Arabic video on demand platform
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) is a global media and entertainment company with a presence in television broadcasting, movies, music, live entertainment and digital businesses. The group is available in 173 countries and reaches 1.3 billion people every day. ZEEL has more than 260,000 hours of television content for users served through 39 domestic and 39 international channels and over 4800 movie titles depicted in various languages. Apart from television content, the company owns the Zee Music label, movie production company Zee Studios as well as live events and digital businesses.
In the MENA region, ZEE has channels such as ZEE TV, ZEE Cinema, and television that caters to the south Asian diaspora. It also caters to Arabic audiences with dedicated Arabic content on Zee Aflam and Zee Alwan channels.
In 2017, ZEE launched its first radio station in the UAE, 106.2 BIG FM, an adult contemporary radio station reaching out to the south Asian community. The same year, ZEE completed 25 glorious years and announced its new brand identity and logo to incorporate its ‘Extraordinary Together’ vision.
Weyyak, the Brand New Video-on-Demand
Z5X Global is the digital wing of Zee and has ventured into the video-on-demand space with Weyyak for Arabic audiences and ZEE5 for the south Asian customers.
Weyyak is a video-on-demand platform and the first product of Z5X Global. It is one of the first platforms in the MENA region offering exclusive Indian and premium Arabic dubbed and subtitled content via the AVOD experience. The OTT service targets the Arabic-speaking viewer and enables him to watch content anywhere, anytime, free of charge. ‘Weyyak’ which means ‘with you’ was launched during Ramadan 2017.
Weyyak depicts one of the biggest content libraries including thousands of hours of exclusive, engaging TV series and films. In keeping up with audience demand, it offers a choice of content – from Bollywood films and Indian television shows to exclusive Egyptian, Syrian and Arabic content.
Weyyak content offering consists of multiple genres in series and films such as romance, drama, horror, comedy, kids’ content, lifestyle shows, culinary and fitness programmes. Some exclusive stories portray historical dramas such as Jhansi Ki Rani, Jodha Akbar, Sultana Razia, Cleopatra, Maleka Fa Al Manfa and compelling women empowerment topics in Gangaa, Doli Armaano Ki and Qadyeat Raae Aam.
Compelling Viewer Response
Weyyak has received a positive response, crossing one million users on several platforms such as Android, iOS, Apple TV and Roku. It has a high retention rate and users spend an average of an hour per day watching its content.
Weyyak aims to reach out to as many consumers as possible and has hence tied up with leading retail brand, Samsung. Weyyak and Samsung together give their users the Smartpack offering wherein consumers have an unlimited range of content at their disposal via the SmartPack platform, including thousands of movies, the latest TV series and a host of premium content on purchase of the new Samsung QLED series TVs, Premium UHD and UHD TVs.
Another mutually beneficial collaboration includes Weyyak and DMS – the digital arm of the Choueiri Group, with the latter as the exclusive media representative for Weyyak. The tie-up aims to focus on getting regional brands and advertisers to leverage Weyyak’s maximum potential as a highly effective advertising and communications platform.
Weyyak has won accolades in the OTT trendsetter category at the seventh and eighth editions of the ASBU BroadcastPro ME Summit and Awards in 2017 and 2018. The video-on-demand platform also won ‘Best Micro Influencer Strategy’ on Instagram at the Social Media Summit 2018 as well as the Youtube Silver Button for reaching 100K subscribers.
