DTH
Zindagi DTH’s September lineup features powerful women protagonists
Mumbai: While the world is talking about women empowerment in their own ways, Zindagi shows its support to it in the best way by giving the audiences a dive into September with the best women-led dramas. From heart-wrenching tales of love and loss to inspiring stories of resilience, the lineup offers something for every mood and feeling.
To begin with, Zindagi DTH is also set to showcase two new shows. Starting 3 Sept is Koi Chand Rakh, featuring Imran Abbas, Ayeza Khan, Areeba Habib, Muneeb Butt from at 7:30 pm the focus on complicated relationships, about love and enviousness. Followed by Badi Apa, a show featuring Savera Nadeem in the lead. Incidentally, it also marks the show’s eleventh anniversary since its release.
Premiering on 11 September at 9 pm, viewers can tune in to Hum Kahan Kay Sacchay They. This gripping drama stars Mahira Khan and Kubra Khan, portraying the complex relationship between two cousins who navigate childhood trauma and societal pressures. What happens when revenge starts tearing apart sisterhood?
Talking about her role as Mashal in Hum Kahan Kay Sacchay Thay, Kubra Khan said, “I was grateful for the opportunity to play Mashal, a character in a series that’s true to its nature; be it insecurity or vulnerability. Life isn’t just black and white.. It’s also about all the greys that come with it and how each individual deals with their reality in their own way. This was one of the most challenging and multilayered characters I’ve ever taken on. We received tremendous love and appreciation from the Pakistani audience when the show was released, and I am hopeful for a similar response from our Indian viewers when it airs on Zindagi’s DTH services this month. I’m excited for the audience to watch the show and share their feedback with us.”
Starting on 19 September at 6 pm, Yeh Raha Dil will offer a heartwarming tale of love, heartbreak, and forgiveness. Starring Ahmed Ali Akbar and Yumna Zaidi, the series explores the intricacies of human relationships and the power of second chances.
Along with these, the month of September, will also witness the release of Daam starring Sanam Baloch, Aamina Sheikh, Adeel Hussain, Nimra Bucha, Sanam Saeed on 17 September at 7:30 pm and Baaghi starring Saba Qamar, Osman Khalid Butt which will be available for the audiences from 26 September at 7:30 pm.
Tune in exclusively on Zindagi DTH Tata Play (Channel no. 154), Dish TV and D2h (Channel no. 117), and Airtel TV (Channel no. 102) to indulge in these excellent performances by strong and impactful women actors this September.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
