BW Exclusive: Zee5’s ‘Soul To Screen’ Approach With Punit Misra

How would you describe the ‘Hooked to 5 Celebration by Zee5’ - the OTT platform’s extensive anniversary slate? 

It’s a celebration of the five successful years, a call to gather all those who witnessed our journey and brought us to a place that feels great to reach. This being the fifth year, we chose the occasion to announce our next 12 months’ plan which is likely to bring more excitement. We believe ‘people don’t buy the brand, they buy into brands’. So, we take this opportunity to unveil what Zee5 is bringing to the consumers’ table and what as a ‘brand’ it is or would be known in the future.

Could you tell us about Zee5's ‘Soul to Screen’ approach?

'Soul to screen' means complimenting the creativity with an added muscle, wherein consumers, hopes, desires, fears, aspirations excitement and tears are the creative dimension to resonate and connect more with the consumers. In a nutshell, our journey to the top was all about decoding our mistakes and new learning that helped us achieve the desired success by pitching our consumers rightly.

What is the roadmap for Zee5's future content portfolio?

We have successfully decoded the quantum of the content algorithm. It was all because we were able to balance both the quality and quantity of our content. Even though we focused on different languages for our content creation, we remained concentrated on our qualitative creation. It was all possible because of our local team based on the top of the market, which helped in knowing our consumers helping us with better content both quality and quantity wise. So, this was and will also be our future content portfolio.

Zee has had a big presence in the Television segment. But how do you view your relevance in the space in the age of OTT?

For us both exist and we truly look at both our platforms as long-run players. We strongly believe and follow the mantra: Winning in both and not about one versus the other. Even today, television has great scope as there are millions of people who still don’t have access to a TV set. This creates a long way for its penetration. On the other hand, OTT is developing and has its own broader scope.