Zee5 Launches ZAP, a Privacy-First Advertiser Platform Powered by Saptharushi
CE DESK 
Zee5 has launched ZAP (Zee5 Audience Platform), a proprietary advertiser platform developed in partnership with privacy-first audience intelligence company Saptharushi. The launch is designed to help brands move beyond broad demographic targeting toward intent- and behaviour-led audience activation.
ZAP combines Zee5’s viewing and engagement data with consented behavioural and transactional signals from participating partners. Advertisers can use these inputs to create custom audience cohorts based on category relevance, purchase intent and campaign objectives.
The platform draws on contextual signals from Zee5 content consumption and deterministic signals from sectors including quick commerce and digital payments. This enables advertisers to identify relevant audiences and activate them across Zee5’s content ecosystem.
ZAP is built on a federated data-collaboration model. Underlying partner data remains within each partner’s environment, while collaboration occurs through consented queries rather than moving data between organisations.
Zee5 said the model is aligned with the principles of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) framework, positioning privacy and responsible data use at the centre of its advertising proposition.
The platform will be available across Zee5’s full content offering, including Originals, movies, sports, Free 5, international entertainment and KidZ.
Beyond targeting, ZAP will explore co-branded attention and loyalty-reward formats, particularly around premium content and sports viewing occasions.
Tejkarran Singh Bajaj, Business head – Zee 5 India and AI & 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 & Digital, ZEEL, said, “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 & 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.”
The launch strengthens Zee5’s advertising proposition at a time when brands are seeking more measurable engagement, precise audience planning and privacy-compliant targeting. It also adds an intelligence layer to Zee5’s reach across seven languages, multiple genres and diverse price points.
Zee5 positions the collaboration as an industry-first approach to audience intelligence and activation: “Zee5 brings the reach. Saptharushi makes it addressable.”
