Zee Entertainment’s OTT platform ZEE5 earlier this year pulled the plug on a teleco deals as it felt B2C plans were better served to it. The company did not renew the teleco deal post-August, Zee Entertainment stated during the Q2 FY 21 earnings call earlier this month.
ZEE5’s revenue was only up by 4% as a result of the teleco deal coming to an end which it plans to make up through its B2C plans and not through the teleco fixed fee model basis.
“Certainly we do evaluate every time a deal comes up for renewal or negotiation and that’s the time we do the tradeoff analysis on what is better for us to continue the relationship through a Telco or to go direct B2C. In this situation we have chosen to go B2C,” said Zee Entertainment’s Punit Goenka.
ZEE further stated that the data it got from B2C was far richer and better for monetization perspective whereas the teleco deals had restrictions on data because of the secrecy laws.
The teleco deal which ZEE evaluated and chose to rather go for subscriber on its own has had an impact with the decline in revenue in the subscription side.
