The year is nearly up and ZEE5 Global Chief Business Officer Archana Anand is headed into 2023 in bullish mood. The South Asian streamer, which operates in 190+ territories including the U.S.
and offers about 200,000 hours of content, is coming off “our best year yet, and we’re ending it on a high,” she says. In a wide-ranging interview with Deadline, Anand explains how India’s biggest film in memory, RRR, helped catapult the service to new heights globally this year, with a 209% year-on-year increase in consumption from January to October 2022 recorded.
In the U.S., it has become the streamer of choice for many Indians and South Asians. Archana also reveals South Asian content is picking up audiences where even Bollywood hasn’t, with languages such as Telugu dominant among ZEE5 Global subs in the U.S. (a 20% share of local subs) and Australia (13%).
While the Telugu language RRR has evidently led the charge, other non-Hindi titles such as Valimai, Karthikeya 2 and Fingertip have also driven viewing.
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