Ashok Namboodiri y Manoj Mathew de Zee
Zee is interested in investing in local co-productions in Latin America, a strategy that they began in 2017 in the Middle East with good results.
“Latin America is a great region where we want to expand, get local partners to co-produce. Although we sell a lot of content there, now this has changed a bit. Our channel in Spanish, Zee Mundo, was closed during the pandemic, but now we are returning with a co-production model and creating alliances to produce shows. We have many ideas,” said Manoj Mathew, Executive VP and Head of Territory for the Americas and Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey (MENAPT) of Zee Entertainment Middle East and Ashok Namboodiri, Chief Business Officer of International Business of Asia Today Limited (zee).
They added that since they believe in their stories, they are willing to finance between 30 to 70% of the co-production. “The partners we love to work with are independent production houses because they have a lot of creativity. We want local producers and creators to lead the production process. We don’t want to reach the Latin American market to make cast and crew decisions, that decisions belong to the production partner. That is the value that they provide.”
Zee has a presence in 170 countries with five offices worldwide. They highlighted that under the co-production model they have already made five to six and hope to reach 10 by March 2023.
They believe that broadcasting and streaming are methods to reach the audience, but the future is storytelling. “People don’t look for a channel, people look for content,” they emphasized.
