ZEE5 rides demand for non-Hindi content in small towns
ZEE5 is leveraging regional content as a key growth driver in India's competitive OTT landscape. The streaming platform, owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, estimates that 40% of its viewership now comes from tier-II and III markets, with non-Hindi languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada accounting for 50% of total consumption.
ZEE5 has seen success with recent releases like Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai,andissettoexpandits
offering with new titles such as Gyaarah Gyaarah, produced in collaborationwithKaranJohar’s Dharmatic Entertainment and Guneet Monga Kapoor’s Sikhya Entertainment. Upcoming content includes Manorathangal,a
Malayalam anthology film and Bangla title Kaantay Kaantay.
Manish Kalra, chief business officer at ZEE5 India, in an interview with Mint, highlighted a 25% annual growth in average time spent by a user, attributing this to the platform's strategic focus on regional content and targeted investments. “Till about two years ago, there was about a 70-75% skew towards users from metros and tier-I cities, but now we see more viewers from tier-II, III and IV cities and towns. Plus, because of our foray into regional languages, content in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla and Marathi makes up 50% of overall consumption on the platform,” Kalra said.
Kalra noted that in addition to post-theatrical releases like Sam Bahadur, The Kerala Story and Tejas, southern language titles such as HanuMan, Paruvu
and Thalaimai Seyalagam,
which focuses on Tamil politics, have performed well on the platform over the past six months. He said that consumers now expect content output to match demand across language markets. ZEE5 is preparing to release four new originals and around eight movies in southern languages in the coming months, alongside the second season of its Hindi original Mithya, and two films featuring Manoj Bajpayee and one with Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Following the collapse of its merger with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Zee said it was adopting a three-pronged strategy to cut costs, reduce business overlaps, and enhance content quality.