Two of the biggest players of Indian OTT market- ZEE 5 and Amazon Prime Video are in talks for a partnership as revealed by Economic Times. This will be one of kind and first in Indian OTT market deal as
“The two are currently negotiating a platform deal. It may take a month for both the parties to reach an agreement. The discussions are currently around structure of the deal and different models are being explored,”
one of the people said.
If this deal gets final, Amazon Prime Video will add over 1 lakh hours of local content from ZEE across Hindi and other regional languages. It is also expected that ZEE5 could be added or bundled with a subscription to Amazon’s Prime service.
Also, there are discussions around whether ZEE5 content should be made available as an in-app or app-in-app format how the revenue sharing model should be, the second person in the know said according to ET.
While ZEE5 is looking to expand its subscription video-on-demand business, Amazon India has nothing to announce yet. Talking about the past, both Prime Video and ZEE5 have signed deals with telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone for distribution giving OTT subscriptions complimentary with various post-paid or prepaid plans.
Similar to his deal, Amazon in the US gives an optional service called Prime Video Channels under which Prime subscribers get more channels like HBO, Showtime, CBS.
Experts believe that this deal is happening because of the heavy competition Indian OTT industry is facing and getting together will surely help both.
Talking about other names in the market, Hotstar signed a similar deal with streaming service HOOQ allowing Star India-owned service to offer movies and TV series of studios including Warner Bros, Sony Pictures.
Similarly, Times Internet acquired MX Player which is now offering content from Sony LIV, Arre, Bangla OTT service Hoichoi and a host of live channels.
Also Read: Why Times Internet Agreed To Pay Rs 1000 Crore For MX Player?
