ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • Zee5 unveils ‘India Ka Binge-a-thon’ campaign to celebrate fourth anniversary

    Zee5 unveils ‘India Ka Binge-a-thon’ campaign to celebrate fourth anniversary

    Mumbai: Video streaming platform Zee5 has announced the launch of ‘India Ka Binge-a-thon,’ a three-day campaign to celebrate its fourth anniversary between 12 and 14 February.

    This initiative is aimed at the platform’s long-standing goal of entertainment inclusion where consumers will get access to the top premium web series and movies across languages for three days for free.

    Titles such as “Uri: The Surgical Strike” and “Abhay” in Hindi, “Mulshi Pattern” in Marathi, “Lalbazaar” in Bangla, “Geetha Govindam” in Telugu, “Ka Pae Ranasingam” in Tamil, “Madhura Raja” in Malayalam, and “Kalidasa Kannada Meshtru” in Kannada, amongst a host of others, will be freely available as a part of the celebratory offer.

    Also in store for the upcoming event is another offering called ‘Zee5 Spark,’ which in partnership with Indie producers and digital content creators, aims to bolster the platform’s AVOD content library. ‘Spark’ has been launched to attract new viewers, especially the youth, onto the platform for a long-term duration with short films and web series that are free to stream.  

    “With OTT growing in prominence, content consumption got democratised, paving the way for creators to explore and expand the narrative with newer concepts and genres that have led to several consumer cohorts consuming differentiated content on the platform,” observed Zee5 CCO Hindi originals Nimisha Pandey. “Factors such as the shift in demand for authentic stories, the success of women-centric narratives, growth of family entertainment, genre-bending shows and acceptance of characters with multiple layers and shades have ushered in many industry firsts in content.”

    In addition to popular series such as “Holiday,” “Ready 2 Mingle,” “Dude,” “The Great Indian Wedding,” and “Happily Ever After,” short films like “Baarish Aur Chowmein,” “Half Full,” “Khujli,” “Kheer” and others, starring popular actors Taapsee Pannu, Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta and Jackie Shroff will be available for AVOD users under Spark.

    Over the past 12 months, Zee5 has become the highest growing OTT platform in India as per AppAnnie’s latest industry report. The platform claims to have 101.9 million monthly active users (MAU) and 9.6 million global daily active users (DAUs) as of December 2021. Zee5 users watched an average of 201 minutes of content per month during the last quarter, with the platform releasing 51 shows and movies, including 11 originals during the period

    “We are entering our fourth year with great enthusiasm and vigour, riding high on the last one year which has been a blockbuster,” said Zee5 India CBO Manish Kalra. “The response from the last four years of our operations has been phenomenal as we trotted into new markets, partnered with industry stalwarts, introduced many firsts and moved a little closer to our goal of deeper regionalisation and entertainment inclusion.”

    “This year is going to be even bigger and better as we expand our content library further with premium offerings, improve our user experience, activate more value-driven partnerships, and set new industry standards. As the multilingual storyteller of India and Bharat alike, we will continue to focus on entertainment inclusion by producing relatable and entertaining content, keeping our diverse audience in mind,” he further added.

  • discovery+ announces new original ‘Dark Mysteries- Anjaan Kahaniyaan’

    discovery+ announces new original ‘Dark Mysteries- Anjaan Kahaniyaan’

    Mumbai: Video streaming platform discovery+ is set to premiere its new original “Dark Mysteries – Anjaan Kahaniyaan” on 11 February. The six-part series unravels unexplained mysteries based on first-hand accounts of those who claim to have experienced black magic, reincarnations, curses, hauntings, possessions and other supernatural phenomena.

    “Each episode will focus on exploring the phenomena through first-hand experiences, locals’ views, and opinion from relevant experts including psychologists, parapsychologists, historians, psychics and paranormal analysts to explore if there is any plausible ‘truth’ to these often-unnerving stories,” said the platform in a statement.

    Some of the stories explored include paranormal experts hunting ghosts at the abandoned Lambi Dehar mines in Uttarakhand, live exorcisms of dangerous spirits at Harshu Dham in Chainpur (Bihar) often known as the temple of the possessed, mystery village of Kuldhara where 1500 residents are said to have left without a trace, and accounts of children who seem to have clear and sharp memories of previous lifetimes.

    “Paranormal and supernatural as a genre have been often enjoyed by viewers across the country and our latest original production ‘Dark Mysteries’ supported with expert opinions will give them more insights to understand the context and working of these occurrences,” said Discovery Inc original content head – South Asia Sai Abishek. “The show is an amalgamation of entertainment and science, thereby adding onto our repertoire of compelling and spellbinding stories for the audience.”

  • Dish TV’s Watcho registers 45 million users in India

    Dish TV’s Watcho registers 45 million users in India

    Mumbai: Dish TV’s India’s OTT platform Watcho has achieved a 45 million cumulative user base in India, the company said in a statement. Launched in 2019 with the brand proposition of ‘Fun Fatafat,’ Watcho brings original and on-the-go snackable video content across genres and formats (including live TV) to its viewers.

    The platform currently provides over 35 original shows, 300 exclusive plays, and 100 live channels in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu.

    So as to recognise and reward the emerging talent pool across the country, Watcho allows users to create and showcase their content on its user-generated content platform – Watcho Swag. To this end, it recently collaborated with the India Film Project (IFP) for its 11th season, becoming the exclusive platform for participants to exhibit their work

    “When we embarked on the journey of providing on-demand quality content with the launch of Watcho, we wanted to supplement our DTH user viewing experience. Today, Watcho is serving exciting exclusive content to all its users, and at the same time, it is also offering Live TV services on the go to DishTV and D2H customers,” said Dish TV India executive director and group CEO Anil Dua. “It is also fast emerging as the preferred platform for users to showcase their talent.” 

    Watcho’s content repertoire includes original shows like “Gupta Niwas,” “Jaunpur,” “Papa Ka Scooter,” “Aghaat,” “Cheaters – The Vacation,” “Sarhad,” “Mystery Dad,” “JaalSaazi,” “Dark Destinations,” “It’s My Pleasure,” “4 Thieves,” “Love Crisis,” “Ardhsatya,” “Chhoriyan,” and “Rakhta Chandana.” There are also original influencer shows like “Look I Can Cook” and “Bikhare Hain Alfaaz.”

    “Engaging and short-format content has always been an unmet need for viewers across the country, particularly amongst millennials and GenZ who are at the forefront of consumption as well as creation. Riding on these trends, Watcho continued to gain strength with a strong semi-urban presence in addition to significant tier-1 visibility,” remarked DishTV & Watcho corporate head – marketing Sukhpreet Singh. “The app has notched up more than 45 million user base so far. We are enthused with this new milestone it has achieved in a very short time, and we intend to continue to work towards making it the first choice for our users.”

  • Prime Video Channels introduces hayu as part of its offering

    Prime Video Channels introduces hayu as part of its offering

    Mumbai: Amazon Prime Video has partnered with NBC Universal to offer its streaming service hayu to its subscribers in India as a part of Prime Video Channels. Prime members can subscribe to hayu at a price of Rs 999 per year, said the statement.

    hayu is already available through Prime Video Channels in other countries including the UK, Canada, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

    “Since its launch in India last year, Prime Video Channels has received a tremendous response from Prime Members who are delighted with the convenient access to a wide library of content, from multiple streaming services,” said Amazon Prime Video India head of Prime Video Channels and sports Chaitanya Divan. “Continuing with our philosophy of  working with like-minded partners who are equally invested in super-serving customers and offering them quality, consistent entertainment experience, we are excited to collaborate with hayu. hayu offers some of the most popular unscripted shows to audiences globally and their arrival on Channels in India parallels the growing consumer interest in unscripted content on our service. We are certain that our consumers will love viewing their premier reality shows.”

    hayu is a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service that offers a wide variety of unscripted shows in the English language including “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” “The Real Housewives,” “Vanderpump Rules,” “Below Deck,” “Top Chef” and “Family Karma.”

    “We are thrilled to make hayu even more accessible to Indian super fans,” commented NBCUniversal managing director direct-to-consumer – global Hendrik McDermott. “Already the premiere destination for must-watch content in 29 markets globally, we are delighted to continue our collaboration with Prime Video Channels, by adding another partnership as part of our ongoing, successful expansion strategy.”

  • Sharechat to acquire short video platform MX Takatak for $600 million

    Sharechat to acquire short video platform MX Takatak for $600 million

    Mumbai: Indian social media platform Sharechat has agreed to buy Times Internet-owned short video platform MX Takatak in a $600 million deal that includes a combination of cash and stock.

    MX Takatak is slated to be rebranded in six months and the target for the closure of the deal was at the end of this month, according to Moneycontrol.

    The report indicated that the value of the acquisition may change towards the closure of the deal.

    Mohalla Tech, the parent company of Sharechat, will also integrate 180 employees under MX Takatak as part of the acquisition. It currently employs over 2000 people. 

  • Disney+ Hotstar crosses 45.9 million paid subscribers

    Disney+ Hotstar crosses 45.9 million paid subscribers

    Mumbai: The Walt Disney Company on Thursday reported its earnings for the quarter ended 1 January 2022. The media company’s direct-to-home revenues increased by 34 per cent to reach $4.6 billion. This increase was driven by higher subscriber growth and increases in retail pricing.

    Disney+ added 11.7 million subscribers during the quarter taking its total base from 118.1 million to 129.8 million. The company also revealed that it had 45.9 million Disney+ Hotstar subscribers. In comparison, Disney+ domestic subscribers (US+Canada) stood at 42.9 million and international subscribers excluding Hotstar stood at 41.1 million at the end of the quarter.

    The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) for Disney+ stood at $4.41. The ARPUs for Disney+ Hotstar increased from $0.98 to $1.03 due to launches in new territories with higher average prices, partially offset by a higher mix of wholesale subscribers.

    However, the DTC business also saw a higher operating loss at $0.6 billion (27 per cent increase) driven by higher programming, production, marketing and technology costs at Disney+.

    Overall, Disney posted revenues of $21.8 billion registering a growth of 34 per cent year-on-year. The company’s media and entertainment distribution business brought in about $14.58 billion in revenues registering a growth of 15 per cent YoY. Its operating income was $808 million a decrease of 40 per cent over the same quarter in the previous year.

    Disney’s linear network business posted revenues of $7.7 billion and content sales and licensing revenues stood at $2.4 billion. Disney’s linear network business remained essentially flat over last year.

    International channel revenues for the quarter decreased by four per cent to $1.6 billion reflecting the closure of channels across its markets. The growth in channels that continued to operate in the current and prior year quarters was due to an increase in advertising revenue driven by higher rates.

    “We’ve had a very strong start to the fiscal year, with the launch of a new franchise with Encanto, and a significant increase in total subscriptions across our streaming portfolio to 196.4 million, including 11.8 million Disney+ subscribers added in the first quarter,” The Walt Disney Company chief executive officer Bob Chapek. “This marks the final year of The Walt Disney Company’s first century, and performance like this coupled with our unmatched collection of assets and platforms, creative capabilities, and unique place in the culture give me great confidence we will continue to define entertainment for the next 100 years.”

  • All set to create franchises for multiple seasons in 2022: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar

    All set to create franchises for multiple seasons in 2022: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar

    Mumbai: MX Player has had a strong start to 2022 with two of its shows “Campus Diaries” and “Bhaukaal 2” crossing 100 million views metric in a short period of time. The platform is all set to release its third MX Original for the year “Raktanchal 2” and expects the show to perform equally well, with a third season already under production.

    “2021 was a fantastic year for us as we got many back-to-back hits,” says MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar. “The next big thing for the OTT is to create franchises for multiple seasons and we’re going to create some serious franchises this year.”

    Talwar reveals that MX Originals including “Ek Thi Begum,” “Indori Ishq,” “Matsya Kaand,” “Raktanchal” and “Aashram” all have crossed the 100 million views mark and most are in development for multiple seasons. “Aashram” and “Raktanchal” are in development for a third season.

    “The exciting part was how quickly its new shows ‘Campus Diaries’ and ‘Matsya Kaand’ crossed the 100 million mark,” says Talwar. “The time it took for these shows to reach 100 million views was uncomprehendingly fast. ‘Campus Diaries’ achieved those numbers in less than three weeks while ‘Matsya Kaand’ got there in less than four.”

    The platform has found success in the regional OTT piece that several video-on-demand platforms have found difficult to crack. Two of its regional shows “Queen” in Tamil and “Samantar” in Marathi have also achieved 100 million views.

    “‘Queen’ and ‘Samantar’ have crossed those milestones but by attracting audiences in multiple languages, say in Marathi plus Hindi or Tamil plus Hindi. We’re doubling down on these two languages – Tamil and Marathi – since we’ve seen some success and you’ll see a couple of good Marathi shows coming out this year,” says Talwar. The platform has also dubbed “Matsya Kaand” in Punjabi.

    On using the 100 million views metric to evaluate its shows, Talwar says, “In the case of YouTube if the videos garner four million views, then people call it a big hit. But, our shows are much longer so we don’t count 30 seconds of watch time as a view. If YouTube is the biggest video platform available to consumers, then we’re probably the second to have that kind of reach and distribution. Of course, a big advantage for us is distribution and low barrier for entry but if you don’t put out the right piece of content then it won’t work well.”

    According to Talwar, the consumers have also given a thumbs up to the content on the platform. “Nobody will give me the go-ahead to make a second season for a show if season one has not worked well. The fact that we’ve commissioned multiple new seasons of most of our shows (Samantar, Ek Thi Begum, Matsya Kaand, Campus Diaries, Bhaukaal, Raktanchal, Aashram) means that the consumer is coming back to watch it,” he adds.

    Like most OTT platforms MX Player is increasing its content investments for 2022 and is filling the production pipeline of shows until 2024. “There’s no doubt in our mind that the consumer chases good shows and the increasing competition means that we’re definitely doubling down on our investments,” he sums up.

  • One Digital Entertainment launches new short film on content platform Blush

    One Digital Entertainment launches new short film on content platform Blush

    Mumbai: Digital media company One Digital Entertainment has released a new short film titled “Sunkissed – Babyface” on its recently acquired content platform – Blush. The short film directed by Dixshant Gaurav Kala depicts the love journey of a young couple and how their love marriage falls apart with all the toxicity and domestic violence.

    The film tells a story of a girl next door who builds all whims and fancies around her marriage and continues to be a victim of domestic violence without voicing it. The film takes a visually poetic tone to explore emotions with purity and subtlety. It gradually expands to show the dilemma of love and relationship create and how it affects our ability to choose what is right for us.

    “Unfortunately domestic violence has been part of society for a long time. With the onset of this pandemic, the mental, physical and sexual abuse cases have increased manyfold. In most cases, victims usually refrain from voicing it out and consider it a normal chore and develop the mindset that it would change with time,” said One Digital Entertainment co-founder Gurpreet Singh. “Through this short film, we want to convey to all the victims to stand up and fight this for themselves. We are glad to launch this short film brilliantly directed by Dixshant on our recently acquired content platforms Blush.”

  • Broadpeak to showcase mobile-first CDN Solution at Mobile World Congress 2022

    Broadpeak to showcase mobile-first CDN Solution at Mobile World Congress 2022

    Mumbai: Broadpeak has announced that it will exhibit the latest content delivery network (CDN) innovations with customers and partners, face to face, at Mobile World Congress 2022. 

    At the show, Broadpeak will highlight its mobile-first CDN solution that optimises video streaming over mobile — in particular, 5G — networks, ensures an exceptional quality of experience (QoE) for subscribers on every screen, and enhances the energy efficiency of streaming, said the c

    Company in a statement.

    “Video consumption on mobile devices has seen explosive growth over the last few years, and service providers need efficient solutions for delivering video services over mobile networks, including 5G,” said Broadpeak CEO Jacques Le Mancq. “Broadpeak is leading the way to the next generation of video streaming with a powerful, environmentally sustainable CDN solution. We look forward to showcasing our expertise in video streaming over 4G and 5G networks at Mobile World Congress.”

    Broadpeak will show advanced functionalities and far-edge cloud capabilities for 5G streaming to help video service providers deliver an outstanding experience to mobile, fixed wireless, and wireline access users, said the statement.

    Demonstrations will include:

    Network-controlled ABR streaming: Broadpeak’s S4Streaming significantly improves video streaming QoE in mobile networks, with network-controlled adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming technology that handles bandwidth measurement and video segment selection on the server-side. At Mobile World Congress 2022, Broadpeak will showcase how S4Streaming allows operators to take control over video streaming for various use cases, such as mobile traffic peaks, fixed wireless access, and low-latency content.

    Multi-access edge computing (MEC) and deep edge caching: Broadpeak offers far-edge cloud CDN capabilities dedicated to mobile and 5G streaming. At Mobile World Congress, Broadpeak will demo innovative edge caching functionalities, such as 5G and MEC integration, multicast ABR in contribution mode, and edge CDN orchestration (dynamic caching VNF/CNF placement). By streaming video content from the far edge of the mobile and 5G network, service providers can deliver low-latency video streams, reduce congestion, and provide faster startup times, all without rebuffering.

    Maximising the Value of 5G Networks

    Broadpeak’s mobile-first CDN allows service providers to keep costs under control while also maximising the value of their 5G network. With Broadpeak’s solution, communication service providers can increase the value of their 5G CDN by offering a ‘smart pipe’ to third-party service providers for the delivery of direct-to-consumer content with a premium quality of experience. Broadpeak’s solution leverages state-of-the-art open caching, geo-targeted ad insertion, and multicast ABR technologies on display at Mobile World Congress 2022.

    Bringing Energy Efficiency to Streaming

    Broadpeak’s advanced CDN enables service providers to build more environmentally sustainable video delivery networks. With Broadpeak’s sustainable approach to video streaming, service providers can drastically reduce power consumption. Broadpeak’s CDN leverages multicast transmission and platform mutualisation technology (multi-purpose and multi-tenancy), virtualisation (dynamic placement), and power-efficient software/hardware integration.

    Broadpeak will also be part of:

    1. AWS Partner Village, with Broadpeak highlighting how it helps content providers deliver the most engaging streaming experiences on 5G with AWS Wavelength.

    2. Intel’s Front Row Experiences, with Broadpeak showing how its advanced CDN can run on a multipurpose telco edge cloud platform.

  • Amazon appoints Vivek Srivastava as head of partnerships Prime Video Channels, India

    Amazon appoints Vivek Srivastava as head of partnerships Prime Video Channels, India

    Mumbai: Amazon has appointed Vivek Srivastava as head of partnerships for Prime Video Channels, India. Amazon had launched Prime Video Channels in India in September 2021.

    In his previous role, Srivastava was with Times Network as president strategy and operations, digital and broadcast.

    He has two decades of experience with most of it in the broadcast sector across business planning, programming strategy, content acquisition and syndication, distribution strategy and planning, international business, audience behaviour and research, digital marketing and integrated communication.

    Srivastava was previously associated with Viacom18 as head of digital and commercial for their flagship GEC Colors. He has also had a stint with TAM Media Research.