In this paper, we report structural, optical and electrical properties of wide band gap zinc oxide: cadmium oxide-coated films prepared by cost-effective screen printing technique on glass substrates. Characterizations of the samples were carried out with X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectroscopic analysis. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and two probes for electrical conductivity measurement. The XRD patterns show polycrystalline nature of the films. It was observed that ZnO belongs hexagonal and CdO cubic crystal structures for x = 0 and 1% with a preferred orientation along (101) and (111) direction. While the mixed hexagonal and cubic phases were observed at x = 30%, FTIR spectra show the vibrational bands pertaining to ( Zn–O and Cd–O) stretching modes. Absorption spectroscopy exhibits the direct band gap transition, and optical band gap is decreased from 3.21 to 2.41 eV in ZnO:CdO nanocomposite. The Arrhenius plot of DC conductivity shows semiconductor nature with decreasing of activation energy.