Staying ahead in hyper-competitive market requires investing in cutting-edge technology: Zee Entertainment Enterprises CTO

New Delhi: Embracing digital transformation in response to the Covid pandemic, media company ZEE is focused on leveraging cutting-edge technologies to deliver personalised content experiences to global audiences, says Kishore A K, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited.

The pandemic, he said, increased demand for digital channels and streaming services, presenting an opportunity for growth and innovation in the media and entertainment industry.

"...we are investing in advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, leveraging cloud-native technologies and services, exploring new revenue streams through partnerships and collaborations, and investing in new content formats such as short-form and interactive content," Kishore told PTI.

By integrating Metaverse, and NFT (non-fungible token) technology, ZEE can offer its customers an immersive experience, he said. Using data and analytics, it personalises content recommendations and user interface and has also incorporated voice search and control features.

Cloud technology and Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped the company achieve its goal of delivering high-quality content to customers in a secure and scalable manner, according to him.

Excerpts from the interview: Q: Can you tell us more about your digital innovation strategy going forward and how it aligns with the ‘Zee 4.0’ vision? A: At ZEE, our digital innovation strategy is focused on leveraging cutting-edge technologies and data-driven insights to deliver personalised and engaging content experiences to our global audience. Our vision of Zee 4.0 encompasses enhancing user engagement, expanding our reach, increasing monetisation opportunities, and investing in new growth areas such as regional content and emerging technologies.

To achieve these goals, we are investing in advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, leveraging cloud-native technologies and services, exploring new revenue streams through partnerships and collaborations, and investing in new content formats such as short-form and interactive content. Our goal is to establish ourselves as a leader in the industry and a go-to destination for high-quality content while maintaining our position as a leading player in the media and entertainment industry.

Q: To what extent has the pandemic fast-tracked the digital transformation journeys of businesses such as yours? A: As a media company, we have embraced the trend of digital transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, investing in innovative technologies and infrastructure, expanding our offerings, and producing original content.

The pandemic has increased demand for digital channels and streaming services, presenting an opportunity for growth and innovation in the media and entertainment industry.

In this hyper-competitive market, staying ahead of the curve requires investing in cutting-edge technology to meet the changing needs and demands of our audiences.

Q: With competition in the OTT space intensifying, it is a battle not just for providing engaging content but also a seamless user experience. Your views.

A: In the OTT space, providing superior customer experience is essential, and we believe personalisation, responsive design, high-quality content, smooth playback, responsive customer support, and engagement are key components.

By integrating Metaverse, and NFT (non-fungible token) technology, we can offer our customers an immersive experience. Using data and analytics, we personalise content recommendations and user interface, and we have also incorporated voice search and control features.

Interactive features such as polls, quizzes, and games increase engagement, while we also prioritise smooth playback experience by improving playback speed and quality. Our efforts have led to increased customer satisfaction and retention, giving us a competitive edge in the market.

Q: How are you using big data, analytics and machine learning to understand and cater to the needs of your customers better? A: We recognise the importance of understanding and catering to the needs of our customers in the best way possible. To achieve this, we utilise big data, analytics, and machine learning techniques to gain insights into customer behaviour. By analysing customer data, such as viewing history and search queries, we can identify patterns and trends to personalise recommendations and offers that align with customer preferences.

This not only helps predict customer behaviour but also provides a seamless and frictionless customer experience. By leveraging these technologies, we can stay ahead of the curve and continue to meet and exceed our customers' expectations.

Q: Can you elaborate on monetisation of OTT from the AVOD (Advertising based Video on Demand) standpoint? How are you leveraging technology for personalised targeting of ads and branded content? A: We balance user experience and ad revenue generation in our AVOD monetisation strategy through advanced technologies like DMPs (data management platform), programmatic advertising, server-side ad insertion, and contextual advertising. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based content recommendation engines personalise customer experiences and drive revenue.

Personalised recommendations and offers are tailored to customer preferences based on analysis of viewing history and search queries, helping us predict customer behaviour and provide a seamless customer experience.

Q: How can we expect technology to further enhance our OTT viewing experience? A: We have exciting non-linear initiatives in place to enhance the OTT viewing experience for our customers.

Personalised content recommendations and the use of AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) are just a few examples of the technologies we are exploring to improve customer engagement and retention. By analysing viewing history, preferences, and behaviour of our viewers, we can offer tailored content suggestions.

Q: What did cloud technology allow you to do that you couldn’t do before? A: As we moved to cloud, we achieved cost optimisation, increased scalability, and flexibility of operations. AWS helped us achieve reliable and high-performing content delivery to a wider audience by leveraging its global infrastructure and CDN services. With the help of automated solutions and tools, AWS allowed us to better manage and monitor our resources and security.

In summary, cloud technology and AWS helped us achieve our goal of delivering high-quality content to our customers in a secure and scalable manner.

Q: Can you elaborate on the technology pillars that support ZEE5 and how do you manage to cater to the massive subscriber growth ZEE5 has brought in? A: Our platform relies on cloud-native technology and AWS services, such as Elemental Media Services, S3, CloudFront, and container orchestration, for on-demand scaling, content delivery, and security. By using microservices, containers, and distributed databases, we prioritise automation, continuous integration and delivery, and fault tolerance to enhance customer experience.

AWS facilitates our rapid growth by enabling infrastructure scaling and new feature deployment, and we strive to optimise costs and operational efficiency while providing seamless customer experiences.

Q: To keep up with the pace of growth and change in the technology landscape, did you take any modernisation initiatives towards the ZEE5 platform since it was launched in 2018? A: We continuously modernise our platform to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape and changing customer demands. Since the launch of ZEE5 in 2018, we have migrated to a microservices-based architecture, adopted container orchestration, and implemented deployment pipelines for faster feature delivery.

We use cloud-native technologies and services like AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, and SNS (Amazon Simple Notification Service) for serverless computing and event-driven architectures.

Q: In terms of business outcomes, what benefits have you experienced as a result of running on AWS? A: Moving our operations to AWS has brought us significant benefits, including improved business process performance, faster time-to-market for new products and features, and better risk management.

With the pay-as-you-go pricing model and scalability offered by AWS, we have avoided large upfront investments in infrastructure, reduced costs, and effectively utilised our resources.

The agility and scalability of AWS have enabled us to quickly develop and deploy innovative solutions, reducing latency and enhancing availability to better serve our customers.