The Indian OTT industry is very very turbulent. There is never stability and this is true for almost all the other places too. For about the past 3 years, mergers have been in the news. Be it the failed merger of Sony and Zee. The successful one of Amazon and MX Player or the upcoming one of Viacom 18 and Disney India.
The media industry is now watching Viacom18 and Disney+ Star prepare for their own $8.5 billion merger.
With such a big capital and a large number of channels, it is very obvious for the competition to rethink their ongoing strategy. Because it literally changes just everything.
Despite this, Zee Entertainment remains confident. During an earnings call for Q2 FY25, Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of ZEEL, stated, “This merger changes nothing for us.”
Goenka explained that Zee has competed with Disney-Star and Viacom18 individually in the past, and their merger doesn’t significantly impact Zee’s position. The only difference, he noted, is that the newly merged company might have more influence in securing advertising dollars, given their larger market share. However, on the subscription side, the situation remains unchanged, as it’s regulated by the government.
Goenka also pointed out that Zee’s main focus remains on entertainment, unlike their competition, which is heavily invested in sports content. He also said that Zee has no plans to aggressively enter the sports market. It is, in a way, good.
You see, Zee5 usually fails to bring sensational content that becomes the talk of the town. Once they manage to do that then they have a lot greater potential than what they are currently doing.
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