Content surrounding TV shows at the centre of Zee5’s AVoD gameplan

New Delhi: Zee5 continues to invest in its AVOD business as a part of its growth strategy, said Abhirup Datta, Head, AVOD Marketing and YouTube revenue, ZEE5 India. 

In the case of AVOD, it is the share of time that the consumer has to invest in the platform (Zee5) compared to other platforms, he said.

“What sets Zee5 apart is that our TV business remains our core business in AVOD which will continue over the next couple of years. We’ve taken a step forward by acquiring a lot of exclusive titles which are rooted to our culture but yet progressive, showing a certain way of breaking the stereotype and myths which has done well for us as a brand,” Datta added.

The company is focussing on the content surrounding TV shows such as behind-the-scenes content or brand campaigns to increase engagement and brand recall. 

Advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) has been growing as a segment in the over-the-top (OTT) space. 

The global AVOD revenue is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8% to 54.8 billion in 2027, according to Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2023 by PWC.

AVOD will account for more than 20% of the revenue generated by the OTT ecosystem. 

Another report by EY states that AVOD dominates viewership in India at 81% while subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) has the rest of the 19%.

Additionally, Zee5 has also ventured into other categories apart from entertainment. The company has launched live sports as a category with International League T20 being one of the properties and Calcutta Football League being the other property. 

The company has also ventured into e-sports broadcasts with the Big Bang Asia tournament. “We are branching out, making ourselves seen across TV, films, web series, and live sports and news. Using multiple assets and multiple categories, we are building a deeper bond and engagement with the consumer,” Datta highlighted.

According to Datta, ZEE5 has been expanding due to its focused marketing strategies and analytics. He also emphasised that advertising investments align with audience engagement, boosted by the platform's regional content attracting viewers from major metropolitan areas as well as tier-1 and 2 cities.

“Localised content, advertising and targeting has helped us grow robustly in the last four to five years,” Datta mentioned.

Moreover, ZEE5 has also collaborated with other brands in order to leverage each other's customer base, as well as value proposition, adding to the overall content and category.

Furthermore, Datta believes advertisers will explore avenues where they would get return on investment (ROI). Datta believes that traditional media has a role to play in advertising which will continue to grow, however, OTT with targeted, performance-based marketing, and digital branding campaigns will continue to grow. 

“Making marketing accessible for smaller retailers was not possible due to traditional media’s entry cost being prohibitive. We have been able to gather a lot of small businesses and small retailers along with the big advertisers and we have witnessed growth due to this,” Datta stated.

When asked about the need for a unified measurement system, he replied that advertisers will demand that because they want the right value for money. He added that the amounts of cuts and segmentation that can be carried out in OTT will eventually cascade into other media. 

Datta opines that while there is an evolution, SVOD and AVOD have coexisted. AVOD is where consumers are time-strapped and value-conscious and they want the best returns in terms of time and money spent. 

“AVOD as a category helps expose consumers to global or regional content. I believe AVOD has a huge role to play in building the base and getting consumers into the fold. AVOD will feed off the funnel for SVOD while the latter will get more consumers to the OTT bandwagon driven by word-of-mouth. I see both the segments feeding off of each other,” Datta added.

In order to achieve higher penetration in the tier-2 and 3 markets, Datta emphasised that seasonal brand campaigns, hyperlocal activation, and local partnerships, among other things, were able to bring consumers into the fold. Datta further added that broadcasting e-sports tournaments is to get the GenZ demographic onboard. 

User experience is expected to be critical for ZEE5 as the platform continues to focus on better engagement and gamification of content in a bid to get more engagement. 

Datta pointed out that there has been a boom in content consumption on smart TVs. 

“We see the share of smart TVs increasing and consumption increases on smart TV. Consumers want to watch TV shows, news and movies, even if it's AVOD on smart TVs. I think that penetration of smart TV is definitely helping us,” Datta added. 

Furthermore, he stated that the growth was witnessed from metros, as well as from tier 2-3 markets. Consumption of AVOD on Android devices was high, whether it be a high-end or entry-level segment. The 18 to 45 demographic has been the highest consumer of AVOD content.

Datta concluded on the note that for any AVOD business to be successful, it has to cut across all audience and income segments.