iWorld
Zee5 partners with XroadMedia to ramp up personalised user experience
KOLKATA: Zee5 has onboarded XroadMedia to ramp up its hyper-personalised Video on Demand offerings and social media services. Through this partnership, Zee5 will put to use XroadMedia’s innovative back-end solution, Ncanto, to provide multiple content discovery, recommendations and personalisation use-cases to its users. XroadMedia is a leading specialist in building personalisation services and its expertise will also be deployed to scale up HiPi, Zee5’s new short-form-video platform.
Since HiPi’s beta launch in August 2020, Zee5 has witnessed a massive 30 million new user installs along with 70 million existing Zee5 users upgrading to the short-form-video platform.
Zee5 expansion projects business head and product head Rajneel Kumar said the platform had benchmarked XroadMedia’s solution for a few months and found adoption and click-through-rates on recommendations were significantly higher along with a substantial increase in average time spent by a user.
“Zee5 has always believed in the power of great content and powerful technology coming together to offer the best experience to a viewer. We believe gone are the days of broadcast; even the current trend of viewing audiences in clusters and cohorts will soon give way to individual personalisation. And this is where XroadMedia comes in. XroadMedia’s cloud-based services have also provided us with a higher level of flexibility to serve personalisation use-cases and I’m confident this partnership will heighten our seamless content viewing experience, a feat we take great pride in and work tirelessly to maintain,” added Kumar.
XroadMedia co-founder and CEO Adolf Proidl said the agency is working on several aspects to better streamline the OTT platform, from personalising entire screens in the user interface via creating and managing editorial services, to applying solutions across multiple content types and sources. “We are very pleased with this partnership, as the application of our solution shows how important personalisation is to ZEE5 and I am sure together we will push the boundaries of content discovery and personalisation even further in the future.”
First launched in India in July, Ncanto provides dynamic personalisation of Zee5’s services based on interests and watching behaviour. Additionally, with the help of Piloto, XroadMedia’s advanced business and service management tool, Zee5 can provide an ever-changing user experience by closely following the user’s entertainment journey. XroadMedia’s cloud-based solution also encompasses a dynamic mix of statistical, editorial and user-based recommendations.
iWorld
Samay Raina returns with Still Alive, confronts 2025 controversy in bold comeback special
Comeback set tackles controversy, blending humour with raw storytelling
MUMBAI: Samay Raina is set to release his new stand-up comedy special, Still Alive, on YouTube on April 7, 2026, marking a high-profile return following a turbulent year.
The trailer for the special dropped on April 5, offering a glimpse into what Raina describes as a raw and unfiltered set that leans as much on honesty as it does on humour.
Positioned as a comeback of sorts, Still Alive draws heavily from the controversy surrounding his show India’s Got Latent in early 2025. The episode led to legal trouble, multiple FIRs, and a lengthy six-hour interrogation by the Maharashtra Cyber Cell, placing the comedian at the centre of intense public scrutiny.
Rather than sidestep the episode, Raina leans into it. The special reflects on the fallout and his personal journey through it, blending observational comedy with moments of emotional candour. Early audience feedback from live performances suggests the tone is less about rapid-fire punchlines and more about storytelling with bite.
The special was filmed during his global Still Alive & Unfiltered tour, which ran from August 2025 to early 2026. The tour saw Raina perform across major international venues, including the Madison Square Garden Theatre in New York, a milestone that places him among the youngest Indian comedians to take that stage.
The title itself signals resilience. “Still Alive” is a nod to navigating both legal and public backlash while choosing to remain unapologetically authentic, a theme that appears to anchor the set.
With the special set to premiere online, all eyes are now on how audiences respond to a performance that promises equal parts reflection and wit. For Raina, the message is clear. He is not just back, he is ready to be heard on his own terms.
