ZEE5 partners with Malaysian telecom operator Celcom

ZEE5, the largest over-the-top (OTT) digital entertainment platform for language content, has entered into a partnership with Malaysia’s premier telecom operator Celcom. The partnership, according to a top company executive, will provide Celcom customers with a secure and convenient payment mode, through Apigate’s direct carrier billing API (application programming interface), to subscribe to ZEE5’s content bouquet.

Amit Goenka, CEO, ZEE International and ZEE5 Global, said, “We have an extremely aggressive global roll-out plan charted out for ZEE5 over the next fiscal and ensuring we have the most relevant partnerships in place is a key element of that. Malaysia is a key focus market for us, given its huge affinity for Indian and South Asian content and growing appetite for online video content. We will soon be launching content in international languages, too, including Malay, and we are extremely glad to partner with a key local operator like Celcom to jointly grow the opportunity in this market.”

ZEE5, which is a part of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), offers 1 lakh hours of Indian movies, television (TV) shows, news, videos and exclusive originals. The content is offered across 12 languages including Hindi, English, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri and Gujarati. It also offers over 60 popular live TV channels including ZEE’s best-loved channels.

Archana Anand, chief business officer- ZEE5 Global, said, “As we rapidly expand our partnerships across the globe, we’re happy to announce Celcom as our first partnership in the South East Asian region. We’re already seeing a strong response in Malaysia and partnering with a leading telecom operator like Celcom will enable us to quickly scale up awareness and access to ZEE5 among their huge customer base.”

Zoran Vasiljev, chief executive officer, Apigate, said, “Online video streaming is a booming opportunity and we are excited to partner with a fast-growing platform like ZEE5 to enable their global expansion starting with Celcom in Malaysia.”