by Zee Entertainment Enterprises
ZEE5 - Watch TV Shows, Web Series, Movies & Live TV Channels
ZEE5 is an Indian OTT streaming platform launched in February 2018 by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, one of India's oldest media conglomerates (founded 1992). Headquartered in Mumbai, ZEE5 serves over 100 million monthly active users and is available in 190+ countries. The platform has over 500 million downloads on Google Play. ZEE5's strength is its deep regional Indian content library — 200,000+ hours spanning 12 languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Bhojpuri. It carries the entire Zee TV network catalog (Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, etc.), plus a strong originals slate with critically acclaimed shows. ZEE5 Originals like Abhay, Rangbaaz, and Sunflower have earned high IMDb ratings (7.7–9.6). The platform also offers 90+ live TV channels, making it a cord-cutting option for Zee network viewers. ZEE5 pricing is competitive: the Premium HD plan costs Rs 999/year, Premium 4K is Rs 1,299/year, and a monthly HD plan runs Rs 199/month. A South-focused 4K plan is available at Rs 749/year for regional content lovers. There's also a free ad-supported tier with limited content. Compared to JioHotstar (Rs 499–2,199/year) and Netflix India (Rs 649/month), ZEE5 sits in the mid-range with a strong value proposition for regional content. ZEE5 is best for viewers of Zee TV network shows, Bengali and Marathi content enthusiasts, and users wanting affordable regional entertainment. The originals quality has improved significantly. However, users wanting Hollywood content, live sports, or a polished Netflix-like UI may find ZEE5 lacking — the app's ad frequency and technical stability are common pain points.
Information updated 1 years ago
Zee Entertainment Enterprises
4.4/5 on Google Play Store, India (3,095,161 ratings, verified 2026-09-13) · Last verified 2026-09-13
No — ZEE5 is freemium, not free. There's an ad-supported free tier with a limited content selection, but the full library (originals, live TV, ad-free viewing) sits behind a paid Premium plan. As last published on this listing, Premium HD runs ₹999/year and Premium 4K a step above that; we could not re-verify the exact current 4K price today because zee5.com's subscription pages return a 403 from Akamai's bot protection when scraped, and third-party trackers disagree on the number (₹1,299/year vs ₹1,499/year). Check zee5.com/subscription directly before paying.
ZEE5 is run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), an NSE/BSE-listed Indian media company founded by Subhash Chandra in 1982 and headquartered in Mumbai — so yes, Indian-founded and Indian-run. But 'Indian-owned' needs a caveat: ZEEL's promoter (the Chandra family) held just 3.99% of the company as of the June 2026 quarter-end shareholding filing, per Trendlyne's tracking of NSE/BSE disclosures. On 21 August 2026, ZEEL allotted about 20.9 crore convertible warrants to promoter-group entity Sunbright Mauritius Investments Ltd at ₹126 each, which — if fully converted — could lift the promoter stake to roughly 17.9% on a fully diluted basis (reported by Free Press Journal, Outlook Business, and Business Standard, citing exchange filings). Even after that, promoters remain a minority holder; the bulk of ZEEL's shares are held by foreign and domestic institutional investors and the retail public (FII/FPI ~20%, DII ~8%, public ~68% as of June 2026). So ZEE5 is Indian-headquartered and Indian-founded, but not closely held by an Indian promoter the way some other swadeshi picks are — it's a widely-held public company.
Yes, it's a legitimate, well-known Indian OTT platform, not a scam app. That said, ZEEL (ZEE5's parent) has been through real governance turbulence — including a SEBI order in mid-2026 barring the company and its promoters over a Hyderabad land-pledge case — so it's worth knowing the parent company has had regulatory scrutiny, even though that doesn't affect whether the app itself is safe to install and use. On the app side, the most common user complaints are less about safety and more about billing: several users report auto-renewal charges continuing without clear notice, and refunds being hard to get.
No — this is one of ZEE5's clearest gaps. Unlike JioHotstar or SonyLIV, ZEE5 does not carry live sports, which rules it out for anyone whose main reason for an OTT subscription is cricket or other live events. Its 90+ live TV channels are general entertainment and news, not sports feeds.
4.4★ (4.42 unrounded) from about 30.9 lakh (3,094,709) ratings, checked on the India storefront (gl=IN) on 12 September 2026, package com.graymatrix.did. That's marginally lower than the 4.5 figure recorded on this listing at its last full verification (21 July 2026) — normal month-to-month drift on a large rating base, not a real quality change.
Yes — ZEE5 is available in 190+ countries, which makes it one of the more accessible options for the Indian diaspora wanting Bengali, Marathi, or other regional-language content abroad. Content availability and pricing can vary by region.
200,000+ hours across 12 Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bhojpuri and more — plus the full Zee TV network catalog (Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla and others). That breadth is ZEE5's biggest differentiator against Netflix or Prime Video, which lean international; it's the deepest regional-language library among major Indian OTT platforms.
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