Airtel customers to get exclusive access to premium content from ZEEL

In one of the largest content partnerships in the country, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) and Bharti Airtel on Monday announced a strategic alliance aimed at driving the growth of the digital/OTT video content ecosystem in India.

Under this strategic partnership, Airtel and ZEEL will look to bring hundreds of millions of new users onto the digital content platforms driven by rapid adoption of smart devices and wider availability of high speed data services.

Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., said, “As a Media & Entertainment powerhouse, keeping our consumers at the epicenter of our approach, we aim to be present across every platform which they wish to access and our alliance with Airtel as their lead content partner, is a firm and positive step in this direction. We look forward to this partnership, which will enable us to entertain the customers of Airtel through our thoughtfully curated content offering, leveraging our expertise in content and data. In line with our larger aim for ZEE5, to be a number one entertainment OTT player in the country, this alliance further compliments the access to our content for the overall digital consumers”.

 As part of the partnership, Airtel customers to get exclusive access to premium content of ZEEL: Over the next three years, curated/select video content produced by ZEEL, including TV shows, original series and movies will be available exclusively on Airtel’s digital properties like Airtel TV, in addition to ZEE’s digital platform, ZEE5.   

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, “Our endeavour is to build a world-class content ecosystem by partnering all players and enable a differentiated digital entertainment experience for our customers. In Airtel TV, we have built a solid digital platform to curate top content from India and across the world and offer it to customers at one place. We are extremely pleased to announce this exclusive partnership with ZEE and look forward to collaborating with them to unlock the potential of their vast content catalogue.”

Both partners aim to drive proactive curation of content to offer a highly customized and differentiated experience to their customers. In particular, there will be a strong focus on curating regional content, leveraging the strong regional portfolio of ZEEL.  Both partners will also drive joint development and marketing of innovative content solutions for the Indian market and collaborate in areas such as digital advertising.

The partnership is expected to deliver further impetus to the growing video content industry in a 360 degree manner – across artists, creators, consumers. It will also help further accelerate the consumption of video and digital first content for the current millions of users and bring onboard the next 100 million users of OTT services, largely from semi-urban and rural markets.