ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • Lionsgate Play to premier Bandidas, a western action comedy film starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz

    Lionsgate Play to premier Bandidas, a western action comedy film starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz

    Bandidas starring Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz is a western action comedy film which tells the tale of two distinctive women in late-19th-century Mexico. Inevitably, the unalike duo burry their differences to combat a ruthless adversary by robbing banks to help the poor Mexicans who have lost their lands. The film will be available on partnered telecom platforms of Lionsgate Play – Vodafone Play, Airtel Xstream, Idea Movies and TV on Friday, 19th June 2020. 

    Bandidas is the brainchild of producer-screenwriter Luc Besson and co-directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning. This western action comedy film is a rare film in its genre to use women as its principal characters and distinguishes itself further by adding hefty dosages of comic relief to the Western formula. In 1890s Mexico, María Álvarez (Penélope Cruz) is an uneducated, daughter of a poor but loving father, who is being forced off his land by a cruel U.S. land baron named Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Sara Sandoval (Salma Hayek) is the highly educated, wealthy daughter of the arrogant owner of the nearby properties and has recently returned from Europe where she attended numerous grade schools and colleges in England, Spain, and France for several years. In one fell swoop, both María's and Sara's fathers fall under attack by the baron, (Sara's father is killed, María's is shot but survives) giving him free rein in the nearby territories. As an act of revenge, María and Sara team up to become bank robbers, stealing and giving back to the poor Mexicans who have lost their lands. Watch this film to know how these brave hearted women seek revenge! 
     

  • Discovery Plus app launches on Amazon Fire TV

    Discovery Plus app launches on Amazon Fire TV

    MUMBAI: Discovery Plus is catching on with passionate communities across the country appreciating and enjoying the world-class content across 40+ genres such as Science, Adventure, Food, Lifestyle among others. In addition to being available on Android, iOS and on the desktop & mobile web, Discovery Plus is now also available on Amazon Fire TV. Within a week of the launch on Amazon Fire TV, Discovery Plus proved its mettle in the living room screen experience by netting an impressive 41.3 minutes per subscriber* per day.

    Discovery Plus also augmented its content to celebrate the launch with a collection of new ‘Big Screen Delight’ titles dropping every day of the week. Over the last week, Discovery Plus dropped marquee content specials including NASA and SpaceX: Journey To The Future, Carter’s War, Space Launch: America Returns To Space, How The Universe Works and Expedition Asia with Ryan Pyle. Additionally, starting today audiences can now stream Nature’s Strangest Mysteries Solved, Mythbusters and season 10 of the very popular show Gold Rush on their Fire TV devices.

    Discovery Plus, emphasizing the big-screen delight experience, launched a new marketing campaign that will run across all 14 Discovery network channels as well as on all key digital platforms. Discovery Plus is also amplifying spends on performance marketing to ensure that all enthusiasts are aware of new platforms debut on Amazon Fire TV.

    “One of the foremost demands put forth by ardent fans of Discovery+ has been met with the launch of our app on Fire TV. Our tremendous engagement on FireTV bears testament to that. Besides the convenience of consuming the largest repository of premium real-life entertainment content across devices, our audiences have loved the experience of watching Discovery+ on big screen and that’s what this launch on Fire TV allows us to provide. Our marketing campaign too builds on this simple, yet critical insight,” Discovery digital South Asia business head Issac John said.

    “Our endeavour has been to offer Fire TV customers the widest selection and a frictionless way to discover their favourite content. Discovery Plus indexes a vast range of content about our planet, its rich culture, history, flora and fauna as well as the contribution of science and technology in the evolution of the human race. We are excited to add this selection to Fire TV customers in India,” Amazon Devices India head Parag Gupta said.

  • SonyLIV 2.0 announces its content line-up for the first month

    SonyLIV 2.0 announces its content line-up for the first month

    Mumbai: With a refreshed brand identity, SonyLIV is all set to bring forth an array of original content ranging from thrilling fictional narratives to real-life incidents and many more. Challenging the predominant beliefs of morality and ethics, SonyLIV’s very first original content titled Your Honor, a dark and morally complex thriller, is all set to go live on 18 June.

    Your Honor is adapted from the Israeli series Kvodo, distributed by Yes Studios, has been produced for Applause Entertainment by Sphereorigins and is directed by the National-award winning director, E.Niwas. Life was good for an upright, honest and reputed judge Bishan Khosla until he found himself facing a life altering situation. His only son gets involved in a hit-and-run case. While Bishan is about to turn in his son to the police, he learns about the victim's identity. 

    Oscillating between the complexities of morality and ethics, Jimmy Sheirgill brings to life the agony of Bishan Khosla in this thriller. Joining Jimmy Sheirgill in this enticing new offering are renowned actors like Mita Vashisht, Varun Badola, Yashpal Sharma, Parul Gulati, Suhasini Mulay, Richa Pallod, Kunj Anand, Pulkit Makol, and Mahabir Bhullar.

    Offering a power-packed monsoon binge, SonyLIV also releases Manoj Bajpayee’s critically acclaimed film Bhonsle alongwith a dark comedy Kadakh starring Ranvir Shorey. The english shows For Life and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector also make their Indian debut on the platform. While the former is inspired from a true story, the latter is a thriller adapted from the book “The Bone Collector” by Jeffery Deaver.

    Sony Pictures Networks India digital business and SET content head Ashish Golwalkar commented, “SonyLIV Originals are Indian stories created for a global market. The storytelling therefore will have a signature Indian ethos and authenticity. Your honor is the first such show and will be followed by an interesting line up of Indian stories coming soon. We are delighted to partner with Applause Entertainment, Sameer Nair, Director E Niwas and a stellar cast spearheaded by Jimmy Sheirgill to bring Your Honor for our subscribers.”

    Talking about the partnership, Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair said, “We are glad to partner with SonyLIV as they embark on their journey of originals. Your Honor is the first of our four originals scheduled to go live on the all new SonyLIV and we are sure the audience will enjoy this show. We look forward to a longer association ahead with SonyLIV.”

  • Eros Now enters into strategic distribution partnership with Vayam Technologies

    Eros Now enters into strategic distribution partnership with Vayam Technologies

    MUMBAI: Eros Now, the cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform owned by Eros International Plc, a global Indian entertainment company, announced its agreement with Vayam Technologies Ltd to distribute the OTT platform across districts of Uttar Pradesh through its common service centres (also known as Jan Seva Kendra). Eros Now will be part of Vayamtech's business to customer (B2C) services that provide access to village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs), hosted on its platform.

    Eros Now's availability at nearly 20,000 common service centres, one of the largest government-approved online service delivery channels, across 21 districts in Uttar Pradesh will enhance the reach of the leading online video streaming platform and shall cater to more than two million consumers in the rural areas of the above mentioned state.

    Eros Now CEO Ali Hussein said, "The alliance  between Eros Now and Vayamtech is a result of our common belief in using the power of the internet to offer the best services to customers across India. The people of rural India are increasingly using the internet for their daily needs, and it has now become imperative for businesses to offer rural audiences with seamless access to services. Eros Now's distribution through Vayamtech network of common service centres will offer the massive audience base the best of online video streaming service." 

    As per the Internet & Mobile Association of India's (IAMAI) report, rural India houses 227 million active internet users, 10 per cent more than urban India's about 205 million, as of November 2019. The association, therefore, acts as a perfect distribution mechanism for Eros Now through common service centres (multiple-services-single-window delivering government and private essential services) that will not only deepen Eros Now's reach in the state but also aims to bring socio-economic upliftment in rural areas.

    Vayam’s know-how and familiarity of working for people at bottom of the pyramid extends across multiple states reaching millions of rural citizens. Adhaar Enrolment, Census and Surveys, e-district, CSCs, Facilitation Centres, Banking, Insurance, Product Delivery etc. have facilitated in reaching out to 70 per cent of rural population residing in states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. 

    Vayamtech executive director Jitendra Tiwari added, "OTT platforms across India are witnessing huge demand and adding Eros Now in Vayamtech's services will result in revenue yielding for the brand by benefiting the customers with easy access to online entertainment. Uttar Pradesh is a massive market and our common service centres across 21 districts in the state is an ideal model for the delivery of the entertainment platform."

    Uttar Pradesh is certainly one of the biggest Hindi speaking markets and Eros Now's massive content catalogue comprising over 12,000 Bollywood movies, original shows, short-format content category Quickie, music and more will offer the best of online entertainment experience. 

  • Sunjoy Waddhwa on the making of ‘Your Honor’

    Sunjoy Waddhwa on the making of ‘Your Honor’

    MUMBAI: Sony LIV’s latest drama-thriller, Your Honor produced for Applause Entertainment by Sphereorigins, is all set to release. In a special interaction with indiantelevision.com, Sphereorigins founder Sunjoy Waddhwa shed light on the making of the series.

    The original Israeli series was created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach and distributed by Yes Studios. The Indian adaptation is helmed by Shool fame, E Niwas.

    The series is headlined in India by popular Bollywood actor Jimmy Sheirgill. The makers decided to cast Sheirgill because they wanted a face who can look more relatable to the audiences, who looks like a family man and not just a judge.

    The series was shot in 2019. It took 65 days to shoot the entire series, but seven months went into research, followed by four to five recce of the location. While in reality most of the mafias were based out of North India and Mumbai, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are usually shown as the crime capital. Hence, Waddhwa decided to take a different route and chose the backdrop of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Mumbai believing it will give a different tone, texture and colour to the series. Around 60 to 70 per cent of the series was shot in Punjab. More than 125 people were involved in creating this drama thriller.

    Waddhwa says, “A lot of effort went into the pre-production and designing the look and character of actors, giving authentic touch in terms of language and costume. The director, writer, production designer, they all worked collectively to give the show a more rustic feel.”

    In the series, Bishan Khosla (Jimmy Sheirgill), is a reputed judge whose teenage son Abeer (Pulkit Makol) is involved in a hit and run case. The victim of the accident is the son of a gangster. So, a lot of time went into the legalities. Waddhwa sought help from advocates and legal advisers to understand the details.

    He mentions, “My takeaway from this has been that the importance of having the script in hand and working properly as per the script and doing good research makes life easier.”

    As the shooting took place in the months of December and January, it was extremely cold. Apart from that, technicians and technical crew and fight master contributed to make it a scaled up version of television. As it is not a VFX-heavy series, the makers relied more on shoot material.

    “The entire shot taking and story thought process is very different as compared to a normal series. It is more like an extended film rather than a series. Most importantly, there was no set of rules, that it has to be made like an OTT show,” he further adds.

    When asked about dealing with comparison to the US adaption, Waddhwa quips, “For a Hindi-speaking audience it is a completely different show. Because this is in the dynamics of our situation. What value you add to the adaptation makes all the difference.”

    The original rights of the series belong to Applause Entertainment. Waddhwa also hints at making the sequel of the series after gauging audiences’ response.

  • Samir Bangara: A visionary man, a talent spotter

    Samir Bangara: A visionary man, a talent spotter

    MUMBAI: Unexpected losses feel hard on the heart. Samir Bangara, who died in a road accident, will be remembered for his visionary approach to digital reformation and how he spotted and nurtured talents. The co-founder and chief executive of Qyuki Digital Media was also a riding enthusiast.

    He initiated his journey with Qyuki in 2013 which was initially launched by director Shekhar Kapur and Grammy and Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman in 2012. The platform was relaunched in 2014. While he earned quite a fame for his efforts to build Qyuki, he was in the midst of starting his own venture when he met Kapoor. 

    “It is with great sorrow that we inform you that our leader, mentor and trusted friend, Samir Bangara passed away in an accident this morning. We are all in a state of complete and utter despair and words will do no justice to express this loss. But it is our duty to absorb this shock for now so that we can be there for each other especially for his family, just the way Samir would have liked us to,” Qyuki COO Sagar Gokhale shared a statement. 

    Bangara was also the chief operating officer of Indigames and later led its sale to Disney. UTV bought 30.02 per cent in Indiagames and then increased its stake to 86.02 per cent from 56 per cent. Later, UTV was acquired by Disney India. Post the sale, he focused on integrating the interactive businesses of Indiagames, Disney and UTV into one team covering games, video and audio services while he was serving as managing director – digital at Disney UTV.

    “Samir Bangara was special. Someone who was a friend, not just a partner at work. I was always struck by his rare ability to traverse topics and contexts, from a room full of MBA types talking strategy to having a sense of the street. His smile and eloquence will never leave my mind. His passing is an irreparable loss to the Indian digital industry and creators. He was a visionary and their true friend. Whenever I spoke to him, I had a feeling that we can do great things together for creators. He left the world better than he found it. He helped people, shaped careers, spread wisdom and made friends. He made the years count. His legacy will live on through every single person he impacted positively in his life. May god bless his soul and give his family and everyone at Qyuki Digital Media the strength to bear this,” Facebook India entertainment partnerships head Saurav Saket Jha commented on LinkedIn.

    “Shocked and numb to hear about my friend Samir Bangara. I can’t believe he is no more. Gone too soon. My condolences to his family. Hope they find the strength to overcome this huge loss. You will be missed Samir, but you will always remain in our hearts,” House of Cheer founder and managing director Raj Nayak said on Twitter.

    “I lost my super power today. Samir Bangara, you have been a mentor/friend/business guide and the biggest cheerleader. You believed in me like no one else in this world,” producer Gunit Monga said.

    While he led Quiky to emerge at the forefront of new media, Bangara started his career in another vertical, in venture capital with IL&FS Venture corporation and moved on to being an investment banker with Ernst & Young. He was an alumnus of Mumbai University. In January, Qyuki hosted Epic Fam Jam, a festival dedicated wholly to India’s rising social media superstars. Reportedly, it also secured $3.5 million from Info Edge Venture Fund (IEVF) earlier this year.

    “I met Sam about 10 years ago and he stood out for his extremely sharp mind and politeness and had a smile always. I fondly remember the chat in his office about his passion for bikes and he had a glint in his eyes discussing it. It's a big loss for me personally and the industry at large! RIP Sam!" MX Player CMO Abhishek Joshi said.

    "We lost a true entrepreneur and one of the finest digital minds in the region. We’ve been buds for three decades when we entered uni together in 1990 and I’ve seen Sam grow into a thoroughbred professional into one of the finest businessmen right in front of me. Our careers were always in different areas but they would always converge at some key points in our lives. He used me for advice and I him, whenever we needed some unbiased advice," shared Universal Music Group India and South Asia MD and CEO Devraj Sanyal.

    He added that eight years ago, the paths between Qyuki Digital Media and Universal Music India crossed and they ended up doing a bunch of stuff together.

    "Together we founded the The Dharavi Dream Project our corporate social responsibility project which is also one of India’s largest #MusicForSocialGood projects. We did a ton of other stuff in the digital world and for us not to have him around is just something anyone in our industry can even begin to comprehend," added Sanyal.

    "It’s gonna take some very real work for his partner and COO Sagar Gokhale to now lead the businesses in his stead with his teams, though he knows he has the full industry behind him willing him to succeed. 
    Godspeed Sam," said Sanyal's heartfelt LinkedIn post.

    He was widely liked and admired by everyone in the industry for his visionary, cheerful and generous nature. Not only executives and celebrities but even people he mentored shared their grief over his sudden absence. 

  • Inside ZEE5’s strategy to scale its upcoming UGC section

    Inside ZEE5’s strategy to scale its upcoming UGC section

    MUMBAI: In its quest to become an entertainment super app, ZEE5 is soon getting into user-generated content platform Hypershots. ZEE5 India expansion projects business head and product head Rajneel Kumar seems confident about the new user-generated content (UGC) venture with the expectation that it will start to spike soon.

    “Over the last year we have been focused on moving away from two primary types of content, catch-up TV content and original programming, to get into different types of content use cases that we create for users,” Kumar said in a virtual roundtable hosted by Indaintelevision.com. He added that it got into the music video, live TV, news bouquet sections including channels outside the Zee network.  

    He mentioned that it launched a gaming platform Play, which saw good traction initially. It has experienced upto six sessions per day per user each of eight mintues and which cemented the decision to build UGC as another use case on the platform.

    Kumar said that they had to approach tech stack and product stack very differently for UGC. He added that while consumers want an immersive experience of OTT content that happens on landscape mode whereas they have to look at a portrait mode for UGC coupled with a full-screen experience. To tackle UGC content, it went on even changing the kind of streams that it uses i.e., moving away from the traditional HLS with DRM etc., to moving on to mp4 and more importantly being able to optimise that. 

    Asked about the progress, Kumar answered that it is at the beta stage of testing for the UGC platform. He added that ZEE5 is trying to integrate it into the core application but carefully by taking into account performance on all device types.

    “For us, user experience suddenly has a new complexity. We are putting a mid-budget movie next to a creator from anywhere and for the user either of the content can be important or one might be more important than another. That’s why we are working on hyper-personalisation. At the very core of it, the more personal we make the platform, the better we will be able to alert the content for consumer and that cuts across UGC, catch-up, original and every other segment,” he added.

    During lockdown many users started discovering more original content. Hence, the platform has seen a spike in its subscription. It has seen a significant spike on its news content as well during this period. Kumar said that they put the high effort for personalising recommendation around news to make sure that it is localised.

    “When you are going from eight million to 100 million DAUs, of course, there is a completely new paradigm we will be dealing with. All of the systems will be tested because the concurrency of users coming on the platform also suddenly changes. Every single layer needs to scale up. The good part is companies like us have always been cloud-native and we are working with scalable companies. Also, core technology providers like AWS, Google have also moved to a serverless deployment where you don’t need to really linearly scale one after other, you could have multiple instances ready at the same time. The ecosytem is coming together to support,” Kumar said.

    However, he mentioned that it would be an interesting challenge to see how they differentiate the UGC section from existing ones by offering various propositions to bring more users to the platform.

  • Qyuki Digital Media co-founder and managing director Samir Bangara passes away

    Qyuki Digital Media co-founder and managing director Samir Bangara passes away

    MUMBAI: Qyuki Digital Media co-founder and managing director Samir Bangara passed away in a car accident on 14 June. 

    Amidst his colourful multi-dimensional career, he also led digital for the Disney group in India as managing director – digital with the responsibility of integrating and growing the businesses of Indiagames, Disney Interactive and UTV Interactive. He founded Qyuki Digital Media in 2013.

    Several Bollywood celebrities have mourned the loss on Twitter.

  • FilmKaravan’s Pooja Kohli Taneja on experimenting with genres, episodic format and post-Covid2019 production changes

    FilmKaravan’s Pooja Kohli Taneja on experimenting with genres, episodic format and post-Covid2019 production changes

    MUMBAI: From a serious thriller Delhi Crime to a teenage drama What Are The Odds? That's the route FilmKaravan has taken. While most people experiment with similar genres, FilmKaravan took a bold step and will continue to do the same.

    While What Are The Odds? is streaming on Netflix, the production house is also in talks with other OTT platforms. It currently has a total of 13 projects at different stages, FilmKaravan founder and managing director Pooja Kohli Taneja says.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, she speaks about the future plan of the production house, Covid2019 impact and how the post-pandemic world will look.

    Edited excerpts: 

    How was the experience collaborating with Netflix for the second time?

    It was a great experience. The first time we had a show called Delhi Crime that we had produced and we licensed to Netflix. And now for the first time, we were talking about a feature film. What are the Odds? is a very different kind of a film produced by FilmKaravan Originals and Abhay Deol Presents and Netflix was the only platform that really saw the vision that we were coming from. They believed in the content and type of storytelling, especially having gone through once before with a show that was also considered very sensitive. But this collaboration worked really well and the film did wonders on their platform. They were equally eager to see where and how a film like this would go and we got maximum support and love from audiences through their platform. 

    Are you in talks with other OTT platforms?

    Yes, we are in talks with all OTT platforms. We have from our end tried to see what different platforms' mandates are, what they're looking for, what their budgets are, what kind of material is working on their platform since audiences are still very new to this. It's almost like channels from the old days. A show on Zee would technically sometimes be different from a show on Star or Sony and I see all these OTT platforms as the new broadcast channels with their own niche audiences. So as we develop things with different platforms in mind, we keep that audience view of that platform in mind while developing.  

    What are the other genres that you are planning to explore?

    We're working on a bunch of projects, and in fact all genres are completely different from one another. We are working on Delhi Crime season

    two and three. In addition to that we have a bunch of shows that we are currently writing and are in development ranging from a young dance musical to a period piece that is set in pre-Independence India with also a youth relationship drama and a bunch of other things. There's a detective show in the pipeline as well. There are all kinds of genres that we're playing with. The art of telling a story in an episodic manner is something very new to the Indian market and we want to be able to tell something very accurately and authentically for the local audiences, but also have a treatment that is slightly more international and gripping and those are the backbones for which we are developing most of our material.

    How many projects do you have in the pipeline? 

    We have a total of 13 projects right now at different stages. Some are books-based, some are based on true case files or stories, some are completely fictionalised and we have a mix of writer directors from India as well as international talent. We see a huge improvement in the kind of material that we were able to put together if we have some of the senior people that have worked on episodic content outside India previously who bring their learnings along with storytellers from India who can really grasp the characters and the world and tell that story together convincingly and in a tight manner.

    How many of your projects were stuck because of this crisis? 

    We were in the middle of Delhi Crime season 2 shoot. We had eight days left to complete but because of the situation really escalating very quickly in Delhi where we were shooting we had to stop the shoot. A lot of our crew that was from outside India had to fly back to be with their families before the shutdown happened and we're waiting. We're not in a rush to get back. We want to be sure that it's safe and all procedures and protocols that are being set out by the producers unions, as well as the Motion Picture Association, are being followed and we can get back maybe end of July to complete the shoot on our current production and then resume the others but there's just a lot of writing and development work that's going on alongside. 

    How do you see the overall production space changing post-Covid?

    Like I said time will tell as and when things get better, we're in a wait and watch mode. We're not in a rush to get back into production until it is safe for our teams to resume getting on flights and going to locations and being with a hundred plus people on set. We have testing kits that we are organising. We have medical staff on ground and a lot of these protocols that we are planning and ensuring that we can take care of as we move forward into our next phase of post Covid2019 productions. 

    When do you expect everything to go back to normalcy?  

    It's going to be a new space and will be a new normal. It's going to require a lot of checks and takes from our side to ensure the safety and the security of our cast and our crew and moving forward, I think there will be an early check on the kind of material that we are writing whether it is even going to work when it comes to production time, so, you know large crowds, B rolls, street scenes, etc. It will be very difficult to have a crowd scene with a thousand people like we had in a Delhi Crime showing the sights at India Gate in these times. Until we have complete control and check on this situation we'll have to be very creative to make these shoots and stories happen in a post Covid2019 normal that will exist. 

  • Creative content, diversity, smart recommendation engine & community building are key to UGC platform growth

    Creative content, diversity, smart recommendation engine & community building are key to UGC platform growth

    MUMBAI: While the last few years have seen the rise of online premium content, several consumers have also emerged as creators. The boom of user-generated content (UGC) has led to the adoption of a plethora of apps other than traditional video-streaming platforms. UGC platforms are here to stay but those need to focus more on personalisation, user information security, smarter recommendation engine and scaled up technology.

    Under The Content Hub Tech Series umbrella Indaintelevision.com hosted a virtual roundtable on the topic which saw Firework head of content and strategic partnerships Sudarshan Kadam, Roposo co-founder and VP product management Glance Avinash Saxena, Samosa Labs founder and ex-CEO Abhilash Inumella, Bolo Indya co-founder and CEO Varun Saxena, Akamai Technologies director of products – APJ Media Rishi Varma, Zee5 business head expansion projects and head of products Rajneel Kumar, moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari.

    The moderator started the session by charting out basic differences between over-the-top (OTT) platforms and UGC platforms. Akamai’s Verma pointed out that the biggest difference between UGC and OTT is the amount of content where the former trumps. He stated that on an average day, some of their UGC consumers individually can have 25,000-30,000 concurrent people broadcasting at any given point in time. While it comes to short videos, they are to the tune of a few millions every minute. 

    Bolo Indya’s Avinash Saxena said that one of the fundamental difference is the users holding power when it comes to UCGs. Along with showcasing talents, users can create multiple opportunities for themselves, even taking financial capital out of it. Inumella mentioned that the proliferation of smartphones has made it easier for common people to create content, leading to a boom in UGC. However, the panellists also noted that having different use cases, OTTs and UGCs can’t be looked at as contenders.

    Interestingly, one of the largest OTT platforms in India, Zee5, will soon venture into UGC. It is prepping itself for its entry into the segment through Hypershots. ZEE5’s Kumar said that the platform has been moving away from two primary types of content, catch up TV and original content in several categories like music videos, live TV and news, consistently over the last year. He noted that it's gaming platform partnered with Gameloft has seen upto six sessions a day per user each eight-minutes long, cementing its decision to work on UGC. 

    One of the major concerns for UGC platforms is content processing and monitoring content so it does not offend anyone. Firework’s Kadam said that it has AI, ML and human moderation for any content goes up on the platform. He added that whenever they see content is flagged by their system or moderation team, they go through the content to see that it is not hurting anyone’s sentiment. Since the platform is available across countries, it also keeps track of country-specific guidelines and sometimes opts for geo-blocking. Bolo Indya’s Avinash Saxena and Roposo’s Varun Saxena also spoke of multi-layered content monitoring. The former added that if the content is flagged they may not necessarily always remove from the platform but restrict to a certain community. 

    The experts agreed that content security is not a big concern for UGCs as they want to grow by getting their content shared across multiple platforms. However, impersonation and manipulation of content can be damaging for the platform. As the platforms have a long run ahead, experts believe more creativity of content, smart recommendation engine, diversity and community building will be key to growth. Even UGC platforms can look at the subscription model if they can add value to basic service while Firework already experimented with such a model.