/
•
•
Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
With a strategy that’s more confusing than the script of an Indian soap, the home-grown streaming platform risks becoming an also-ran.
Editor's note: Third time’s the charm. And Zee Entertainment Enterprises expected no less when it launched online video streaming platform Zee5 over two years ago. With two failed attempts on its report card, one of India’s largest television broadcasters preferred to err on the side of caution the third time around. Its previous experiments—the subscription-only Ditto TV (launched in 2012) and the consequent overcorrection that was the advertising-only OZee (which debuted in 2016)—failed to make a dent. The result: all hopes were pinned on Zee5, with a revenue mix of subscription and advertising. Over the past two years, Zee5 has made a lot of noise about its content, products, pricing, and vanity metrics. Reams are written almost every other week on how it is taking on video streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar, and doing a fine job of it. But look past the noise and the reality is very different. It is an entity that is unclear about what it wants to be and instead keeps jumping from one passion project to another. It is at once a …
With a strategy that’s more confusing than the script of an Indian soap, the home-grown streaming platform risks becoming an also-ran.
Editor's note: Third time’s the charm. And Zee Entertainment Enterprises expected no less when it launched online video streaming platform Zee5 over two years ago. With two failed attempts on its report card, one of India’s largest television broadcasters preferred to err on the side of caution the third time around. Its previous experiments—the subscription-only Ditto TV (launched in 2012) and the consequent overcorrection that was the advertising-only OZee (which debuted in 2016)—failed to make a dent. The result: all hopes were pinned on Zee5, with a revenue mix of subscription and advertising. Over the past two years, Zee5 has made a lot of noise about its content, products, pricing, and vanity metrics. Reams are written almost every other week on how it is taking on video streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar, and doing a fine job of it. But look past the noise and the reality is very different. It is an entity that is unclear about what it wants to be and instead keeps jumping from one passion project to another. It is at once a …
The homegrown social startup is betting big on India’s latest content obsession—minute-long episodes of high-stakes dramas. Cut through the noise and the microdrama hype itself doesn’t add up.
Highlights from Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Qatar’s new (and bolder) AI ambition and the bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Indians who are among the world’s largest consumers of free tech products and also significant beneficiaries of free markets suffer from a poor understanding of both technology and accountability. Separately, Aamir Khan breaks a paradigm with a YouTube release.
The homegrown social startup is betting big on India’s latest content obsession—minute-long episodes of high-stakes dramas. Cut through the noise and the microdrama hype itself doesn’t add up.
Highlights from Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Qatar’s new (and bolder) AI ambition and the bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Indians who are among the world’s largest consumers of free tech products and also significant beneficiaries of free markets suffer from a poor understanding of both technology and accountability. Separately, Aamir Khan breaks a paradigm with a YouTube release.
