several notches.”
Added Nitin Mittal, President – Technology & Data, Zee: “For over three decades, we have been a pioneer in breaking the norms of the industry and creating path-breaking content for more than 1.3 billion viewers across the globe. Our focus now remains on building capability for ZEE by leveraging technology to provide our consumers with extraordinary entertainment experiences. Our quest is to shape the next chapter of India’s Media & Entertainment Industry and the Metaverse Induction Program is yet another major step in that direction. Inducting, nurturing and retaining the right talent is key to any organization’s success and we are committed to giving a world class experience to our tech enthusiasts right from day one.”
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE) has announced the return of its popular content brand Zindagi, on its digital entertainment platform, Zee5.
Speaking on the announcement, Amit Goenka, CEO, Zee5 Global and International Broadcast Business: “Zee’s strength has always been in its ability to narrate unique stories, to connect with billions of audiences worldwide, and to offer different genres of content. Zindagi has always been appreciated for its premium content offering and culturally rich stories from across the globe, which are far more attuned to the digital audience sensibilities. Zindagi’s universal content has a very strong appeal, and we are excited to offer this rich & engaging content library to the users of Zee5, in India and across the world. We also understand that the viewers’ needs are diverse and therefore we have a compelling content catalogue from Zindagi, which encapsulates a universality of emotions. We stay committed to offering an extraordinary entertainment experience to our consumers across multiple touchpoints, and we are sure that our viewers will once again embrace this widely acclaimed brand on our platform.”
Close on the heels of the launch of its brand campaign Dil Se Desi in APAC, MENA and Africa targeting the Indian and South Asian diaspora, Zee5 has rolled out a customised campaign titled ‘Share the Love’ for two important neighboring markets, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The campaign has been crafted by ZEE5 with Publicis Capital.
Said Amit Goenka, CEO, Zee International and Z5 Global: “Indian content, especially our TV shows, movies and music gets tremendous love across the globe, and especially so from the sub-continent due to the relatability. We are glad to announce our availability in Bangladesh and Pakistan vide our new campaign #ShareTheLove and we look forward to getting a tremendous response from these markets’.
Added Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, Zee5 Global: “Good content transcends borders and especially so with Pakistan and Bangladesh where there is so much shared context of culture and language.  This high energy TVC captures our innate similarities and showcases the content that we all love to watch, which is now available on Zee5. With this message at its core, #ShareTheLove is sure to resonate beautifully with audiences in these markets.â€
Zee5 has launched its global campaign ‘Dil Se Desi’, officially marking the digital platforms’ entry into the International market. An ode to Indians and South Asians around the world, ‘Dil Se Desi’ announces the arrival of Zee5 in APAC, Africa and MENA and very soon, in Europe, Canada and Caribbean.
Commenting on the launch, Amit Goenka, CEO, Zee International and Z5 Global said: “In the first leg of our international foray, we intend to capture the hearts of South Asians across the globe and I think our campaign, ‘Dil Se Desi’ does this beautifully.“
“Interestingly, both this campaign ‘Dil Se Desi’ and the ZEE5 India launch campaign we rolled out in February 2018, ‘Apni Bhasha Mein Feel Hai’ have their genesis in the same insight; that Indians and indeed South Asians today, irrespective of where they live or how globally connected they are, are fundamentally rooted in their culture and feel a strong sense of pride and belonging. Being ‘Desi’ today has moved from being just cool to being an intrinsic part of one’s identity; and that’s what Zee5 taps into. The emotion that whoever or whatever I am on the outside, on the inside I am ‘Dil Se Desi’ and I not only embrace, but celebrate who I am,†said Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, Zee5 Global.
It is this celebration that is brought alive in the campaign that’s been jointly crafted by the teams at Zee5 and Publicis Capital, notes a communique.
Added Bobby Pawar, Chief Creative Officer & Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide (India): “There is something that happens when people from South Asia move abroad. We become one vibrant community that is united by what we all have in common, and this community is known as ‘Desi’. The ‘Dil Se Desi’ idea celebrates what we love about being ‘desi’, the quirks, the attitude, the culture, the coolness, the togetherness and the content we can’t do without.â€
It’s D-Day. December 15, 2017. And since we don’t ‘conduct’ the award presentation offline, we aren’t dependant on venue availability and rates negotiations. Hence, we do the awards on a weekend, not a weekday… when the mood is just right. Celebrate if you are happy with the announcement, or just give us a pass. Or a few GRRRs.
So how are we different from other awards?
First, it’s not based on a survey. It’s not based on any industry poll. It’s based on a study conducted by us through the year. This makes the decision-making tougher, as we can’t pass the blame on to research. Or the collective view of the industry. Or of a jury.
Second, it’s an A&M industry study. Agreed CEOs of big clients are important, but we are looking at CMOs and not CEOs of well-marketed organisations.
Third, we look at performance through the year, and don’t base it on the highs of the last two quarters of a year which tend to influence any voting-based process at the yearend.
Fourth, we give you a clear reason why we have chosen the winner
Fifth, we are as sincere and honest about the awards as one can get. There were suggestions that we should make it an on-ground event. But then that comes with its own set of issues (and compulsions). We even had one large media group expressing its interest two years back. But we think it could’ve influenced our decision. Perhaps next year, with some more wisdom will happen in our blood streams.
And sixth, it’s about achievement in 2017 – in this calendar year (well not the entire year, but at least the 350-odd days that have preceded today). There are some who may have been super achievers the previous year, but have fallen short of our winner in 2017. Similarly, there are some A&M barons who have been doing splendid work through the years, but there has been someone else who has been more spectacular. We only look at achievements of the current year.
So: the MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year 2016 is an online award. It’s an accolade that’s for the truly well-deserving. And for the True Achiever of 2016 in the Indian Media, Advertising & Marketing arena.
With the backgrounders done, here’s how we went about our task.
Wemaintain an online notebook that records important developments of the year. It’s a drill that ensures one can do recaps etc with ease.
For the Mediaperson of the Year, one reviews names, quarter-wise. This helps that the choice of the award doesn’t suffer from the recency factor.
We looked at various names. We couldn’t miss the achievements of the Zee group captains Punit and Amit Goenkaand Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats as they celebrated major milestones this year.
We also looked at the Big 35 media entities. For, it takes a lot to ensure that it’s business as usual. We then got to our second shortlist where we decided to look at five shortlists. And this is what it was:
1. Piyush Pandey: Getting the Lions of St Mark with brother Prasoonis, as we wrote the other day, a significant achievement.
2. The Wire Co-founders – Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M K Venu: They’ve stood their ground in the very rough weather and have emerged as the biggest of the credible voices in journalism. Yes, more credible than most print badshashs.
3. Uday Shankar: Star India Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar was elevated to President, 21st Century Fox, Asia. But the 21CF charge would be in addition to the Star India responsibilities. The year also saw Star bagging the IPL rights and perhaps for the first time ever getting its act together on the second channel – Star Bharat.
4. CVL Srinivas: The GroupM CEO bagged the coveted ITC account along with a slew of others and some consolidation of the Indian operations. And then he was also made Country Manager India which is a significant capture of the faith WPP supremo Sir Martin Sorrell thinks of Srini
5. And then our fifth shortlist…
Ladies and Gentlemen, We have great pride in announcing that the 2017 MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year Award goes to…
Arnab Goswami, Owner and Editor-in-Chief, Republic World/TV
Arnab Goswami
Goswami quit Times Now last year and in superquick time he set up an all-new English news channel. Right from the start of this year, he has created a buzz in media circles about the channel’s launch. And his launch strategy was unique with videos released via digital media announcing that he’s coming soon
This award goes to ArnabGoswami, the businessman and mediaperson. It’s not easy to launch a channel in some seven months, even if the decision to start anew would’ve been taken earlier.
For the last eight-odd months, Republic TV has been the undisputed leader amongst English news channels. There have been attempts to undermine its rise by slicing of data in terms of age groups, time bands or select cities, but the lead of Republic over the others, Times Now in particular is definite.
He has also led the channel’s drive to attract anchor advertisers with one-on-one meetings with a large number of them. He has of course also managed to line up a top deck of able hands in Vikas Khanchandani, Priya Mukherjee and Charu Thakur amongst others.
The fact remains that Republic TV did take the dual LCN route to maximise reach in the early days as did a few others, but given the regulator’s intervention on the issue, the dual LCN route for upping connectivity has been stopped.
There are allegations that Times Now and Republic TV have taken the landing route to boost viewership but we do not have evidence to prove both.
While Times Now is still a significant force to reckon with, in terms of its content and presentation, it appears to be a poor cousin of Republic TV.
But, given that the MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year award is a qualitative award, it would be incorrect to mention that the nationalistic, pro-NarendraModi, pro-BJP biggies and hence the pro-BJP stance of Republic TV and Goswami in particular is a significant downer. While it’s not that there is no screaming and shouting on India Today or even NDTV in the recent past, Goswami takes the pitch to a new high every evening. We have had reservations about Goswami’s and Republic’s editorial stance. Yes, we do remember that he was very combative against Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar after the unrest in the state some months back. He has taken on the BJP since launched, but these have been very few and far between.
Perhaps there is reason for moderation. Perhaps there is reason to move away a bit from the debate formula and also include other news of the day in a little more detail.
But for now, the formula is working wonders for Republic TV and its primary promoter and editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.The viewing public, as is determined from the popularity of the channel, isn’t complaining.
A truly deserving winner of the 2017MxMIndiaMediaperson of the Year Award. Taaliyaan!
It’s all over the frontpages of the mainline dailies.
The Zee group has embarked on an all-new corporate identity, and as a first, it has thanked its peers – Sony Pictures Networks, Sun TV Network, Viacom 18 and Star India – for their support to help achieve their dream. “In the last 25 years, we have broken new grounds, scaled new heights and explored new horizons in media and entertainment. This would not have been possible without the support of our peers, with whom we share a common dream of entertaining the nation. We acknowledge with gratitude their contribution in realising this dream. Here’s to all of us. And to our extraordinary future. Because together, we can make extraordinary happen
The Zee group – the entertainment, digital, news, music, live entertainment, movies – all of them together – now have a new common corporate credo: Extraordinary Together. While it embodies the earlier credo of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, Sanskrit for ‘The world is one family’, the new corporate philosophy has a firm eye on the achievement of a three billion consumer base. This growth from a 1.3bn audience currently over the next five years would mean that Zee will aggressively spread its tentacles across the globe.
In India too, there are plans to grow the franchise. In broadcast for instance, there will be variants of vanilla GECs, and the spread will be across Southern languages… for instance in Malayalam.
The Zee group had invited the media for a press meet with many of its senior professionals in attendance. Also present were three representatives from films and theatre.
Speaking on Zee’s new corporate brand ideology, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL said: “Our Chairman, Dr. Subhash Chandra’s vision and pioneering efforts caused a revolution in the country 25 years ago. Over time, Zee has evolved from a television broadcaster into a media and entertainment conglomerate with businesses spanning across the spectrum, from broadcasting to music, movies, digital, live entertainment and theatre, providing an extraordinary range of entertainment to audiences around the world. Our new brand ideology – ‘Extraordinary Together’ is rooted in the philosophy that from collaboration comes strength to deliver the extraordinary. In a global company like ours with interests across diverse verticals and businesses, we believe that our ability to win lies in us being able to effectively come together and harness this strength to be extraordinary in the market.â€
Throwing light on the company’s growth plans, Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, ZEEL said, “With the vision of becoming the world’s leading global content company from the emerging markets, content is our core focus area and our primary objective is to create extraordinary content for all types of audience across different screens and platforms. Digital is a key focus area and we are soon to launch our revolutionary digital platform, Z5 in the next few weeks.† There was much discussion on Zee’s digital foray and Amit Goenka also informed mediapersons that an all-new digital platform named Zee5 will be unveiled soon.
The new identity has been designed by London-based designer Martin Lambie-Nairn, Creative Director, ML-N. Lambie-Nairn had also designed the Zee group brand identity that’s visible on the channels and all their communication.
Said Lambie-Nairn: “Twenty-five years is celebrating what you’ve achieved and far more importantly, understanding where you are going, rethinking the brand purpose and considering how to address your audiences in the future. Before conceptualising the new brand identity, our first step was to understand this rich legacy of Zee, unravel where the viewer aspirations and expectations are headed, and then arrive at the brand purpose and ideology that is future-ready. This helped us create a truly global brand architecture that would be easy to operate across genres, businesses and countries and more importantly, introduce magic into it. With this vastly diverse bouquet of brands and businesses that Zee owns, it was necessary to have a golden thread that runs through all the businesses – an elegant and monolithic design language that links the organisation together and inspires to create the extraordinary.â€
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) achieved another milestone by becoming the first Indian broadcaster to set up a production company, Zee Studios International in Canada. This also marks Zees entry into global production for mainstream audiences which will facilitate production requirement for Zees international markets. The production company, located at Vancouver, British Columbia, will be headed by Subhadarshi Tripathy who will be supported by a local team. Tripathy will jointly report to ZEEL MD & CEO, Punit Goenka and CEO – International Broadcast Business, Amit Goenka.
Commenting on the new initiative, Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, ZEEL said, “Canada is known as a large production hub for various Hollywood companies, as the country offers the requisite infrastructure, talent pool, scenic locales as well as a favourable Government incentive scheme. After a series of discussions with the Government of British Columbia, Canada, we were invited to set up a production company in Vancouver. Our endeavour through this venture is to produce global content for mainstream audiences across various international markets as well as take care of our domestic requirements. Canada has grown to become a priority market for us and through such initiatives, we plan to increase our presence in this country. We thank the local government bodies for their cooperation and support in helping us establish this business.â€
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has announced its expansion into Latin America with the launch of its Spanish-language Bollywood movie channel, Zee Mundo in Mexico and Ecuador. With this, Zee becomes the first-ever Indian broadcaster to take mainstream channels to LATAM. Zee Mundo will be available in Mexico on Sky, a leading Pay-TV satellite provider and in Ecuador on TV Cable.
Commenting on the launch, Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, ZEEL said, “After Zee Mundo’s success in the US Hispanic market, where the channel’s unique offering has captivated viewers, we are now set to increase our footprint with a strategic expansion into Latin America. This is a key market for us and we want to take this channel to the length and breadth of audiences in both Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking Latin America. We are launching our channel on the region’s biggest platforms – Sky in Mexico and TV Cable in Ecuador and soon we will be expanding across Latin America.â€
Sharing further details, Rajeev Kheror, President – Strategy, International Business, ZEEL said, “There is a cultural synergy between India and Latin America, with Indian content and storylines resonating strongly with Latin American values and traditions. With our carefully curated Spanish-language Bollywood channel, Zee Mundo, we aim to deliver a never-seen-before experience with the best of Bollywood movies, telenovelas and series. The channel has already received a positive response amongst US Hispanic audiences, with viewers finding the variety and quality of content compelling. We wish to deliver a similar experience to our audiences in Latin America with content that is high-quality, unique and entertaining.â€
With an aim to grow operations by expanding into new markets, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has announced its foray into Poland. The company has appointed Pawel Kolasa as Country Manager – Poland and he will report to Neeraj Dhingra, CEO – ZEE Network Europe. The channel will also shortly launch a specially customised version of Zee.One, its dedicated Bollywood film and entertainment channel for Polish audiences.
Amit Goenka
Said Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, ZEEL: “In the past few years, we have focused our efforts on expanding and strengthening our position internationally. With a wide range of television channels, on-line platforms and film productions, we now reach more than one billion viewers across five continents. After the successful launch of Zee.One in Germany last year, we want to further strengthen our presence in Central Europe and Poland is the market with the highest potential in this region.â€
Added Neeraj Dhingra, CEO – Zee Network Europe: “We are the first Indian media and entertainment conglomerate to enter Poland. We are confident that our entry into this market will play a key role in the development of our business in this part of Europe, giving a new dimension to our company’s expansion keeping in line with our motto of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World is My Family’.â€
Zee Middle East announced the launch of its first radio station 106.2 Big FM in the UAE. This adds to the business portfolio of ATL for this region and makes it the only broadcaster in the South Asian space to have both television and FM stations. The station’s line-up of content includes original content produced in-house, content acquired from Big FM in India and cricket rights of key series for ball-by-ball commentary.
Amit Goenka
Speaking on the launch, Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), said “We are proud of the addition of 106.2 Big FM into the ZEE and ATL family. We are sure that like all our Zee brands, 106.2 Big FM will also entertain listeners in the UAE. The product has been developed with a lot of attention to detail and I am sure it will be of immense interest to the advertising community.â€
With Big FM in Zee’s bag, the entertainment conglomerate scores as the strongest player in UAE’s South Asian entertainment field, notes a communique.
On this occasion, Mukund Cairae, CEO – ZEE Network (MENA and APAC), said, “The launch of Big FM is another prized feather in our cap. A gem in our entertainment business portfolio that further cements our numerouno position among South Asians in the Middle East. With the combined strength of television and radio under our wings, we aim to soar higher and show better commitment to the region. Also with this synergy, we now provide vast audio-visual platforms to our advertising clients, hence creating new business opportunities.â€
Zee5 Global, the streaming service for South Asian content from the Zee Entertainment conglomerate, has announced an aggregation of multiple South Asian streaming platforms within the Zee5 Global platform with the launch of ‘add-ons’ in the US market. With this, offer subscribers in the US will get a single-window to access variety of South Asian entertainment platforms on the Zee5 Global platform. The add-ons pricing starts from $1.49 onwards.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has announced the launch of its Metaverse Onboarding Programme. The programme will induct 100+ campus graduates from top tech institutes at its Technology and Innovation Centre in Bengaluru. The centre is focused on building the metaverse platform by leveraging Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and relevant data models for its digital platforms.
