iWorld
Vodafone Idea offers customers exclusive acess to ZEE5 theatre
MUMBAI: Vodafone Idea, India’s leading telecom operator and ZEE5, India’s fastest growing OTT platform have come together to make ZEE5 Theatre available to its subscribers on the go. With this exclusive offer, subscribers can now tune in to ZEE5 Theatre, a live channel available on Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV app.
The move is in line with the philosophy of Vodafone Idea of offering a range of content choices to the customers. Vodafone Idea customers can now enjoy varied plays across genres such as thriller, supernatural, crime, family drama, comedy and periodic drama ensuring a seamless viewing experience. After discovering the content, customers can access it on Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV app. ZEE5 Theatre will offer nine plays this July and further keep adding two new plays every week on Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 PM.
Some of the RENOWNED plays which customers will be able to watch as a part of this partnership include:
Savita Damodar Paranjape, a psychological thriller starring Shilpa Tulaskar and Vinay Jain
Doll’s House based on Norwegian playwright, poet and theatre director Henrik Johan Ibsen's A Doll's House featuring Swastika Mukherjee and Subhrajyoti Barat
Double Game, a suspense drama starring popular theatre and television actor Kiran Karmarkar and renowned actor-singer Rajeshwari Sachdev
Vaastav, based on the blockbuster crime flick of the same name, Vaastav is the quintessential concoction of ambition, struggle and family emotions starring Puru Chibber and Mitalee Jagtap.
Commenting on the partnership Avneesh Khosla, Operations Director – Marketing, Vodafone Idea Limited said, “We are excited to partner with ZEE5 IN ORDER TO make exclusive theatre PRODUCTIONS more accessible .We intend to reach customers who enjoy Theatre and are not being catered to through other platforms..
Speaking about the association, Manish Aggarwal, Business Head, ZEE5 India said, “The Vodafone Idea association has been truly remarkable and we are now adding some well renowned plays for audiences in this offering. Theatre is an integral part of entertainment and we hope audiences enjoy watching these live from the comfort of their homes. Our strong repertoire of content backed with Vodafone Idea’s reach is certainly to make waves among viewers.”
Vodafone Idea and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited announced a strategic partnership a few months back for ZEE5 – the fastest growing OTT platform in the country. Under the strategic partnership, aimed at driving the growth of digital ecosystem in India, the content portfolio of ZEE5 is available to Vodafone Idea customers on Vodafone Play as well as Idea Movies & TV app. Customers of Vodafone Idea can enjoy the entire content catalogue of ZEE5 thereby providing a seamless viewing experience via multiple devices.
e-commerce
ONDC names Vibhor Jain MD and CEO; Rohit Lohia joins as CBO, Manoj Thakur as CTO
Leadership formalised as open commerce network sharpens focus on scale and user value
The Open Network for Digital Commerce has formalised Vibhor Jain as managing director and chief executive officer, cementing a leadership transition at India’s ambitious open commerce platform as it pushes for scale and relevance.
Jain, who had been serving as acting chief executive officer since April last year following the exit of Thampy Koshy, steps into the role with effect from 7th April , according to a report by The Economic Times. He previously served as chief operating officer at the government-backed network, which enables buyers and sellers to transact across applications through an open, interoperable system.
Setting out his strategy, Jain underscored the network’s differentiated architecture. “Going forward, we are concentrating on what open, interoperable infrastructure can uniquely enable, things that no single platform has the incentive or the architecture to do,” he said.
He added that the immediate priority is to widen ONDC’s impact across user cohorts often underserved by platform-led commerce. “My priority is to deepen the value ONDC creates for the people it exists to serve: kisaans, karigars, kiranas, gig workers, first-time investors, and daily commuters across India,” he said.
Jain also flagged leadership reinforcement within the organisation, noting that ONDC has “a strong and exciting leadership team in place”, with Rohit Lohia joining as chief business officer and Manoj Thakur as chief technology officer.
With over 18 years of experience spanning entrepreneurship and consulting, Jain brings a track record in technology-led, large-scale transformation programmes and internet businesses. At ONDC, he has been closely involved in shaping strategy and operations as the network seeks to move digital commerce away from platform-centric models towards an open network approach.
Before ONDC, Jain worked with JUMO, where he helped set up the fintech firm’s India operations, and led the India launch of Mobike, handling regulatory, policy and operational aspects of its market entry. Earlier, he co-founded Atlanta Healthcare, an air quality management company, and spent more than a decade in consulting roles at Andersen and EY, advising governments on public policy and technology-driven reforms, including work on the Aadhaar programme and tax systems.
The mandate is clear but the path is complex. As ONDC attempts to rewrite the rules of digital commerce, Jain now carries the burden of turning open architecture into mass adoption, in a market still dominated by platform power.
