Why ZEE5 and SunNXT Are Not in the Race for Hot OTT Game?

I’m sure that many of you might have wondered some time or the other that why apps like Zee5 and SunNXT and who rule the Indian television market in their respective regions are not that aggressive in the OTT market . The majority of mainstream Indian content are either on Disney+ Hotstar , Amazon Prime Video or even Netflix for that matter. This is actually a shocking thought because as we all know that Zee has been one of the top channels in the Indian television market . There serials are always on the top of the trp charts . While Sun TV is like a kingpin of the television channels in the south . Despite having this much following they are not in the race for getting the rights of new movies which has become the trend for every streaming platform. As we know that due to Coronavirus pandemic and shut theaters many movies of big stars have started releasing directly on OTT Platforms and thus we saw a huge cutthroat competition between several streaming giants . While Amazon Prime video took most of the South Indian content , Disney+ Hotstar grabbed major Hindi mainstream movies . Netflix didn’t care for what they got but still they grabbed a table full of good films not as big as Disney+Hotstar but still good enough for a direct OTT Release. Seeing all this why Zee5 and SunNXT didn’t bother to jump into the market so as to gain access to these stuff ? Let us tell you .

Firstly let’s talk about Zee5

Zee5 as we all know is in the league of it’s own . They have created a whole new niche for themselves and how is that ? If you go through the database of Zee5 you’ll find something interesting which is their library of filled with Regional content which are large in number . Zee5 has plenty of regional content from across India and various languages like Marathi , Bengali , Tamil , Kannada , Telugu . They are giving platform to small movies to showcase themselves on a big stage . And due to this they lack the budget for garnering the rights for such big films. Zee5’s latest outing includes Mee Raqsam , Pareeksha and others which are niche genre films but have garnered acclaim . Zee5 is happy in what they are doing and are looking to support regional films for a long time . Seeing this the makers of small films have garnered trust over Zee5 and they put faith in them and hence we see several movies and shows which get released on Zee5 .

SunNXT

SunNXT on the other hand is a platform of the big channel Sun TV . They are the top most viewed channel in South India. But they do not get demand for the movies and shows to get showcased on their platform and their are mainly two reasons for that. Firstly is that they themselves produce high profile movies which includes big stars such as Rajnikanth or Vijay and for them to pursue these direct OTT release will be harmful for them has the amount which can be earned from theatre is certainly higher than a direct OTT Release. Another reason is that they themselves deal with platforms like Netflix with their production Release . While they have huge following in television market there subscriber base on the OTT market is fairly low and this rules out the chances for a big platform for the movie .

Hence these are the reasons why Zee5 and SunNXT are not in the race for becoming the top contenders of Ott market .