Amazon’s Prime Video and and Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment’s ZEE5 video streaming service, are in talks for a content partnership, reports the Economic Times citing unnamed sources.
The report said that it may take a month for both parties to reach an agreement. Currently, the structure of the deal and different models are being explored. These discussions revolve around the revenue sharing model and whether ZEE5 should be made available as in-app or app-in-app format, reported ET.
ZEE5, which is run by Essel Group via ZEE (Zee Entertainment Enterprises) is an Indian AVOD (ad-based video-on-demand) service. It provided numerous original shows and movies in 12 languages.
Amazon will be adding over 1 lakh hours of local content ZEE5 if they have an agreement. This content will be available in Hindi and 11 other regional languages. It will also be decided whether ZEE5 will be a part of Amazon’s subscription-based Prime Service.
“Acquiring and retaining a customer and running an app is a completely different ball game altogether. Many people are now discovering that it is good to focus on content and partner with other players for distribution. Also, it is not sustainable to have 30-40 OTT (over-the-top) services in a market. Economically too, these kinds of partnerships are better for the consumer,” a top executive of a leading video streaming service told ET.
Amazon has already released Prime Video Channels which makes dozens of channels available to viewers. Viewers can add channels like HBO, Showtime, CBS All Access, Britbox, and many others. This add-on service is currently available in the US only and can be accessed by paying an additional fee. Amazon might introduce this service in India with ZEE5 being the first channel among others it will add later.
ZEE5 seeks to expand into an SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) service and an agreement with Amazon Prime might do exactly that for it.
