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ZEE5 partners with Sahaj to deepen inroads into Bharat

On associating with Sahaj’s network, ZEE5 will now cater to Bharat covering 70,000+ Gram Panchayats, 1,00,000+ Tier III, Tier IV towns and rural locations across 24 states and Union Territories.

ZEE5, India’s most preferred OTT platform and Multilingual Storyteller for a Billion Indians, strengthens its focus on Bharat through a strategic partnership with Sahaj, one of the most trusted 'assisted' rural partner networks working to bring financial and digital inclusion to rural India. Through this first-of-a-kind association, ZEE5 becomes the first OTT player to cater to the country’s underserved rural market at scale, through the retail network established by Sahaj. ZEE5 will design a special ‘Chhota’ pack for Sahaj customers offering 10% discount on ZEE5’s premium subscription.

Courtesy of Sahaj, ZEE5, consumer’s platform of choice for Any Time Manoranjan (ATM), aims to further strengthen its roots into Bharat by leveraging the massive untapped opportunity of over 300 million rural internet subscribers in the country. ZEE5 will now get access to more than 76,000 Gram Panchayats, and over 96,000 Tier III and Tier IV rural locations in 24 states and union territories of Bharat. With a robust portfolio of purposeful, compelling, diverse, and multi-lingual content in over 12 Indian languages, ZEE5 continues to take eventful strides in enticing the masses to subscribe to the platform and consume entertainment anytime, anywhere, and in the language of their choice.

Talking about the partnership, Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India, said, “Bharat is brewing to take centre stage and is on the cusp of driving a robust wave of digitisation in the next 12 months. At ZEE5, we want to fuel this change by democratising access to diverse content across genres and languages. Our partnership with Sahaj is one such step towards strengthening our connection with the entertainment-loving audience from Bharat, providing them with an unlimited and instant access to our premium content library, thereby unlocking unparalleled scale and reach across 24 states and union territories of India. With this first-of-a-kind association, we make an even stronger foray into several of Bharat's newer geographies and its underserved audiences, further cementing our positioning of being the consumer’s platform of choice for Any Time Manoranjan.”

Amit Kumar Singh, CEO, Sahaj said, "Sahaj has been breaking boundaries to accelerate digital transformation in rural India ‘Bharat’ for more than 12 years and has access to 500 million+ rural customers through its wide network of over 100,000 retail outlets, 'Sahaj Mitr'. The limited awareness about digital transactions beyond urban centers has restricted the popularity of OTT content in rural India. The partnership between Sahaj and Zee5 will bridge this urban-rural digital divide and offer rural customers an opportunity to enjoy premium OTT content just like their urban counterparts. With this partnership, Sahaj further strengthens its focus on staying at the forefront of identifying consumer trends in the rural market”

Since its inception, ZEE5 has successfully struck a chord with many Indians within the country. As of December 2020, the platform recorded 65.9 million MAUs and 5.4 million DAUs. ZEE5’s repertoire of content includes Indian and global movies, catch-up content, and live TV, shows, news, music, live events, and much more. With a rich library of over 120+ originals, ZEE5 offers content in 12 Indian languages and in the last three years, it has had 85+ regional launches: 55+ web series, 5 short films, and 25+ movies in Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, and Bengali, across genres. Additionally, the platform offers content in - Hindi, English, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, and Odia.

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