Zee5's growth from non-Hindi languages and tier 2 cities: Manish Kalra

Zee5 is riding high, boasting double-digit growth last fiscal year, and guess what? It’s not just Hindi shows driving the buzz. The platform is seeing major momentum from non-Hindi languages and smaller towns. Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5 India, says regional content, coupled with audiences from tier 2 and 3 cities, is doing the heavy lifting.

Apart from Hindi, the platform is creating original content in Tamil, Telugu and Bangla. It also offers dubbed content in languages such as Malayalam and Kannada. Nearly 50% of its audience comes from these languages, with 35-40% of viewers watching content in more than one Indian language. The biggest audience cohort is for Hindi content, followed by Telugu, Tamil, and Bangla.

Over 40% of its audience comes from tier 2 and 3 cities. “It's crucial for us to cater to India and what we call 'Bharat,' which has been a strong strategy for us,” he says. 

The content preferences of the various audience cohorts is also different. Kalra says the Tamil audience tends to prefer family dramas and comedies, while Telugu is more anchored in crime thrillers. Malayalam focusses on family-centric, underdog stories, and redemption, whereas Bengali content leans toward progressive narratives. 

“Consumer preferences are constantly evolving across languages, and we see content shifting to match those changes. It's an ongoing journey as audiences continue to evolve,” he says.

Attracting new audiences

In August, the platform launched a new mystery thriller, Gyaarah Gyaarah. Produced by Sikhya Entertainment and Dharma Productions, the show revolves around a concept of time travel and communication across timelines to solve mysteries. The show is the platform’s attempt to explore newer genres of content. Earlier in July, it launched Kakuda, a horror-comedy film.

"The crime, thriller, and drama genres dominate the industry, but we continuously introduce new ones. We're also exploring family-oriented content, which has been successful,” he says.

Apart from engaging its existing audience, these newer genres also help attract a new audience cohort “interested in intelligent, unique, and iconic stories.”

The platform also forayed into esports in 2023 to attract new audiences—teenagers and young kids.

"We're seeing success with esports and online gaming, which are popular among the youth. Attracting this new audience is key—if teenagers and young kids see exclusive content on Zee5, they might sample the platform. While engaging with esports, they may discover other content they like, potentially leading to family subscriptions. It’s all about building this funnel of engagement,” he explains.

However, Zee5 is not investing heavily in sports. Its core focus is on Indian and regional entertainment, and sports are more tactical for it. For instance, it streams the Calcutta Football League, which is popular in West Bengal. This helps it attract an audience in a particular region. 

“We're cautious about high-cost sports like cricket. It's just the obnoxious costs that get associated with the rights. While there are platforms that are doing it, we have taken a call that we are not going to do mainstream sports,” he explains.