Indian OTT platforms ALTBalaji and Zee5 team up to take on Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime

• ALTBalaji, from the home of Indian television queen Ekta Kapoor, and Zee’s OTT platform Zee5 have announced a content partnership.
• With the partnership, the two platforms will co-create content for users.
• This comes at a time when both Netflix and Amazon Prime are encouraging more and more Indian content on their platforms.

Homegrown OTT platforms ALTBalaji and Zee5 have teamed up to co-create content which will be available for streaming on both platforms. As per the agreement, they will co-create over 60 original Hindi series.

ALTBalaji and Zee5 are backed by large media companies – ALTBalaji is the web initiative of soap opera queen Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms. And, Zee5 is the OTT platform of Subash Chandra owned Zee Group, which has over 45 channels across languages in India.

Both Ekta Kapoor and Subhash Chandra are giants of the television space who lack a similar might in the online streaming space.


Content wars

Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are producing India content, wooing its audiences with path-breaking content. Some of their series like Sacred Games, Leila, Made in Heaven and 4 More Shots Please enjoy the same popularity as top-rated TV shows in India. Hotstar which leads the race with its sports programming and screening of globally popular shows like Game of Thrones, also recently put out an Indian adaptation of the popular US show The Office.

Zee5 and ALTBalaji both have struck a chord with Indian audiences with their Hindi TV series programming. Now, they want to launch Hindi web series together, and catch younger audiences into the net, and move into the sweet spot created by OTT giants.

But in a price sensitive market like India, content is not the king.

Zee5 comes with a subscription plan of ₹99 a month, whereas ALTBalaji offers subscription at ₹100 for three months. Bringing them both together, will bring in savings and convenience to the audience.

OTT giants too have been coming up with schemes that do not cut into the pockets. Amazon Prime offers a monthly plan of ₹129, and recently announced a 50% cashback for those between the age of 18-24. Netflix too, which is the most premium service in the market, announced a ₹199 mobile-only subscription plan.

Here is how much top OTT platforms cost:


“Over time, we have seen a steady increase in viewership of regional original content and this partnership will be a great opportunity for our viewers to enjoy the best of both worlds – the one created by ALTBalaji and us. We believe, this will be a game-changer for both – the industry as well as the audiences,” said Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India.