Earlier this week, subscribers of Zee Tamil HD on Astro Channel 232 were greeted with a ‘Cessation of Transmission’ message on the channel. Zee Tamil HD was only introduced last September together with Colors Tamil HD (CH233) as part of the Samrat pack. A representative from Astro has since confirmed with us that the channel was removed from the Astro platform by their channel partner, Zee TV.
It is not very often that channels are removed from Astro, let alone after 6 months. So we decided to do a little digging into the issue and we stumbled upon something rather interesting. While there has been no official announcement on this yet, we can confirm that ZEE5, the online OTT platform that carries all content from the Zee network is now officially available in Malaysia and Singapore.
The ZEE5 app is available on Google’s Play Store, as well as on Apple’s App Store. There is also dedicated apps for Samsung Smart TV’s, Apple TV, Android TV as well as Amazon’s Fire TV. ZEE5 runs on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud and we have had no issues streaming the service on our devices. The service itself includes thousands of hours of Movies, TV Shows and Music Videos across 12 languages. It also comes with over 60 Live TV channels direct from India.
Pricing and Subscriptions
So yes, technicalities out of the way, how much does it cost, and whats free to watch? Most of the TV shows on catch up are free to watch (even without signing up for an account). There is also quite a huge selection of movies that can be watched without any subscription. The catch for the free tier is that you will have to watch a 15-30 second video ad before the show starts.
Subscription starts from as low as RM9.90 a month for the Tamil Access Pack. This opens up all Tamil TV shows, all Tamil Movies, as well as the Tamil and English Channels, including Zee Tamil HD. Subscription also removes all advertising from your account. The monthly All -Access pack starts at RM20.90 a month, and this basically opens up everything on the service, inclusive of over 60 live TV channels. If you opt for the All Access Annual Pack at RM199.90, the price drop down to around RM16.50 a month for unlimited movie streaming, TV shows as well as all the live TV channels. Just for comparison sake, the Samrat package from Astro which included Colors Tamil HD and Zee Tamil HD costs RM10 a month and did not include digital or catch up access.
All subscription packages also allows the account holder to access the content on up to 5 devices at any one time, so you’ll be able to share and binge watch all the content at the same time without any issues. Did we mention that most of the content is also downloadable for offline watching?
Head on over to www.zee5.com for more details, or if you’re interested in signing up for an account. Alternatively grab the app from the Play Store, or Apple’s App Store.
