Originally posted by: azaanabbas
The same can be said for some people with Netflix/Prime... everyone has different tastes. Zee5 is Indian content and many South Asian's could already be subscribed to it or might go for a one month plan.
You seem to be lucky because Netflix is now 13.99 in the USA and Prime is 149 for the year here. ZEE5 is 49 dollars for the entire year. And of course, they have monthly plans that are far cheaper. I'm not saying Z5 is better than the latter, but you have to look at this from a perspective for a audience that barely likes to pay to watch shows. There was such outrage when Aangan was not going to be on YouTube, so imagine if they had to pay such a premium price to watch one show that they don't know they would like.
Netflix has a Pakistani show coming soon, 3 seasons/13 episodes each. And till now some areas of Pakistan haven't warmed up to OTT cause they find it to be too much, since a lot of Pakistan is conservative. I remember on Twitter, people were actually upset abt Pakistan having a Netflix original coming because they thought it'd promote feminism and blah blah. So it's a big gamble for Netflix or Prime or Disney+ to even make a original show from Pakistan. India on the other hand has a huge population that's liberal-sided so even a small group can be a big and profitable.
And in the end I don't think any of these OTT's can help TV industry until the ratings themselves drop. If some dramas that got highest ratings and were different, still couldn't change writers from making a lot of the heavy crap that you see on TV today. Other countries rely on OTT ratings as well to see content making; for example Korea which puts a large chunk of their shows on Netflix, and America too; they count STAR/Hulu/Prime ratings. ARY could care less about how many views this show gets if Baddua is still topping at Monday 8pm locally.
ZEE5 is a small fish in the pond because there's not enough water yet to make a lake, let alone a ocean. I know few people that went from watching a lot of Pakistani shows to so few because of the repetitive concepts, and that's something that's not good for OTT to look at, where the audience would rather switch over to some other countries entertainment. Until ZEE5 makes the right impact and even reaches enough audiences to get interested in OTT, this is the most we will get probably.
Objectively speaking you do get more content on Amazon, Netflix, etc. Zee5 isnât even comparable. The price is minuscule because the content is limited and subpar. In my neck of the woods however, the price is equivalent to Prime and `Netflix; so essentially money down the drain unless you actually like Indian Dramas and films enough to pay for them (and honestly I donât know anyone who does).
The argument isnât whether Pakistani audiences are âwarming upâ to OTT platforms. The point Iâm making is that if Pakistani content must be produced by OTT platforms, Netflix and Amazon would serve the industry better in the long run than Zee5, which has a very limited reach.
Again, Zee5âs reach is extremely limited; the exposure and investment provided by the aforementioned platforms are much more likely to âmake the right impactâ than little ole Zee5.
Iâll be honest, I barely watch Pakistani content. Iâll sometimes catch the first few episodes of a new drama, I almost never watch them in full, because theyâre all pretty crap. From what I have seen the Zee5 ones look marginally better. To make a real impact and actually get a solid mature audience, however, they will have to move towards global platforms.
Or perhaps Pakistani media just isnât ready to produce solid, well written, content. In which case the platform doesnât matter, they may as well stick to TV.
ETA: I get what youâre saying about Zee5 being more affordable in some regions. However when you break down what youâre getting for the money, itâs not value for money. At all. The only people I can see being interested in paying for a zee5 subscription are those who habitually watch Indian TV and films, and those people will normally be from the Indo-Pak region. Outside that region ainât nobody going to pay for it.
ETA: I donât mean any of this in a mean way. Just wanted to say that, as sometimes when youâre writing online it can come across acromonious. We just have different takes/opinions.
Edited by BlueWaters20 - 3 years ago
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