Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) has stopped offering ZEE5 Premium subscription with its postpaid plans. The telco recently started offering Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription with select prepaid plans and all the postpaid plans priced above Rs 499. The ZEE5 Premium subscription, which usually costs Rs 999 per year or Rs 99 per month, was offered by Vi for a while with its postpaid plans priced above Rs 499. The basic Vi postpaid plan of Rs 399 never offered any OTT subscription benefit apart from Vi Movies & TV. The Vi postpaid plans for individual users start at Rs 499, and for family users, they start at Rs 598/Rs 649. It looks like Vi has swapped the ZEE5 Premium subscription with Disney+ Hotstar VIP.
Vodafone Idea Removes ZEE5 Premium OTT Subscription Benefit
As mentioned above, Vodafone Idea’s postpaid plans priced above Rs 499 used to offer free ZEE5 Premium subscription. However, it no longer offers this benefit. Instead, the postpaid plans of the telco come with Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription worth Rs 399 for one year. Vi RED range of postpaid plans now come with OTT subscriptions of Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Vi Movies & TV App.
Vodafone Idea has updated the terms and conditions for the ZEE5 Premium subscription on its website. “ZEE5 Premium subscription on above mentioned postpaid plans of rental 499 and above is withdrawn for fresh subscription w.e.f 00:00 10th March 2021.” The term ‘fresh subscription’ is a bit confusing here. It might be possible for Vi to reintroduce the ZEE5 Premium subscription benefit in the coming days after renewing the contract with ZEE Entertainment Limited.