Content and technology have been our priority investment areas and we plan our content strategy around consumer preferences. Our consumers and stakeholders are at the forefront of our decision-making process, and we keep a sharp eye on identifying the kind of content that will click with the audience. Across other language markets and our platforms, we understand the needs and expectations of our audiences. This gives us an edge over our competition and that is seen in the leadership position we enjoy across various channels.
At ZEE, it is our understanding of the intricacies of Indian culture that enabled us to emerge as a global media and entertainment powerhouse. To reach and engage the diverse population of India, we constantly strive to create universal content. Through heart-warming storylines and plots, we foster a sense of relatability with the characters.
Our catalogue boasts diverse content that caters to diverse demographic and socioeconomic clusters. New formats, multiple choices across genres and languages have seen content consumption make a shift from passive viewing to a holistic and engaging experience.
Domestic channels
International channels
MAUs
The Indian consumer is famously unique. There is an infinite diversity of preferences, varied levels of accessibility, a fondness for cultural relatability and a growing propensity for technology. India’s 1.3 billion+ population and a sizeable diaspora provide an endless opportunity stream for content providers across content genres, screens, and platforms.
At ZEE, we have been at the forefront of leveraging this opportunity and being pioneers in Indian content over generations. To keep going further, we have undertaken new initiatives to instil obsessive consumer focus at the heart of everything we do. We call this our ‘Soul-toScreen’ approach, which will build the next level of our competitive advantage. Through this approach, we are striving to being an intrinsic part of our consumers’ native world, which is complex, intriguing, and evolving. All at the same time. We aim to craft and create stories that connect with their core beliefs and thought process, and in many ways emanate from their own personal experiences.
Soul-to-Screen is essentially a design method wherein consumer insights lead to new content ideas. It also allows us to adopt stories from various regions that have universal appeal but with characters and sub-plots relatable to that region. We are constantly working to sharpen the insights design to bridge the gap between consumers and creators.
An important mechanism of achieving this is to ensure that immersion becomes a way of life for us, across the organisation, and at all levels. Our ‘Soul-to-Screen’ method, has over the past years trained our teams, equipping them to conduct meaningful consumer immersions to arrive at actionable insights, which then translates into compelling stories, memorable characters, and a cohesive narrative. Further, it gives us in-depth knowledge of regional insights, preferences, and unique attributes that further sharpen our storytelling, and feed into our strategy of being the network of choice.
The last two years have shown us the benefits of this approach. Sudden lockdowns and disruption in daily lives, necessitated far-reaching innovation. We quickly pivoted, creating newer formats to reach out to consumers, and ensured that a steady stream of insights informed our decisions and found its way into our content. We worked in an environment where technology, data, and our ability to listen to consumers converged to enhance our understanding and augment our potential of converting them into stories that people love.
For instance, an in-depth understanding and measurement of the videoverse has enabled us to map video consumption across TV and Digital, and understand the key drivers, given that people are now accessing content across a variety of SVOD and AVOD formats. We collected insights from a sample of nearly 13,000+ consumers across 10 languages and diverse socio-economic backgrounds to create a map of what people like viewing, their preferred timing, modes, and many other insights.
In FY22, we made a significant leap in adopting Soul-To-Screen method for Original Content on ZEE5 and an in-depth understanding of the OTT consumer and their life. We conducted a detailed content need-state analysis covering across languages, which helped us understand their preferences and needs, and feed that into the content development engine.
With ‘Soul-to-Screen’ we are reaching India and Indians, like never before!