Zee 5 has partnered with audience intelligence company Saptharushi to launch Zee 5 Audience Platform (ZAP), an advertiser platform designed to help brands identify and target audiences using privacy-first data collaboration.

The platform combines Zee 5’s understanding of what viewers watch and how they engage with content with consented behavioural and transactional signals from external partners, including companies in quick commerce and digital payments.

Through ZAP, advertisers can create audience segments based on factors such as category interest, purchase behaviour and campaign objectives, rather than relying solely on broad demographic profiles or predefined audience groups.

The platform uses a federated data collaboration model, under which partner data remains within the respective organisations' systems.

Audience insights are generated through consented queries without transferring underlying personal data between partners. Zee 5 said the model follows the principles of India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) framework.

The partnership will also explore co-branded attention and loyalty rewards for advertisers, particularly around premium content and sports.

These formats are intended to give brands additional ways to engage viewers beyond conventional advertising.

ZAP will be integrated into Zee 5’s advertising offering, which spans its original series, films, seven-language content, free streaming service Free5, international entertainment, sports and children's content through KidZ.

Tejkarran Singh Bajaj, business head - Zee 5 India and AI and innovation, said, “At Zee 5, we are constantly evolving our platform to keep pace with changing audience preferences and the growing needs of brands. Our focus is on building a comprehensive entertainment ecosystem that brings together diverse content, formats and experiences, while creating more meaningful opportunities for brands to connect with audiences. Our offering spans premium SVOD content, Free 5, sports, KidZ, TV shows, Korean and Chinese dramas, anime, micro dramas, news, creator-led content and an expanded English movie slate across languages and formats, catering to varied interests and viewing occasions. With ZAP, we are taking this proposition further through an industry-first approach to audience intelligence and activation. By combining Zee 5's contextual understanding of viewing behaviour with consented behavioural and transactional signals from participating partners, we enable advertisers to move beyond conventional demographic targeting and build more nuanced audience cohorts aligned with their business objectives. By bringing content, scale and audience intelligence together, ZAP marks a significant step towards shaping the future of digital advertising, unlocking new possibilities for brands to connect with consumers in more meaningful, measurable and impactful ways.”

Prashant Shetty, head – advertisement revenue, broadcast and digital, ZEEL, added, “What sets ZAP apart is its ability to translate audience insights into actionable advertising opportunities, while keeping privacy at the centre of the process. It empowers brands with greater flexibility to align campaigns with specific business objectives and engage more relevant audiences across media and campaign touchpoints. The impact of this approach is evident in Saptharushi’s previous deployments, which have demonstrated a significant, multifold uplift in click-through rate (CTR) delivery over campaigns activated against a brand’s existing customer relationship management (CRM) audience. This reinforces the value of more intelligent, insight-led audience activation in driving stronger campaign engagement, improved media efficiency and measurable business outcomes.”

Gowthaman Ragothaman, founder and CEO, Saptharushi, said, “Reach remains the foundation of every great campaign, and Zee 5 offers it across languages, genres and viewing occasions. The next frontier is making that reach addressable: knowing which viewers are genuinely relevant to a brand and reaching them with their permission. Audiences like these are scarce, and Saptharushi was founded on the belief that this scarcity can be solved without anyone giving up their data. Our vision is an open audience economy in which publishers, data partners and brands build audiences together, while each keeps full control of what it owns. We are grateful to Zee 5 for the trust they have placed in us to bring that vision to life on India’s largest homegrown streaming platform. With ZAP, advertisers can build fresh, consented audiences from what people watch and how they buy, across the full breadth of Zee 5. Zee 5 brings the reach. Saptharushi makes it addressable.”