Nearly 50 per cent of the subscription for Zee5 comes from the non-Hindi markets, with Tamil and Telugu driving the major part of this consumption, according to a senior official of the OTT platform.
“Almost half of our audience comes from the non-Hindi markets and a large part of it is from the Tamil and Telugu markets, that’s why we are planning to launch a great line-up of content for these audiences,” said Punit Misra, President – Content & International Markets, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL).
The platform announced a slate of Tamil web series and movie releases on Tuesday, including ace director Vetrimaaran’s first original series Nilamellam Ratham, actor-director Prakash Raj’s drama series Anantham, Thalaivi fame director AL Vijay’s teen dance drama Five-six-seven-eight, besides movies of actor Arun Vijay and Vijay Antony.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Misra said, Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest growing markets in terms of subscriber base and a key focus area for the OTT platform.
The platform has received a lot of successful Tamil content in recent times. Vilangu, a recent web original series released on the platform, received a phenomenal response from critics and audiences alike. It also became the most-watched Tamil series on the platform.
Similarly, actor Ajith Kumar’s Valimai, which premiered on the platform last month, fetched the fastest 500-million streaming minutes on Zee5 worldwide.
“It took 15 months to make sure we had enough visibility (of content flow). We now have full slate of releases with a clear visibility till this financial year,” Misra said.
Zee5 currently has over 5-lakh hours of on-demand content and 160-plus live TV channels. It has a library of 3,500 films, 1,750 TV shows and 700 originals across 12 languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
On new content releases, Misra said, “Typically, viewers would expect new content every weekend, but it’s not always easy to deliver that kind of volume. If we plan to deliver at least once in two weeks, then we have 26 weeks, so anywhere between 25-40 releases every year is what we are looking at. But it depends on how we plan our slate.”