There is a constant chatter around the declining trend of Pay TV with several reports indicating a fall in subscriber and revenue numbers.
Kartik Mahadev , Chief Marketing Officer- Content SBU Brand Management, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, thinks otherwise.
Speaking at the e4m Business Leaders Retreat , Kartik said that TV viewership grew by 5.3% in FY24 and by 0.7% in Q1 FY25 compared to the same period previous fiscal.
During his presentation, he shared data insights and said there are 890 million individuals who have access to TV in India and 85% of them tune in every week. The average time spent on TV is 19.4 hours per week, he said while quoting BARC data.
He also asserted that the concurrency of Zee’s linear TV channels is much higher than that of OTT platforms. As per his presentation, viewers on Zee’s linear channels are 110 million at any given minute while for single-day events like IPL 2023 telecast on JioCinema (32 million viewers) and T20 Men’s World Cup 2024 (53 million), it is lower than that.
He said “Zee appeals to many Bharats that exist in India” and that it has 722 million unique audience which is the highest for any entertainment network.
Kartik said that Zee is the only network to have launched eight successful channels in the last five years. Zee designs content for many cultures and many Bharats where one size cannot fit all. It reaches diverse individuals through characters that resonate with their subcultures and speak in their language/dialect.
In his presentation, he further said that the Zee network reaches the most number of female viewers in India.
According to him, the GEC viewer is changing and so is the content expectation from the viewer.
He also threw light on the various female protagonists across its regional channels who stand out as original influencers engaging millions of people on TV and on social media and he termed them ‘Dilfluencers.’
