Category: Over The Top Services

  • Epic Digital Originals launches new show ‘Epic Explorers’

    Epic Digital Originals launches new show ‘Epic Explorers’

    Mumbai: Since time immemorial, India has received several keen travelers who came here to attain knowledge and fell in love with the country’s traditions and colors. EPIC Digital Originals has launched a new show, ‘Epic Explorers’ documenting the journey of some of these travelers, and chronicling their experiences of the country.

    The show will explore India’s journey through the eyes of famous foreign travelers who visited the country between 300BCE to 1800 AD. Each webisode will cover explorers like Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta, Megasthenes among many others, and will showcase details about the reasons that brought these travelers here, and which kingdom and era they studied.

    Epic AVP Content and strategy Nisha Thakkar said, “The webisodes are an attempt to showcase our past through the eyes of these explorers to the current generation. At Epic, we are always innovating to bring interesting and exceptional stories to the foreground. Our Digital Originals are a step towards capturing the on-the-go audience.”

    The show premieres on 15 November, every Monday at 7:55 pm on the channel, YouTube, and Epic On.

  • ALTBalaji ropes in 11 brand partners for its show ‘Girgit’

    ALTBalaji ropes in 11 brand partners for its show ‘Girgit’

    Mumbai: ALTBalaji has roped in 11 brands for its latest thriller series “Girgit.” 

    The list of brands includes Josh (short video partner), Viral Pitch (influencer marketing partner), Invisible Gastronomy Bar (hospitality partner), The Nonsense Store (official gaming partner), Sasha Eyewear (official eyewear partner), Bollywoo (fashion merchandise partner), Abhibus (travel partner), Flyrobe  (apparel partner), Storytel (official audiobook partner), Growfitter (fitness partner), and Ferns N Petals (gifting partner).

    With 80 per cent of its audience less than 35 years of age, collaborating with youth-oriented brands will enable both ALTBalaji and the partners to broaden their reach. As these brands cover major areas of interest for the youth, it will also increase the show’s visibility, said the OTT platform in a statement.

    “ALTBalaji has cracked the code to youth engagement. This is evident from multiple success stories with its previous shows as well as our ongoing shows,” said ALTBalaji SVP for revenue and marketing Divya Dixit. 

    “This multiple brand association model for the promotion of Girgit is a new experiment that looks to be working wonders for ALTBalaji as well as the brands that have been partnered with. We hope to keep bringing about innovations in the marketing and promotional strategies that can set a benchmark for other players in the industry as well,” she added.

  • Ormax Media launches tool to track performance of 16 OTT platforms

    Ormax Media launches tool to track performance of 16 OTT platforms

    Mumbai: Media consulting firm Ormax Media has announced the launch of an ott brand health tracking tool called Ormax Brand Monitor (OBM). The tool is based on syndicated research conducted every month among SVOD and AVOD audiences across India, to track the performance of OTT platforms on key brand measures.

    OBM is currently tracking the following 16 national platforms in India (in alphabetical order): ALT Balaji, Amazon Prime Video, Discovery+, Disney+ Hotstar, Eros Now, Hungama Play, Jio (TV/ Cinema), Lionsgate Play, MX Player, Netflix, ShemarooMe, Sony Liv, Ullu, Voot, YouTube, and Zee5. New platforms will be added when they are launched. Regional platforms can avail of a customised version of OBM for their respective markets.

    “The Indian OTT market has seen rapid growth over the last two years. An estimated 353 million Indians are watching digital videos every month, of which 110 million have access to paid content,” said Ormax Media founder and chief executive officer Shailesh Kapoor. “In a rapidly-evolving environment, keeping a check on the brand’s health carries immense value. Platforms that can build strong brands over the next 12-24 months will reap the benefits for many years to come. OBM is an industry-wide syndicated tool that allows brands to assess their brand’s equity, both positive and negative, every month, and take corrective action via marketing and content production and acquisition.”

    Every month, OBM will report the performance of each brand on key brand variables such as top-of-mind awareness, unaided awareness, total awareness, brand preference, and Ormax Brand Rating (a measure of brand satisfaction). Additionally, the track will cover two new parameters every month, such as quality of UX/UI, genre performance of brands, and social media visibility, among others. Subscribers will get access to the brand performance by key demographic segments, such as gender, age, markets, and audience type (SVOD vs. AVOD), said the statement.

    The first Ormax Brand Monitor report, based on audience research conducted in October, is now available for subscription.

  • PallyCon, Nexdecade offer multi-DRM solutions and scalable streaming services to Toffee app

    PallyCon, Nexdecade offer multi-DRM solutions and scalable streaming services to Toffee app

    Mumbai: PallyCon – a global player in providing multi-DRM SaaS and forensic watermarking solutions to OTT platforms – has entered into a partnership with the Bangladeshi streaming service provider Nexdecade Technology. This partnership protects the streaming content of the Bangladeshi OTT platform Toffee by Bangalink Telecom, against piracy and lets it create user management policies across devices.

    The Toffee app, owned by the Bangladeshi telecom and content major Banglalink, has the highest number of TV channels as well as independent content, such as exclusive videos and telefilms, for Bangladeshi viewers inside and outside the country. The popularity of the app makes its content prone to piracy. PallyCon addresses this issue for the app, said the statement.

    “Nexdecade Technology is the streaming backbone to Bangladesh’s state-owned Bangalink’s most successful streaming app Toffee. By associating with PallyCon, Nexdecade has further strengthened its security infrastructure,” stated PallyCon head of global business Govindraj Basatwar. “Its clients, like Toffee, can now manage their users with fine-grained permission policies using PallyCon’s multi-DRM SaaS. It allows Toffee to maximize the revenue potential of its premium content.”

    Nexdecade is a seasoned player in the Bangladeshi market, manufacturing hardware and software for the broadcasting industry, among other segments. It is one of the biggest companies in the country that provides IT infrastructure for the emerging OTT industry.

    “We wanted to bring onboard our vast network of cloud and streaming infrastructure a global player that could enhance security right from the server to the client device with minimum fuss. We chose PallyCon as it has experience in dealing with international clients which manage apps with millions of users,” said Nexdecade Technology chief business officer Bankim Chandra Roy. “It offers a multi-DRM SaaS solution which processes premium content of any duration with a few clicks of the mouse. It seamlessly integrates popular DRM licensing technologies, like Google’s Widevine, Microsoft’s PlayReady, and Apple’s FairPlay, with OTT apps, thus giving a comprehensive coverage across devices and browsers.”

    Toffee director Abdul Muqit Ahmed knows the importance for piracy-control mechanisms for OTT apps. Muqit said that Nexdecade already gives us speed and robustness to deal with millions of simultaneous users with lowest possible latency. He added, “Now, with the PallyCon advantage, we know that we can reach the last client device without bothering about revenue loss due to leakage of premium content in the piracy market.”

    PallyCon is a trusted brand in multi-DRM management for established as well as emerging OTT players. It adheres to security standards prescribed by major Hollywood studios and consortia of technology companies that define security standards. In a single workflow, PallyCon clients can manage their video assets in an on-demand as well as live scenarios and plug revenue leakage caused by international hacking groups.

  • The Quint records its highest ever revenue of Rs 9.5 cr for Q2

    The Quint records its highest ever revenue of Rs 9.5 cr for Q2

    Mumbai: Quint Digital Media published its results for the quarter and half-year ended 30 September.

    With the increased economic activity, the digital-first news operator said it has witnessed a faster and more wide-scale digital adoption across different sectors of the economy leading to a robust growth in revenue and profitability.

    The company witnessed a strong Q2 FY22 (21 September) performance with the revenues shooting up by over 50 per cent as compared with Q1 FY22 (21 June).  On a year-on-year basis, the revenues increased by over 80 per cent as compared with Q2 FY20 (20 September 2020).

    On a half-yearly basis, the revenues grew by over 90 per cent over the same period during FY 21 and the EBITDA witnessed a positive swing by more than 400 per cent

    The quarter also witnessed The Quint continue its earnings growth with an EBITDA level of Rs 4.50 cr – a complete upturn in performance as compared with Q2 FY21 (20 September) which saw an EBITDA level of Rs 1.03 cr.

    The company also disclosed that the digital properties had nearly 16.03 million subscribers/followers across various platforms at the end of Q2.

  • Nannditaa Kothari joins DigiflixTV as chief operating officer

    Nannditaa Kothari joins DigiflixTV as chief operating officer

    Mumbai: Inception Media’s creative director Nannditaa V Kothari has joined OTT and short video platform DigiflixTV as chief operating officer.

    A vastly experienced professional in creative and business processes in commercial, television and feature film production, Kothari has previously worked with media companies like Big Magic, Viniyard Films, Shashi Sumeet Productions, Endemol among others. She has been instrumental in revamping the programming of the channels as per the audience demand.

    At Inception Media, She produced shows like “Khaki,” “The Reunions,” “Crime Alert.” She also produced shows for Big Magic, “Ullu,” Gujarati film “The Reunion,” to name a few.

    “I have joined DigiFlix with a vision to provide wholesome entertainment – where the entire family can sit together and watch a show on an OTT platform. Our platform will have shows of all genres and with DigiFlix we want to give a fresh perspective to OTT content,” stated Nannditaa Kothari. “So far a certain kind of content has taken precedent and we plan to change that and address the masses in doing so. A large chunk of the TV audience has been neglected or rather overlooked, those are the audience that we want to cater to,” she added.

  • Vistas Media Capital acquires majority stake in Paperboat Design Studios

    Vistas Media Capital acquires majority stake in Paperboat Design Studios

    Mumbai: Singapore-based media and entertainment-related investments company Vistas Media Capital (VMC) on Wednesday announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Paperboat Design Studios, an animation and design company based out of India, for an undisclosed amount. The studio, with more than 250 full-time employees across offices in Mumbai and Hyderabad, will help stride VMC’s growing media ecosystem that spans across film and video content, NFT, gaming and metaverse, said the statement.

    The move reflects VMC’s ongoing commitment to expand its value chain of media, entertainment, and related technologies. This deal comes at the heels of a newly announced film project between Golden Ratio Films (GRF) – a wholly-owned subsidiary of VMC and US-based production company Appian Way Productions last month.

    “Paperboat is a team of passionate, talented, and creative people, with a proven track record in animation and VFX. We welcome them to the Vistas eco-system and hope to have a synergistic relationship to grow the business beyond India across content, gaming, and metaverse,” stated Vistas Media Capital group CEO Abhayanand Singh.

    Established over a decade ago, Paperboat Design Studios has created animation and design work and produced the live-action films for a diverse clientele. The studio also offers VFX and CGI services through its majorly owned subsidiary Occult Studios, based out of Mumbai. Some of the major clients of Paperboat and Occult include Disney India, Discovery Kids, McCann, World Bank, Coca Cola, Cadburys, Nestle, Burger King, and Reebok.

    “We are extremely excited about being a part of Vistas Media Capital as it gives us an opportunity to explore exponential growth across genres and markets,” said Paperboat Design Studios CEO and co-founder Soumitra Ranade. “The capital infused will be used to expand the team, create original IPs, and cross synergise other verticals with them. The business and its offerings are at an inflection point of a massive explosion in the post COVID world, across digital and traditional media.”

    Paperboat has worked on several popular television series including “Bandbudh Aur Budbak” and “Fukrey Boyzz.” The studio also worked on the 2D animated feature film “Bombay Rose,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was the first Indian animation to open for the Venice Film Critics’ Week.

    Currently, Paperboat is working on two international animation projects – “Bhrigu And The Palace of Mirrors,” based on the book with the same name, and “Kabuliwala,” based on the classic short story by Nobel prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

  • ALTBalaji direct subs up 69% YoY; half-yearly revenue at 34cr

    ALTBalaji direct subs up 69% YoY; half-yearly revenue at 34cr

    Mumbai: Balaji Telefilms announced its financial results for the quarter and half year ended 30 September 2021.

    Selling 2.9m subscriptions during H1Fy22 (vs 1.7m in H1FY21) ts streaming platform ALTBalaji reached a current active direct subscriber base of over 1.45m. This excludes subs on partner apps. Direct subscription revenues stood at Rs 34cr vs Rs 24cr. ALTBalaji contributed Rs 39cr to the half-year Group revenues at Rs 141cr

    The platform added nine shows in the half-year taking the overall library to 87. Some of the hits launched in H1Fy22 include Punchh Beat Season two, Broken but Beautiful season three, and Cartel. ALTBalaji continues its strategy of driving deeper audience engagement through differentiated content targeted at mass India.

    During the half-year, the TV business produced 363.5 hours of content across seven shows for four broadcasters. Five new shows have been lined up, and should commence shortly, it said.

    Movie business also resumed production. With five projects in the pipeline, the company said it is making good progress, even as it waits for the availability of theatrical launch windows. Deals across direct to digital are also being explored. As part of its strategy, it continues to control investments in movies and pursue pre-sales and co-production deals where feasible.

    Balaji Telefilms Limited MD, Shobha Kapoor said, “ALTBalaji continues to drive subscription growth. We added 2.9m subscriptions during the half-year. We added nine shows in the half-year and now have a very strong lineup for the rest of the year. Our strategic content-sharing deals will ensure we maintain control on the cash spends while driving overall profitability.”

    Commenting further on the TV and movies business, she added, “Our TV business has shown good recovery in terms of production hours and we hope to improve this momentum as five new shows commence. In the movie business, production for some of the exciting projects are at various stages of completion and we are closely monitoring the availability for theatrical releases as well and direct to digital launches. Overall, the year has started well and we will build on this momentum through the year.”

  • Netflix to make mobile game titles available on App Store for iOS users: Reports

    Netflix to make mobile game titles available on App Store for iOS users: Reports

    Mumbai: Earlier this month, Netflix announced that it is making four mobile gaming titles available to Android OS subscribers worldwide. The company is working on an iOS version however Apple’s App Store policies may prevent it from making these games available via its app.

    App Store policies bar third-party apps from functioning as a centre for games. Netflix’s mobile games are currently available on Android via a dedicated tab on the Netflix app and users are only able to launch the games from within the app. These games have to be downloaded individually from the Google Play Store.

    According to a report by ANI, Netflix plans to skirt Apple’s policies by making its games available via the App Store. This means that the games won’t be downloadable or playable via the Netflix app. Users will only be able to launch them from there.  

    Other platforms such as Facebook have got around these policies by developing a web app for their games. Cloud gaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia Geforce Now, and Google Stadia have been unable to offer their games from within their apps.

  • Chingari collaborates with KLiKK to boost regional content offering

    Chingari collaborates with KLiKK to boost regional content offering

    Mumbai: Short-video sharing app Chingari has announced the collaboration with OTT platform KLiKK, an on-demand Bengali video and music streaming platform owned and managed by Angel Television Pvt Ltd.  Through this partnership, Chingari aims to further boost its regional content offering.

    KLiKK offers a range of original web series, shows, audio and video songs, audio stories, kids animation and short films. The OTT platform boasts the largest collection of Bengali films, all available on the platform in HD format.

    Commenting on the development, Chingari app co-founder and CEO Sumit Ghosh said, “Chingari is one of the most loved apps in the country. Through our various partnerships our endeavor is to offer more choice to our users. KLiKK has a wide and varied mix of intriguing content and we feel that the Chingari users will enjoy the new value addition.”

    Under the partnership, KLiKK will be releasing 20 short format web series in the first year. Some of the titles include “Protibimbo,” “Chick Flick,” “Dream Boutique,” “Jighansha,” “Roopkathar Radio,” “Next,” “Taki Tells,” “Kalimpong Krimes,” “Khelaa Ssuru,” “Gangulys Wed Guhas,” and “Danny Detective Inc.” The app will also offer exclusive content and film premieres at regular intervals to Chingari users.

    “In a short span of time KLiKK has gained immense popularity with the audience. Some of our web series have gained popularity and people are keenly looking forward to the next season. Even the audio story category is receiving a very enthusiastic response,” stated founder promoter of KLiKK Vikash Tantiya. “We are pleased to get on board with Chingari. It will be a win-win proposition for the users. Chingari users will get access to the content bank that we have to offer and we will be able to reach a wider audience base”.

    Chingari app co-founder & COO Deepak Salvi added, “We are very excited to have KLiKK on board. It is an interesting time for us at Chingari and we are happy to provide a wide range of entertainment to our users. Even our content creators will have something unique to work with the addition of KLiKK content.”