Why Zee5’s language-first bet may be its best yet

Recently, a Google engineer’s viral post about being denied parking in Bengaluru for speaking Hindi reignited India’s ever-simmering language debate. He argued English should be made mandatory. The subtext, however, was more telling—language in India isn’t just a means of communication, it’s an identity marker.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that Marathi remains a key language in Maharashtra and should be learned by all. He emphasised pride in Hindi and other Indian languages, adding that promoting English should not come at their expense. A committee has been set up to review the existing trilingual formula, with the aim of making a decision that prioritises the educational interests of students in the state.

Amidst this furore about languages, Zee5, India’s homegrown OTT platform, is choosing to ride that wave, not resist it. In June 2025, it unveiled a refreshed brand identity under the rallying cry ‘Apni Bhasha, Apni Kahaniyan’ (Our language, our stories).

But for the company, this isn’t just a tagline. It’s a sharp pivot rooted in market signals, shaped by AI, and fuelled by regional storytelling that speaks to a country defined by its linguistic diversity. And it is also a smart way to allow its advertisers to tap a diverse audience in vernacular content.

From platform to proposition: The cultural reset

Zee5’s repositioning is not cosmetic. With a revised interface, new pricing models, and sharper language segmentation, the brand is recasting itself as a culturally rooted, Indian-origin platform. Kartik Mahadev, chief marketing officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), describes this shift as essential to capturing “the next wave of digital entertainment consumption” across tier 2 and 3 cities.

It’s not just about regional reach—it’s about emotional resonance. “Language is belonging,” Mahadev explains. “We’re not simply serving content in Indian languages—we’re building a platform where language creates spaces of emotional safety and personal connection.”

To support its new positioning, Zee5 introduced monthly language-specific packs priced at INR 120 for regional languages, INR 220 for the Hindi pack, and INR 320 for the all-access pack. This is relatively lower than Netflix India’s subscription plans, which range from INR 149 to INR 649 per month or Amazon Prime Video’s INR 299 monthly prices.

These sachet-priced launches coincide with a curated original content slate in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, and Malayalam with launches that include Sattamum Neethiyum (Tamil), Viraatapalem – PC Meena Reporting (Telugu), and Andhaar Maya (Marathi). Accompanying this was a multilingual campaign featuring seven culturally distinct brand films.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's chief marketing officer, Kartik Mahadev and chief growth officer, Ashish Sehgal.

The impact? A reported 2x increase in organic traffic, improved app store ratings, and growing social media buzz—strong early signals of cultural and behavioural traction.

Story over stars: A calculated cost reset

Zee5 is also flipping the conventional wisdom of streaming economics: instead of chasing star power, it’s betting on narrative gravity. Mahadev says this approach is both strategic and financial. “When the world feels lived-in, the emotions rooted, and the characters authentic, stories transcend language and travel far,” he notes.

Titles like Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai and Abar Proloy illustrate how hyperlocal, character-driven storytelling can generate national appeal. But Mahadev is careful not to romanticise the absence of stars.

“Star power still plays a role—especially when it’s in service of the story,” he adds. The platform’s content mix includes mainstream-led vehicles like Prince & Family and Detective Sherdil that drive buzz and brand alignment.

The financial advantage, though, is clear. Story-first titles come at significantly lower production costs compared to celebrity-led projects, enabling Zee5 to improve its content ROI.

This strategy is one of the levers contributing to its improved unit economics. According to regulatory filings, the platform halved its EBITDA loss from INR 1,105 crore in FY24 to INR 548 crore in FY25, with targets of a further 50–60% reduction in FY26.

While Mahadev declined to link these figures directly to marketing, industry observers point to Zee5’s focus on customer acquisition cost (CAC) optimisation, retention modelling, and full-funnel marketing as factors improving overall efficiency.

100 titles, seven tongues

With plans to launch 100 new titles in FY26, mostly in non-Hindi languages, Zee5’s content strategy is now driven more by dashboards than instincts. “Fifty percent of our consumption is already non-Hindi,” says Mahadev, noting that family dramas alone clocked 40 billion watch minutes in FY25.

Zee5’s regional language priority includes Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, and Hindi. Genres like crime and thrillers are also seeing increasing engagement among younger users. Micro-dramas and short-form narratives are gaining ground too, nudging the platform into more experimental storytelling zones.

Titles like Abar Proloy illustrate how hyperlocal, character-driven storytelling can generate national appeal.

Retention and completion rates by region now determine where and how the platform doubles down. With AI-powered content insights, Zee5 fine-tunes story arcs and pacing to match user patterns—what viewers are likely to binge, revisit, or recommend.

AI, culture and the code of loyalty

Zee5’s personalisation engine doesn’t just speak seven languages—it understands how each speaks back. Ashish Sehgal, ZEEL’s chief growth officer, explains that AI helps surface “emotionally relevant content faster,” boosting watch time and reducing churn. “Tamil and Telugu audiences lean into family dramas and thrillers, while Bangla users gravitate toward detective and literary-inspired content,” he notes.

These insights allow the platform to deploy hyperlocal creative, sharper segmentation, and dynamic ad personalisation. From a brand’s perspective, it’s a strategic shift—from audience volume to audience precision. The result: better campaign ROI and more agility for advertisers to modify creative or channel spends based on live data signals.

This data-first approach is also helping the OTT platform evolve into a performance-marketing partner for advertisers. With GroupM predicting that 60% of Indian adex will go digital in 2025, Zee5 is recalibrating its pitch to media planners around three pillars—Content, Connect, Convert.

“Beyond just reach and impressions, we’re tracking view-through rates, conversions, and on-platform actions,” Sehgal adds. “Media planners now look at Zee5 not just for brand campaigns but for full-funnel outcomes.”

So how does the company measure whether this multilingual bet is working with subscribers, and advertisers? Beyond brand recall and engagement metrics, Mahadev says the company tracks “language-based app usage and cultural touchpoint behaviours.”

Whether it’s increased viewing during Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, Ganesh Utsav in Maharashtra, or Ratha Yatra in Odisha, the platform uses these cues to gauge emotional resonance. Community activations, vernacular influencer campaigns, and festival-driven spikes feed into its campaign attribution modelling. “The real win is when a user feels seen and keeps coming back because their world is reflected on our platform,” Mahadev sums up.

Commerce meets culture

Retail media is no longer a buzzword—it’s a budget line. According to a GroupM report, retail media is on a steep growth trajectory, with advertising in this space projected to contribute 13.2% of total ad spend, driven by an impressive 40% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2019.

With 22% of digital ad spend now flowing into retail-focused formats, Zee5 is also stepping up its integration of commerce within its content surfaces. The platform has begun rolling out micro-interactive ad units for product discovery, native commerce plugins, and direct-response formats.

It’s also developing city-level retail packages under its ‘RISE’ initiative, enabling small and medium advertisers to plug into Zee5’s regional scale. This multi-city retail connect program has been created to showcase the company’s omnichannel capabilities, wherein it will roll out sub-ad formats like micro-interactive units for product discovery and direct response.

Sehgal says the company is investing in first-party data and inside sales capabilities to offer retail advertisers tailored media plans that drive “awareness to conversion” journeys. The shift turns Zee5 into a retail media gateway where content, commerce, and culture intersect.

CTV and the battle for the living room

If mobile built Zee5’s reach, Connected TV (CTV) may determine its future scale. Sehgal argues that CTV is reshaping both content and monetisation strategies, “CTV audiences have higher engagement, longer watch times, and a strong preference for co-viewing family content.”

To serve this audience, Zee5 is revamping its UI/UX for big screens and investing in high-production, cinematic experiences designed for long-form consumption. It’s also launching premium ad formats—pause ads, sequential storytelling, and native insertions—that are less disruptive and more relevant.

The hybrid monetisation model (SVOD + AVOD) is gaining ground, particularly in value-conscious tier-1 households looking for free, quality content on connected devices. CTV is central to this AVOD scale-up.

In a market dominated by OTT platforms wooing urban, English-speaking metros with star-studded blockbusters, Zee5 is attempting to build something slower, deeper—and hopefully stickier. With AI-powered localisation, vernacular storytelling, and commerce-minded ad innovation, it’s crafting a product that feels Indian not just in voice, but in logic.

Its success, however, will hinge on two things: whether users keep returning not just for content, but for cultural belonging; and whether advertisers can see beyond CPMs and start investing in connection.

For now, the platform isn’t chasing headlines—it’s chasing hearts. In seven languages.