Showing posts with label Amit Goenka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amit Goenka. Show all posts
Rising costs force OTT platforms to buddy up
8:51 AM
Streaming giants are increasingly sharing content rights to split costs amid shrinking budgets: Industry execs
Javed Farooqui (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; June 19, 2025)
Mumbai: OTT platforms in India are increasingly adopting content rights sharing models to distribute expenses across players amid tightening content budgets as costs rise and profitability becomes a key priority, industry executives.
Content rights sharing works best for event-led properties such as live sports and films, where the immediacy of release matters more than exclusivity, they said. “Films don’t help in building loyalty,” one executive said, “which makes them more viable for this model.”
A recent example is the Tamil film Viduthalai 2, which was streamed on both ZEE5 and Prime Video with a three-month gap between the releases. Prime Video premiered it first, followed by ZEE5. Similarly, the Telugu film Mazaka was co-shared between the two platforms, but with a shorter, 30-day gap; this time, ZEE5 went first. Both titles were distributed by Beginnen Media.
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) sublicensed the digital rights for the 2025–26 India–England cricket series to JioHotstar, despite having its own OTT platform, Sony LIV. The move allowed SPNI to offset part of the cost, while giving JioHotstar access to live cricket content—crucial for sustaining subscriber interest after the Indian Premier League season ended. The India-England test series begins on June 20.
Recently Netflix too inked a licensing deal with SPNI for CID, the long-running Sony Entertainment Television (SET) show, adding legacy content to its catalogue. These developments reflect a growing willingness to move beyond strict exclusivity in favour of broader reach and cost efficiencies.
Industry sources say leading OTT platforms are in talks with Indian broadcasters to license reruns of soap operas and film libraries in a bid to expand their audience base.
“Movie costs are expensive, and licensing models are evolving,” said Amit Goenka, president – digital businesses and platforms at Zee Entertainment. “Production houses are experimenting with new approaches, and we are too. For the first time, we’re trying windowed licensing, where we take the movie asset for the first three weeks, after which it can be sold to another OTT platform. This helps share the cost.”
Goenka added that cost was now a major factor for all OTT players, including the largest ones. “Even the biggest platforms are exploring innovative ways to manage expenses. Since digital revenues now form a significant part of a film’s recovery and profitability, producers must find smarter licensing strategies—and we’re working with them on that.”
Bharat Ranga, managing director of Beginnen Media, said every film can find a platform if the pricing is right and stakeholders are willing to innovate through rights sharing.
“Global streaming giants can collaborate by sharing film rights, especially where there’s minimal audience overlap. Unlike shows, films don’t significantly contribute to building a loyal user base, making them more suitable for content-sharing arrangements.”
He added that big-budget films are unlikely to be shared as they still serve as key user acquisition tools. “But mid-budget films, which often constitute the bulk of acquisition costs, offer strong potential for shared rights models.”
Ranga also pointed out that a similar shift is visible in satellite TV, where many film rights remain unsold, while shows continue to be tightly held due to their subscriber-retention value.
Vikram Malhotra, founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, described content sharing as a tactical, cost-driven strategy that helps reduce acquisition costs and occasionally provides access to high-value content like live sports or tentpole films. However, he warned that the model is not sustainable in the long run.
“It undermines exclusivity—the cornerstone of subscriber acquisition, retention, and platform differentiation,” Malhotra said. “Shared content risks audience migration, especially if it's cheaper elsewhere, and primarily benefits smaller players with limited budgets.”
He added that larger platforms with premium audiences may have more to lose. “Globally, services like Netflix and HBO have been built on exclusive content. While content sharing may work for short-term events, it risks commoditizing content and weakening a platform’s value proposition over time.”
Ranga, however, sees a strategic future for the model. “While many view this as a tactical move, I believe it will remain relevant for at least the next five years,” he said.
“There are two emerging models in this space,” he added. “One is a day-and-date premiere across platforms—which hasn’t been implemented yet. The other is a staggered release, where one streamer gets the premiere window, followed by another. That model is already being tested.”
Licensing models are also getting shorter and more flexible. “Traditionally, Indian platforms acquired movie rights for 10 years. But now, deals are being made for one year, two years, 18 months, or even based on a fixed number of viewings—like 1, 10, or 20. There are many ways to structure deals to control costs,” Goenka said.
OTT platforms script new strategies to cut costs
3:56 PM
Industry is embracing financial discipline through content production benchmarking, say execs
Javed Farooqui (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; June 12, 2025)
India's OTT industry is entering a phase of financial discipline, with leading platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, JioHotstar and ZEE5 undertaking content production benchmarking exercises to manage costs and bring in fiscal prudence, industry executives said.
Platforms have engaged consultant majors like EY, PWC and Deloitte to create content cost benchmarks - to help them allocate resources for various projects more effectively with a clear reference point to assess production costs in comparison with shows of similar scale on other platforms.
"The move reflects a shift towards profitability and operational efficiency, as platforms look to streamline workflows, reduce wastage, and align with global best practices," said a media executive aware of the development.
The cost optimization push comes amid a spike in production expenses of OTT content and increased focus on profitability in a competitive market where subscribers are sensitive about charges and the number of advertisements.
"The rising costs of OTT episodic content - which is created in shorter seasons compared to longer-running television shows - combined with a focus on profitability by OTT platforms as they mature out from the growth phase, has led to increased cost-consciousness," said Ashish Pherwani, media and entertainment leader at EY India.
According to a Media Partners Asia report, the streaming industry in India spent over $2 billion on originals between 2018 and 2024. It is projected to spend another $2.2 billion between 2025 and 2028.
Previously driven by aggressive growth targets, the industry is now focusing on structured spending to ensure sustainable growth without compromising on storytelling quality, executives said.
The CEO of a leading media company said the industry has been conducting production audits for years to ensure that content budgets are spent judiciously and wastage is minimized.
"Production benchmarking, on the other hand, has been prompted by the realization that companies need to reduce losses and move towards profitability by optimizing content spending, which remains the largest cost component for streamers," he said requesting anonymity.
Amit Goenka, president - digital businesses and platforms at Zee Entertainment, said the company has always been judicious with its content investments.
"When international players entered the market, they approached large production houses that quoted fixed prices and began creating content. Now, these players are looking to optimize costs," he said. "They're asking critical questions: how much is going to talent, how much to line production, and how much to VFX... They're asking for detailed breakups."
Goenka said the presence of big stars in OTT shows should be justified by their value to the script. "If the story holds its own, why would I pay crores to an actor just for being there?" he said.
A media analyst noted that India's OTT industry, still at a relatively nascent stage, is maturing, and these exercises reflect a concerted effort to bring order to rising production costs. "India doesn't yet have a gold standard for what it costs to produce a streaming show," the analyst said. "With boards of entertainment companies asking tougher questions, it has become essential for the industry to develop such a framework."
Zee Studios: Umesh Bansal replaces Shariq Patel; Punit Goenka to directly oversee key verticals
8:05 AM
Punit Goenka to directly oversee key verticals, brother Amit to look at original content biz
Javed Farooqui (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; April 17, 2024)
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has created a new organizational structure under which CEO Punit Goenka will assume direct charge of key business verticals, including the domestic broadcast business.
Amit Goenka, who has been spearheading the streaming business, will take direct charge of original content, including movies, besides assuming additional charge of the international broadcast business, enterprise technology, and broadcast operations & engineering. He will continue to report to Punit.
ZEEL, which has four key business segments, namely broadcast, digital, movies, and music, has also elevated key executives. The reorganization is in line with the company's aim of achieving 18–20% EBITDA margin by FY26.
Ashish Sehgal will be responsible for integrated ad sales for the broadcast and digital businesses. In this enhanced role, he will also report to Amit for digital business revenue. He will continue to report to Punit for the broadcast business revenue.
Siju Prabhakaran, who leads the South cluster of channels, will take additional responsibility for the West cluster. Samrat Ghosh, the current head of the East cluster of channels, will take additional responsibility for the North and Premium clusters.
Ruchir Tiwari will continue to lead the Hindi Movies cluster, while Vishnu Shankar will continue to lead Hindi GEC &TV and the FTA segment.
Following the exit of Zee Studios CEO Shariq Patel, Umesh Bansal will lead the movie business. Anurag Bedi will continue to lead the music business and enhance the vertical’s contribution to the company’s bottom line.
The reorganization comes in the wake of the collapse of the merger deal with Sony Group Corp's India entities and the exit of senior executives like Rahul Johri (president-business), Punit Misra (president-content), and Nitin Mittal (president-technology).
The company has decided to lay off 15% of its more than 4,500 employees to reduce costs.
ZEEL Chairman R. Gopalan said the board has reviewed and approved the lean organization structure proposed by Punit, which aims at streamlining the organization and improving efficiencies across the business.
"The strong and capable set of leaders identified for each core business segment in the lateral structure is highly reflective of the company’s deep bench strength and ensures that the company remains well-positioned for the future," he added.
Punit said the new structure encompasses a more resilient team for the organization to ensure agility and collaboration. "Through this restructuring exercise, our aim has been to build an independent and enterprising team led by an experienced set of leaders to drive the company forward."
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