MUMBAI: Zee is looking beyond the small screen to make its growth story bigger. Zee <a href="https://comicvibe.com/sm-entertainment-expands-china-push-with-tencent-music/” title=”SM Entertainment Expands China Push With Tencent Music”>Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) is stepping up its focus on sports, animation, VFX, gaming and other emerging content businesses as changing viewing habits create new opportunities beyond its traditional television operations.
In his message to shareholders in the company’s FY26 annual report, CEO Punit Goenka said new-age segments such as digital media, gaming, animation and VFX are increasingly driving growth. The company is looking to build a more diversified portfolio and capture a larger share of what Goenka described as the “attention economy”.
The expansion will also cover micro dramas, kids’ programming and live entertainment, with Zee expecting these newer formats to create additional growth avenues alongside its established businesses.
Animation and VFX are emerging as a particular focus. ZEEL has partnered with PhantomFX, an animation and VFX studio, to strengthen its content creation capabilities in areas including kids, mythology and fantasy. Goenka said the partnership could help Zee build stronger intellectual properties in an animated content market that is seeing rapid growth.
Zee is also widening its sporting footprint. The company has launched four channels under the Unite8 Sports brand and is looking to build a broader sports ecosystem around major sporting properties as well as on-ground initiatives.
Its portfolio now includes international sports rights covering FIFA competitions, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A football leagues.
Goenka said the company’s objective is to create a sustainable sports ecosystem across the country by increasing engagement through major sporting properties while supporting sports through on-ground initiatives.
The company’s digital business also delivered a key milestone during the year, with ZEE5 becoming profitable in FY26.
ZEEL attributed the improvement to a sharper focus on language-specific programming, a stronger content slate and upgrades to the platform’s user experience. The performance comes as Zee continues to expand its digital offering alongside its traditional television network.
Television itself remained an important part of the portfolio. Zee’s network share increased by 60 basis points to 17.4 per cent during FY26, helped by gains in Hindi and other regional markets.
However, the television business continued to contend with softer advertising conditions, with spending from key categories remaining subdued. Subscription revenue received some support from the implementation of New Tariff Order 3.0
Meanwhile, Zee’s wider omni-channel strategy has taken its monthly unique reach beyond 800 million viewers across India.
Goenka said the company expects its newer businesses to accelerate growth while complementing the existing portfolio through greater cross-synergies, signalling a strategy that puts Zee’s future increasingly across multiple screens, formats and content categories rather than television alone.
