ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • The Format that changed TV forever In India and across The Globe Turns 20!

    The Format that changed TV forever In India and across The Globe Turns 20!

    MUMBAI: Big Brother, (aka Bigg Boss in India) – the original reality format – celebrates its landmark 20th birthday today.  On the 16th September 1999, nine Housemates moved in a purpose-built house in the Netherlands, equipped with 24 cameras and no contact with the outside world to be watched 24/ 7 by Big Brother. A cultural phenomenon was born, and the TV revolution aired its first ever episode that night on Dutch Broadcaster Veronica, part of RTL.

    Since its launch, Big Brother has taken the world by storm, with 471 series of 28,391 episodes commissioned in 60 markets and airing pan regionally in 80 since its launch. 7,153 housemates from around the globe have spent 35, 143 days in the house and there have been 5, 035 evictions.

    Twenty years since its worldwide debut, Big Brother is enjoying one of its best years yet and is constantly being renewed internationally with 22 productions in 18 markets confirmed to air in 2019.

    In India Bigg Boss has conquered audiences, in Hindi, Kannada, Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam. With 30 seasons under its belt Globally Endemol Shine India is the only one in history of the franchise who has produced the Big Brother format (Bigg Boss) in multiple languages for different broadcasters. Bigg Boss has now been produced in India in 7 languages and today produces more than 600 episodes in a 365-day calendar year.

    With huge stars such as Salman Khan, Kamala Hassan, Nagarjuna, Mohanlal, Mahesh Manjrekar and Sudeep as hosts, an interesting mix of contestants and an amazing creative and production team, the show continues to garner huge TRPs and driving in viewers every season.

    Talking about the completion of 20 years of Big Brother globally, Abhishek Rege, CEO, Endemol Shine India said, “Big Brother is undoubtedly the most popular non-scripted show across the globe entertaining viewers from all strata of society. In India too, the show has been well received and has garnered a huge fan following.  The ongoing appreciation for the franchise across the globe and in India, no matter the language, is testament to the effort of the creative and production teams at Endemol Shine globally and our understanding of geographies and of local audiences.”

    Engaging audiences with interactivity
    Big Brother is more interactive and immersive than ever, whether it be viewer polls, making decisions for tasks or else the weekly evictions which are the bedrock of many global schedules. Big Brother stands out in the way it engages the audience to be part of the show, and earlier this year saw 202 million votes cast in Brazil in a single eviction.

    Innovating with technology
    Big Brother has always thrived on changes in the tech and TV landscape and fans have more access to the show’s content than ever before, whether it be watching episodes on YouTube in Spain where the series had a dual strategy to produce the programme for linear and online or streaming on a broadcaster’s SVOD or AVOD platform in markets like the US, Canada and Finland.

    The show is innovating with tech within productions too. Big Brother Poland was the first version of the reality hit to be filmed in a real-life existing house. This has been followed by the recent relaunch in Finland, where the house was located in the heart of Helsinki in REDI shopping mall.  These new types of productions are only possible because of advanced technology and state of the art cameras which allow the show to be produced in innovative ways. It also furthers the creative freedom for the producers with fully connected houses enabling access to rooms to be limited or to give housemates certain privileges such as access to the fridge or even the coffee machine. Existing locations also have created a truly authentic environment for relationships to develop.

    Sustainability
    And the format is rolling our green initiatives too, in Germany the production team of VIP series saved an estimated 12,000 coffee cups after switching to reusable bamboo cups and all groceries for the House were sourced locally.

    In Finland, the new house will be made with recycled materials and with water scarcity a significant issue in India, the production has installed waste water recycling, as well as placing water restrictions for housemates and one of the regional versions even features an empty swimming pool to make a point about the limits.

    None of us know what the next twenty years will bring, but one thing for sure, the world is watching.

    Big Brother in numbers
     
    1. 7,153 people have entered the Big Brother house of which 517 were from Bigg Boss India so far)
    2. There have been 5,035 evictions of which 372 were in Bigg Boss India so far
    3. 28,391 episodes of Big Brother have aired globally of which 2942 were in Bigg Boss India
    4. Over 35,143 days have been spent in the house of which 2908 were in Bigg Boss India
    5. There have been 471 series to date, making 471 Big Brother winners 30 of which were in India  
    6. 3,000 people applied via telephone for the first ever series in the Netherlands
    7. There were 24 cameras in the original Big Brother house in the Netherlands. The most recent version in Finland has 51, whereas in Italy they shoot with an astounding 100+ cameras. India used 89 cameras in the BB Hindi S12
    8. The oldest housemate to enter the Big Brother house is Lionel Blair who at 85 joined Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. 75-year-old Jerry MacDonald who came third in the US series 10 in 2008
    9. Julie Chen Moonves is the longest serving Big Brother host, having presided over the US show for 19 years since its launch in 2000
    10. 1 baby has been born in the Big Brother house; this took place in the Netherlands in 2005
    11. The longest uninterrupted television broadcast of Big Brother lasted 8, 763 hours from 2nd March 2004- 1st March 2005 in Germany
    12. A record 202 million votes were cast in one eviction in Brazil in March this year.  These second highest being Bigg Boss Tamil with 19, 59, 37, 000 votes
    13. 7 versions of Big Boss in 7 different regional languages (Marathi, Tamil, Bengali Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam) have aired in India.
    14. Big Brother has 62.5 million digital followers.
    15. There have been 7.3 billion lifetime video views
    16. 59 couples met in the House.
    17. 5 marriages have taken place within the House of which 2 were from Bigg Boss India
    18. 12 children have been born from Big Brother romances.
    19. Since launch Big Brother has been commissioned in 60 countries, some of which aired pan-regionally taking the show to 80 countries.
    20. An estimated 12,000 single use coffee cups were saved when the production of Big Brother VIP in Germany switched to reusable bamboo cups.

  • ZEE5 partners with quaero to Orchestrate its complex customer data

    ZEE5 partners with quaero to Orchestrate its complex customer data

    MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s fastest growing ConTech brand today announced its partnership with Quaero, an Enterprise Customer Data Platform provider, to power its big data capabilities and mine customer insights.

    Having tipped over the 80 million subscribers base this year, ZEE5 realized that data operations complexity is already a reality. This highlights the need for a strong and robust data lake- data mart architecture. The partnership with Quaero enables ZEE5 with seamless data flow from sources, build unified customer view, automate data operations on cloud and a create a two-way connector to all current and future ZEE5 partners. With unique and differentiated access, the expected benefactors of this platform at ZEE5 are the IT, Data Science and Analytics, and Marketing teams. ZEE5 and Quaero foresee the partnership to go over and beyond the current challenges and look at ways to productize data-as-a-product for the media industry.

    Ujjyaini Mitra, Head Data Scientist, ZEE5 India said, “This partnership with Quaero will add higher capabilities to our data science team within Zee5, enabling us access to various data streams through a single platform. This will enable granular level insights about our customers and bring down the time to action. Quaero has brought to the project, apart from its robust platform, skilled data scientists and data engineers with over 20 years of rich domain expertise in data and analytics to create a data lake that addresses some of the unique challenges faced by media companies. The Quaero CDP provides strong data governance along with Data Lineage, thereby making us a pioneer in the industry”.

    Sandeep Prakash, APAC Business Head, Quaero said, “We launched our APAC operations in 2018 and are excited to have ZEE5 as a major client in the region. Our work for global media brands like Disney and ESPN has enabled us to deliver a cutting-edge data lake solution which is scalable, easy to use, quick, agile & tailored specifically for the media and entertainment industry.”

    ZEE5 hosts over 100,000+ hours of content across genres in over 12 languages, thus making it a complex data landscape in terms of volume, velocity and variety. At ZEE5, acquisition of data has never been a concern, but it is accessibility of data in useable form to mine insights, which assumes critical importance considering the impact it can have on the overall business. Thus, the need for a unified customer view by ingesting multiple disparate 1st, 2nd & 3rd party data sources is more important than ever before. Real time insightful data empowers ZEE5 to optimize pricing models and achieve higher audience retention.

    Quaero, a new breed data and analytics platform is roped in for building the data stack that can ingest, store and segment these structured and unstructured data. This will provide ZEE5 with a horizontally and vertically scalable data lake and a more powerful and readily usable data mart. The various sources of data contributing to the unified view include clickstream data, product usage data, mobile behavior data, content data (CMS), video consumption data, social data, campaign performance data, ad inventory & performance data and many such. The platform also will act as the backbone of data infrastructure and computation engine for powering ZEE5's dashboards & visualizations.

    The platform is expected to deliver Golden Customer Record with a 360-degree view of every customer, enabling smarter, personalized and timely marketing of all content on ZEE5 platform.

    Some of the early benefits of embedding Quaero's platform at the core of ZEE5's data stack include better and relevant ad placements, richer experience for paid subscribers, personalization at scale, tailored content production and better revenue conversion & tracking.

    The future roadmap for the project also includes new and contemporary data sources, extending it beyond 1st party data to external sources, 2-way connections to downstream marketing applications and creating new products out of the richer data being mined.

  • Through its latest marketing innovation, ALTBalaji launches off by taking the interactive ooh route for mom: mission on mars

    Through its latest marketing innovation, ALTBalaji launches off by taking the interactive ooh route for mom: mission on mars

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, India's leading home-grown OTT platform, in their latest bid to capture the imagination and attention of the viewers has launched a campaign unlike any other by adopting an innovative OOH (out-of-home advertising) hoarding to promote its recent original M-O-M: Mission on Mars. The hoarding featuring the four lead characters and a rocket which is shown taking off, placed at a high-visibility locale in Mumbai, is leaving everyone mesmerized. The rocket on the hoarding is visually appealing where it moves upwards and downwards in motion immersing one in the world of space and science; the show's core theme. This latest marketing innovation by ALTBalaji is a testament to their core value of providing content and offerings that rise above the rest.

    Speaking on the innovation, Divya Dixit, Senior VP and Head Marketing, ALTBalaji says, "ALTBalaji stands for innovation and disruption whether in content or marketing. Marketing the show, that has science in its core element, in a never-seen-before manner, lies perfectly in sync with adopting new-age technology that appeals to our target audience. The innovation hoarding doesn’t just grab eyeballs, but registers in the minds of the audience owing to its novel concept.With each show the challenge is to break the mould and do something new appealing to the audience."

    Mission over Mars, is certain to inspire not just women but people across the globe, to pursue their dreams with utmost sincerity and dedication and that ‘nothing is impossible.’ With 44 Originals as part of its vast and diverse, multi-genre content library, ALTBalaji continues to entertain the audiences across the globe like never before. Shows like ‘Apharan,’ ‘Home’ ‘The Test Case’ ‘Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain,’ ‘PuncchBeat’, ‘Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat’ have received adulation and accolades aplenty from all corners of the world and M.O.M is sure to join their ranks.

  • Disney CEO Bob Iger resigns from Apple’s board

    Disney CEO Bob Iger resigns from Apple’s board

    MUMBAI: Disney CEO Bob Iger has stepped down from Apple’s board of directors the day Apple announced the price and release date for its streaming service. The resignation comes at a time when both the companies are upping the game in the streaming business.

    Apple revealed on 10 September, the day Iger departed, the new details about Apple TV+, a $4.99-per-month service that will launch on 1 November. Around the same time, Disney is also launching its streaming video service Disney+ on 12 November. As both the companies are looking at creating original content, the two services will increasingly come into conflict in the future.

    “It has been an extraordinary privilege to have served on the Apple board for eight years, and I have the utmost respect for Tim Cook, his team at Apple, and for my fellow board members,” Iger said in a statement. “Apple is one of the world’s most admired companies, known for the quality and integrity of its products and its people, and I am forever grateful to have served as a member of the company’s board,” he added further.

    The two companies were in cordial relations for a long time. Iger and late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs were personal friends. Jobs became a Disney director and major shareholder when Disney bought Pixar. After Job’s death in 2011, Iger joined Apple’s board.

    “While we will greatly miss his contributions as a board member, we respect his decision and we have every expectation that our relationship with both Bob and Disney will continue far into the future,” Apple said in a statement.

  • Zomato forays into online video space, to launch 18 original shows

    Zomato forays into online video space, to launch 18 original shows

    MUMBAI: The streaming war is not limited to media houses anymore. From e-commerce apps to online cab-ride services are also jumping on the band-wagon to keep consumers engaged. Now, food delivery app Zomato has announced its foray into web streaming with 18 original shows over the next three months.

    There will be a new 'Videos' tab available in the Zomato app, starting Monday. The new shows ranging from three to 15 mintues will be categorised by genre across shows, recipes and Sneak Peek restaurant stories. It will launch with over 2000 videos that includes Zomato Originals, which will be available to stream in India, while Sneak Peek and recipe videos can be accessed anywhere in the world.

    “We are constantly looking for new ways to engage our users around food. Most of our users visit our app several times a week. This presents us with an opportunity to further delight our users using Zomato Originals," Zomato CEO and founder Deepinder Goyal said in a statement.

    “We combined all things food with binge-worthy genres and came up with a diverse slate of shows,” Zomato senior vice president growth  Durga Raghunath said.“With shows in both Hindi and English, we hope every corner of India will tune in to Zomato to hone their taste buds ," he added.

    The company also said that the shows will be around food and will include comedy, reality, fiction, advice and celebrity interviews. The new shows include titles like Food and You with Sanjeev Kapoor, Banake Dikha with stand-up comic Sumukhi Suresh, Starry Meals with Janice, Grandmaster Chef with Sahil Shah, Race Against the App.

  • ShemarooMe to Premiere 52 movies in 52 weeks with their new offering – Bollywood Premiere

    ShemarooMe to Premiere 52 movies in 52 weeks with their new offering – Bollywood Premiere

    Mumbai: ShemarooMe, the over-the-top (OTT) platform by India’s leading content powerhouse Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, launched its new offering Bollywood Premiere for all the movie buffs across India and US. To satiate the needs of Bollywood lovers, ShemarooMe will be premiering entertaining and critically acclaimed movies every Friday for the next 52 weeks, starting September 13. Taking the legacy of the parent company forward, ShemarooMe understands the pulse of the audiences and has been at the forefront to deliver to the needs of the viewers time and again. Bollywood Premiere will aim at engaging the audiences at the comfort of their homes, through their hand-held devices, every Friday.

    After a successful spell of Shemaroo’s service called Miniplex which offered around 200 richly curated movie premieres across four DTH platforms from the last 4 years, ShemarooMe now brings the similar concept to its viewers directly to their hand-held devices through Bollywood Premiere. Today’s audiences prefer new and personalized content at their luxury and this new service fittingly serves their demand. ShemarooMe’s new service will offer Bollywood movies that have a strong story line and great entertainment value that the audiences have missed out on watching during their theatrical release. ShemarooMe Bollywood Premiere will be the destination that will bridge this gap and ensure entertaining content reaches to the intended audiences, thus making it one of the most sought-after innovations on the digital platform.

    Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited said, “The increase in Internet penetration and growth of online video streaming platforms has revolutionized the entertainment business. With the launch of Bollywood Premiere, we are not only strengthening ShemarooMe’s content catalogue but also fulfilling audiences’ demand for movie premieres on our online video streaming platform. Consumers look out for weekend binge and here we are presenting them with movie options that are premiering for the first time on digital platform which they can look forward to over the weekend.”

    Consumers will be in for a treat as Bollywood Premiere will showcase movies like Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyu Aata hai, 22 Yards, Sharma Ji ki Lag Gayi starring Krushna Abhishek and Mughda Godse Battalion 609 and many more. The movie will release at 12am (midnight) every Friday exclusively on ShemarooMe. Besides ShemarooMe, the movies will be available to stream through Vodafone Play, Idea Movies & TV, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV stick.

    Commenting on the occasion of the World Digital Premiere of Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyu Atta Hai, the award-winning actress Nandita Das said, “The film Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyu Aata Hai is special in many ways. These days independent films often get sidetracked by more mainstream films in getting adequate screens, good timings and enough number of days for it to have a good word of mouth. I am happy that the film is going to are Premiere digitally on ShemarooMe. We all know Shemaroo Entertainment for long as they have had a huge bank of films, across all genres. The film has much to say and reflects the angst felt by the youth, which is quite relevant today. It is good that audiences have so many choices in OTT platforms and ShemarooMe is the new one to be launched. I wish them and the film the very best.”

    Lead actor of Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyu Atta Hai, Manav Kaul said, “I am actually quite excited to see our film Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyu Aata Hai to be premiered digitally on ShemarooMe. Our film is in line with Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s 1980 classic movie.  I had to do a lot of preparation in order to get into the skin of the character and match the brilliance of ace actor – Naseeruddin Shah. Also, I feel privileged that an entertainment house like Shemaroo who has been in the business is showcasing the movie on their OTT platform ‘ShemarooMe’. The OTT medium is becoming very exciting and it would be great to connect with the audience, reaching out not only to the hinterlands of India but also to global audiences in the USA who enjoy Bollywood.”

    Director of Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyu Atta Hai, Soumitra Ranade said, ‘In the earlier days, a Friday would decide the fate of a film but that’s not the case anymore. There are many more avenues now, especially for independent cinema. ShamarooMe comes at perfect time and it is fabulous that our film Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai? is releasing on this OTT. Shemaroo has a huge track record of being in the entertainment industry and I am sure the film will become accessible to hundreds and thousands of people across the country. I wish them the very best.’

    Barun Sobti, the talented actor from the movie 22 Yards said, “I am happy about my movie 22 Yards premiering on ShemarooMe. With changing times and audiences getting hooked to OTT platforms, it is nice to have an OTT platform like ShemarooMe who is giving Indian filmmakers a stage to showcase their movies and connect with a larger set of audience. '22 Yards' does not focus on the game of cricket but rather on the life of a sport-agent and the challenges he faces. I hope this movie is able to connect with the audience and provide complete entertainment.”

    Catch the TVC’s here for a visual treat Bollywood Premiere Launch –

    Bollywood Premiere Launch –

  • ZEE5 premieres kannada blockbuster Seetharama Kalyana

    ZEE5 premieres kannada blockbuster Seetharama Kalyana

    MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s fastest growing multilingual OTT platform continues to strengthen its movies catalogue with the world digital premiere of the super-hit Kannada film ‘Seetharama Kalyana’. The film written and directed by A. Harsha has a heady dose of action, romance, comedy and family drama. Starring Nikhil Gowda, Rachita Ram in lead roles, the superhit film is will premiere 13th September 2019 exclusively on ZEE5.

    Sharing his excitement Nikhil Gowda said, “Our film is  packaged with high voltage drama and action. It received a phenomenal response in the theatres and now anybody who wants to  watch it can catch it now on ZEE5,  from the comfort of their home.”

    Writer and Director A. Harsha commented, “Seetharama Kalyanais a complete pot boiler. The film received much love at the box office and it is now available on ZEE5, for all those who missed it in theatres. We are really excited to partner with ZEE5 and are sure the film will travel further because of their sheer reach.”

    Aparna Acharekar, Programming Head, ZEE5,commented, “Seetharama Kalyana is a mass entertainer and we are thrilled to add it in our movie bucket. 2019 has been an exciting yearduring which we have added interesting films and series on our platform.We are committed to build a robust library across languages.” 

    In November last year, ZEE5 introduced regional premium packs (Kannada, Tamil and Telugu) for subscribers which have seen great success. The ZEE5 Tamil Premium pack is priced competitively at Rs. 49/- for one month and Rs. 499/- for a year.

  • ALTBalaji COO Sunil Nair steps down

    ALTBalaji COO Sunil Nair steps down

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji chief operating officer (COO) Sunil Nair has stepped down from his current position. However, he will be serving the Ekta Kapoor-led OTT platform till 30 September.

    After nearly 4 years of association with ALTBalaji, he has resigned from his role as the COO to pursue new adventures.  

    He joined the organisation in June 2015, even before the service was launched successfully on 16 April 2017. He was responsible for building India's first pure-play original video content platform. He also worked with brands like Reliance Jio, Star India.

    Notably, Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sunil Lulla also quit last month. A few days after his resignation, Lulla announced his in-residence consulting service, The Linus Adventures.

  • DocuBay and Amazon Pay join hands for an exclusive offer

    DocuBay and Amazon Pay join hands for an exclusive offer

    MUMBAI: DocuBay, the only global membership video on demand streaming platform for documentaries, announced an exclusive partnership with leading digital payment platform Amazon Pay. With this exclusive partnership, Amazon Pay users can avail the yearly OneTribe membership of DocuBay at flat 50% off plus exclusive cashback of Rs. 200. Normally Priced at Rs.1499, those who avail the limited period offer, can enjoy the year-long OneTribe membership effectively at just Rs. 549.

    To access this offer, users can select Amazon Pay as their mode of payment on DocuBay’s payment page or can also access it directly from the Amazon app. The offer is valid till 30th September.

    DocuBay offers a handpicked catalogue of documentaries with an emphasis on discovery, including curated ‘Bays’ like Nature, Action, Travel, Culture, Science, Sports, and more. The catalogue includes films from over 80 countries and counting. The library consists of global award-winning features like Moonwalk One, Inside Facebook, Trump Russia, The Uber Story, Out Of the Dark with one release being added to the site daily, including a monthly ‘Docbuster’. The catalogue also includes tastefully selected documentaries from India including the multiple award winning Bastion of the Giants, Pad Yatra, Himalayan Gold Rush, Where To, Miss?; amongst others.

    The annual OneTribe membership unlocks features over its premium membership priced at Rs.449, such as viewing select documentaries in 4K, viewing on multiple screens, and unlimited downloads. DocuBay is available on iOS/App Store, Android/Google Play, Apple TV, Fire TV, as well as directly through the DocuBay website – www.docubay.com.

    Amazon Pay users will have a seamless experience to avail the offer and to enjoy an experience and discover quality content, through an easy and hassle-free mode of payment.

    Commenting on the partnership, D Girish, VP-Strategy, DocuBay, said “For us, customer experience is sacrosanct, and it is our endeavour to partner with brands that share our ethos. Amazon Pay is a perfect match for us to reach and engage with the right set of audiences. This is an exciting phase for DocuBay, we are certain this partnership is the first of many to come.”

    “We aim to enhance the overall customer experience. This partnership with DocuBay will provide our customers a seamless and secure way of paying. With the endeavour to increase affordability, customers can now enjoy enriching content.” Manesh Mahatme, Director, Experience and merchant acceptance, Amazon Pay, India

  • Netflix Announces Partnership With Dharmatic Entertainment

    Netflix Announces Partnership With Dharmatic Entertainment

    Mumbai: Netflix today announced a long-term partnership with Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment to create a broad range of new fiction and non-fiction series and films exclusively for Netflix members. 

    As the director of eight major films and host of a successful talk show, Johar has a proven track record of telling stories that resonate with audiences all around the world. Netflix and Johar first worked together in 2018 on the much-loved film Lust Stories. He is also involved on two upcoming Netflix films – as a director on Ghost Stories and Guilty produced by Dharmatic Entertainment. Johar has an innate sense of what people care about – and a unique way of telling stories that are universal but also authentically reflect Indian society.

    Bela Bajaria, VP, International Originals, Netflix, said, “I am incredibly excited about our partnership with Karan Johar – one of India’s greatest modern storytellers. Johar and Dharmatic Entertainment will have all the creative freedom and support they need to create pioneering dramas and unscripted series – as well as films – for our members all over the world.”

    Karan Johar said, “With its unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach, Netflix provides a fearless space for creators. I'm super excited about the projects we already have in development and the limitless possibilities ahead. To create universal stories from India that the world discovers is an incredible and unprecedented opportunity.”

    Apoorva Mehta, CEO, Dharma Productions, said, “We’re excited about the immense storytelling possibilities ahead. With Netflix as the new storytelling home for Dharmatic Entertainment, I have the highest hopes for what we can do together. Our vision is to create differentiated stories across diverse genres and we can’t wait to craft and usher many more remarkable series and films into the world with Netflix.”