In the year ahead, we truly aim to nurture these long-standing relationships with our partners by offering curated solutions and delivering value
Kartik Mahadev, Business Head, Premium Channels, ZEEL
It was an eventful 2020 for Zee English Cluster that saw major announcements through the year including the milestone celebration of 20 Years of Zee Café, original programming with Starry Nights GEN Y and Dance With Me on Zee Café, flagship properties on &flix such as ‘Flix Superheroes’, ‘Pick Your Flix’ and ‘Flix For All’. &flix along with 11 ZEE channels also introduced the multi-lingual and multi-channel property ‘Ticket To Hollywood’ bringing Hollywood closer to the homes of fans across India. Recently, the Hollywood movies channel &flix also commissioned Nielsen for the comprehensive consumer study titled ‘Hollywood Is For Everyone’ that decodes movie lovers in India.
Super Fandom: Taking Hollywood To The Next Level!
Today, there are a whopping 216Mn+ viewers* watching English Movies & Entertainment channels. To put this number in perspective, English entertainment viewers in India are larger than the combined population of England, Canada and Australia. Another promising trend is the Box Office share for Hollywood movies in India, various industry reports highlight a growth of 15% CAGR over the last six years, with an estimated 1595 crores in collections, second to only Bollywood.
To these passionate fans, waiting for movie premieres got longer with out of home entertainment avenues reducing and impacting the theatrical releases this year. There is some reason to cheer in the year ahead with an exciting line-up of Hollywood releases in the pipeline. &flix has consistently looked to solve for the consumer challenge in the English movie genre with a focus to improve fan experience on television and a key disruption in this space is reducing the wait time for Hollywood premieres by half. With our fastest to TV premieres of Hollywood’s biggest hits, we truly aim to take this experience to the next level in the year ahead.
*(BARC, All India, Week 01’20- Week 49’20)
A Multiverse: Connecting with the ‘many Bharats’
In the hyper-connected world, we live in, Hollywood is closer to our homes and hearts now than ever before. Today, Hollywood movies aren’t just for the English-speaking audiences living in metros as we see movie enthusiasts in Bharat and India with the same level of passion and connectedness to the global fan following.
Findings from the &flix study, ‘Hollywood Is For Everyone’ further validate this by revealing that 9 in 10 Movie Lovers, watch both English & Hindi / Regional movies. The study also indicates how 7 in 10 Bollywood/Regional Enthusiasts enjoy dubbed versions of Hollywood films but find limited options of movies in their preferred language.
Through our unique offerings such as ‘FlixFor All’ on &flix and locally nuanced content on Zee Café, our continued endeavour will be to bring an aspirational, English-comfortable audience on board. The near future outlook for English entertainment movies looks positive as regional markets will continue to fuel new user growth.
#MyPerson: Fostering We-Time Moments
Our viewers are evolved, motivated and have a global outlook. They lead a fast-paced lifestyle and are constantly on the lookout for what is new and different. Over the last 20 years, Zee Café has served as a window to the world, bringing the latest and iconic International English content on television that spark conversations and shape culture. Being exposed to some of the finest shows like Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Supergirl and Grey’s Anatomy, viewers have grown in their familiarity and affinity towards International content with characters who are now household names. It is these we-time moments with characters that who truly become the ‘#MyPerson’ for viewers that we intend to foster for our discerning viewers in the year ahead. With a promising content line-up backed by originals and locally nuanced content along with cutting-edge international shows, we will continue to shape these meaningful we-time experiences.
Superpowers Include Curating Content That Resonates
Among the many worries that one may have, choosing the right and relevant content shouldn’t be one. The lockdown has showed us that the viewer’s choose to watch television for the curated content experience it provides, to not just individuals but the entire family. When it comes to Digital VODs, content discovery will continue to pose a challenge to viewers looking to unwind with quality content. A typical viewer ends up surfing endlessly to explore content that best suits their tastes. This is where television channels that understand their consumer and curate well, delight the viewer. The &flix consumer study titled ‘Hollywood Is For Everyone’ revealed that 71% movie lovers consider television to be niftier as they do not have to browse through content as compared to OTT.
In the larger scheme of things, curation of content on television that lends to co-viewing, making TV for a great community experience for family and friends, will emerge as the big differentiator. With leading OTT platforms now making the transition to linear TV globally and a newer platform emerging as content recommendation services for streaming platforms, it just speaks volumes for ease of viewing and discovery that our audiences embrace when it comes to television.
Keeping curation at the core, we at Zee English cluster have constantly introduced new programming formats and properties that best suit the needs of our ever-evolving viewers. Being the destination for discovery for the best of English entertainment and movies, the coming year will see marquee properties and titles across our channels as we continue to enthrall and entertain our discerning viewers.
Great Power. Great Responsibility: Creating Value for Customers
While consumers undoubtedly are our real superheroes, our major focus in 2021 will be to delight our brand partners by providing value through our offerings. Youth-focused premium brands can pick and choose fresh content that they can associate with to reach a premium subscriber base given a sharply segmented audience that English entertainment on television attracts while similar content on digital is behind paywall. We need to deliver solutions that provide value to our customers through synergies of the premium subscriber base and premium, exclusive content; and together with our partners, we at Zee English cluster are committed to constantly innovating to suit the evolving needs of our viewers.
For instance, there was enough consumer evidence to suggest the growing popularity of Hollywood movies across the country with an aspirational audience looking at movies as a window to the world. To cater to these enthusiasts spread across the nation, &flix along with other ZEE network channels announced the pan-network property ‘Ticket To Hollywood’ that features Hollywood’s latest and top-rated movies across ZEE channels, dubbed in regional languages. With this, we successfully reach out to a wider audience by providing access through language. Kickstarting with the premiere of the Vin Diesel-starrer ‘Bloodshot’ we had Colgate onboard as the presenting sponsor across 11 of our ZEE channels along brands like Venky’sPurotein, HUL (Lifeboy), KIA, TVS, Amazon, Sprite and Kelvinator onboard for Zee English cluster channels. The premiere across 12 ZEE channels in 10 languages garnered a whopping 29Mn reach.
Recently, for the premiere of Jumanji: The Next Level on &flix and a simulcast in Hindi on Zee Cinema, we had some of the most reputable brands on board as partner for the property on &flix such as Kia Motors, Ariel, Amazon, Airtel 4G, Xiaomi, Protinex and ITC among others. The premiere garnered an overwhelming response with a whopping 34 Mn reach making it one of the biggest premieres in the past year. Further, for Zee Café’s first original production during lockdown, ‘Dance With Me’ that launched with a unique interactive experience via fun hook step challenges, we had brands like Loreal Paris & Jeevansaathi.com, Dazzler Eterna, Yamaha Fascino and Only Natural Diamonds that partnered with us.
In the year ahead, we truly aim to nurture these long-standing relationships with our partners by offering curated solutions and delivering value
