ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • Vodafone Idea offers customers exclusive acess to ZEE5 theatre

    Vodafone Idea offers customers exclusive acess to ZEE5 theatre

    MUMBAI: Vodafone Idea, India’s leading telecom operator and ZEE5, India’s fastest growing OTT platform have come together to make ZEE5 Theatre available to its subscribers on the go. With this exclusive offer, subscribers can now tune in to ZEE5 Theatre, a live channel available on Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV app.

    The move is in line with the philosophy of Vodafone Idea of offering a range of content choices to the customers. Vodafone Idea customers can now enjoy varied plays across genres such as thriller, supernatural, crime, family drama, comedy and periodic drama ensuring a seamless viewing experience. After discovering the content, customers can access it on Vodafone Play and Idea Movies & TV app. ZEE5 Theatre will offer nine plays this July and further keep adding two new plays every week on Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 PM.

    Some of the RENOWNED plays which customers will be able to watch as a part of this partnership include:

    Savita Damodar Paranjape, a psychological thriller starring Shilpa Tulaskar and Vinay Jain
    Doll’s House based on Norwegian playwright, poet and theatre director Henrik Johan Ibsen's A Doll's House featuring Swastika Mukherjee and Subhrajyoti Barat
    Double Game, a suspense drama starring popular theatre and television actor Kiran Karmarkar and renowned actor-singer Rajeshwari Sachdev
    Vaastav, based on the blockbuster crime flick of the same name, Vaastav is the quintessential concoction of ambition, struggle and family emotions starring Puru Chibber and Mitalee Jagtap.

    Commenting on the partnership Avneesh Khosla, Operations Director – Marketing, Vodafone Idea Limited said, “We are excited to partner with ZEE5 IN ORDER TO make  exclusive theatre PRODUCTIONS more accessible  .We intend to reach customers who enjoy Theatre and are not being catered to through other platforms..

    Speaking about the association, Manish Aggarwal, Business Head, ZEE5 India said, “The Vodafone Idea association has been truly remarkable and we are now adding some well renowned plays for audiences in this offering. Theatre is an integral part of entertainment and we hope audiences enjoy watching these live from the comfort of their homes. Our strong repertoire of content backed with Vodafone Idea’s reach is certainly to make waves among viewers.”

    Vodafone Idea and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited announced a strategic partnership a few months back for ZEE5 – the fastest growing OTT platform in the country. Under the strategic partnership, aimed at driving the growth of digital ecosystem in India, the content portfolio of ZEE5 is available to Vodafone Idea customers on Vodafone Play as well as Idea Movies & TV app. Customers of Vodafone Idea can enjoy the entire content catalogue of ZEE5 thereby providing a seamless viewing experience via multiple devices.

  • ZEE5 to test cheaper mobile-only plans, eyes 80 million MAUs by March

    ZEE5 to test cheaper mobile-only plans, eyes 80 million MAUs by March

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s video streaming service ZEE5 has made quite a splash since its entry in India’s competitive OTT landscape.

    In just 15 months of launch, the Tarun Katial-led streamer has 61.5 million monthly active users (MAUs), clocking 31 minutes of average time spent per day.

    In a bid to make even greater inroads into the Indian market, ZEE5 will now test cheaper mobile-only plans, reported news agency PTI.

    "We are also planning to test mobile-only pack for consumers who want to watch content on-the-go at cheap prices and with limited ads with an option to choose the ad one wants to watch in exchange of a lower subscription rate," said Katial.

    Innovative pricing packs blended with a unique ad proposal could also be in the offing. This, Katial believes, will further boost the revenue generation efforts of the company.

    Having registered 70 million app downloads till March 2019, the platform now hopes to achieve the 80 million MAU mark by March 2020.

    ZEE5’s success has seen it attract advertisers across the board, with the prowess of its regional content paying rich dividends.

    Katial is confident that ad revenue of the platform will witness strong growth in the near future with content, technology and partnerships driving ZEE5’s appeal.

    "From a technology standpoint, we have partnered with over 30 companies world over with strong expertise in the OTT space," he said.

    Apart from collaborating with telcos, the platform has also struck deals with smart TV manufacturers and connected device makers like Amazon Fire Stick.

    ZEE5 has partnerships with Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio, Katial added, pointing out that these are helping it reach consumers in small towns.

    Partnerships of this nature not just give ZEE5 access to consumers in smaller markets but also help in joint marketing campaigns.

  • MX Player now on Amazon Fire TV Stick and Android TV

    MX Player now on Amazon Fire TV Stick and Android TV

    MUMBAI: Emerging as the one-stop-shop for all things entertainment, MX Player – India’s leading streaming platform is now going beyond your mobile phones and will feature on Amazon Fire TV Stick and Android TV.  The entertainment app offers viewers an online content library with multi-genre and multilingual MX Original series’, the best in class offline video playing capabilities and audio music all on one common platform.

    Elaborating on the app being available on the bigger screen via these streaming devices, Karan Bedi – CEO, MX Player said, “With entertainment at the core of our product, our vision is to bring viewers content that can be streamed anytime, anywhere and at a screen of their choosing – be it on their handheld devices or on the large screen. Also, featuring on Amazon Fire TV Stick and Android TV helps us to both, consolidate and expand our existing consumer base.”

    With the recent boom in the sales of high definition TVs across Tier II and Tier III markets, content consumption patterns have evolved with an increased appreciation of an immersive viewing experience. More so, OTT content is poised to grow with innovative technology that will make for immersive, experiential and engaging viewing.

    Speaking about the same, Karan said, “Our Originals are curated keeping in mind production values par excellence, stories that are relevant and a talent pool which brings alive the narrative – be it the actors, directors or writers. The cinematic experience that we bring viewers for free combined with the sheer scale of our content will further be amplified on the big screen and we are glad to be present on these streaming devices.”

  • Globally acclaimed sitcom ‘Community’ now live on SonyLIV

    Globally acclaimed sitcom ‘Community’ now live on SonyLIV

    MUMBAI: Looking for a new show to add to your watchlist, this monsoon? How about a sitcom that will tickle your funny bone and get you on a binge-watch spree? SonyLIV, India’s first premium video on demand (VOD) platform brings you 6 seasons of the cult American comedy series -Community. Rated 8.5 on IMDb, Community is created by Dan Harmon and boasts of a reputed star cast that includes Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie amongst others.

    One of the most critically acclaimed shows in sitcom history, Community revolves around the story of Jeff Winger (played by Joel McHale), who is suspended from his law firm when the truth about his fake degree is discovered. Left with no other choice, he gets himself enrolled into a community college to earn a legitimate degree. As he reluctantly becomes the leader of a group of misfits, what follows is a roller coaster ride of drama, humour and action.

    While Community is sure to leave you in splits, SonyLIV amplifies the visual treat for its viewers with a host of other English shows such as LA’s Finest, A Discovery of Witches, Britannia, Riviera season 1 and 2, Into the Dark that brings together a perfect combination of thriller, suspense, romance, and much more. These shows are available for viewing with a subscription fee of Rs 99/- per month and Rs 499/- per year.

    So grab a tub of popcorn and start streaming Community only on SonyLIV.

  • Viacom18’s Tanya Bami steps down as head Voot Originals & VP content

    Viacom18’s Tanya Bami steps down as head Voot Originals & VP content

    MUMBAI: Viacom Digital Ventures' Tanya Bami has resigned from her role as head of Voot Originals and vice president content. Bami is expected to be at the company for a couple of months to serve her notice period.

    The veteran media executive joined Voot in November 2015 from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd where she served as head – weekend content.

    Before joining ZEEL, Bami spent over five years at Star India where she held the position of AVP content for the network’s flagship GEC Star Plus.

    Apart from stints at broadcasters like MTV, Channel V, and BBC, she has also worked at major production houses like Big Synergy and Optimystix Entertainment India.

  • Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    MUMBAI: With Disney all set to enter the direct-to-consumer business with its streaming app, Netflix missing its subscriber addition forecast globally along with losing subscribers in the domestic market is likely to be trouble. Although stocks of the FANG company stumbled as an aftermath of the Q2 result, Netflix is confident of getting back on track in the next quarter. Talking to investors in an earnings call after the Q2 result, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also showed confidence in global subscriber additions, upcoming competition and the positive impact of streaming war.

    Here are the edited excerpts:

    Global opportunity:

    Well, we do wonder, in the fullness of time, can we be as big as YouTube? YouTube is 7x larger than us roughly in viewing hours, and a phenomenal service. Of course, it's free. So the real question is can we produce enough content that people are willing to pay for? If you look at benchmarks, it's about 700 million households that pay for television outside of China, so that would be kind of the equivalent of the US, 100 million, so that's one established market.

    Now, do we have enough content in each of those countries? Most of that is local content that gets consumed. But the internet is capable of some very large customer bases, as you, I'm sure, know well. So we'll just take it year-by-year and try to have our net adds continue to grow. We still think our net adds this year will be larger than last year. We'll keep pushing on that. And what we want to do is just grow the net adds every year and then the future takes care of itself.

    Streaming War:

    It's never been a better world for talent. They get to bid themselves off between us, Disney, Amazon, etc. So there's a real battle for who will pay for content around the world, but it's not a zero-sum competition. I think everybody gets that people will subscribe to multiple shows. Add wage — most Netflix employees are HBO subscribers. We love the content they do and that spurs us to want to be even better. So it's a great competition that helps grow the industry. And the advantage of having something catchy like streaming wars is it draws more attention. And because of that, people, consumers shift more quickly from linear TV to the streaming TV.

    Product partnerships for Stranger Things:

    Well, we're monetising it today in more membership growth. The focus is to get more people excited about Stranger Things. So they join Netflix. They tell their friends about it. So this year, we'll add about $5 billion of incremental subscription revenue, which is almost all of the gross margin, and that's faster than any entertainment company has grown in the history of the world. So what we want to do is keep that engine going, keep that subscriber engine going and not get distracted with alternative revenue sources which just don't add up when you're growing $5 billion a year. So the core focus is to create all these merchandising opportunities, tie-ins, touch points so that you feel the Stranger Things energy so that more people join. So together, as we do monetise all that, it's just we're monetising it through our giant engine rather than through little sidecar vehicles.

  • Prime Day 2019 was the biggest two-day celebration ever for Prime members in India

    Prime Day 2019 was the biggest two-day celebration ever for Prime members in India

    MUMBAI: Prime members in India joined members in 17 countries celebrating Prime Day, enjoying the best of shopping, savings and entertainment. Following the epic two-day event with thousands of deals just for Prime members, sales surpassed the previous Prime Day and any other two-day period making this the largest shopping event for Prime members. Prime Day was the longest ever and saw members in India shop and stream like never before enjoying over 1,000 new product launches & deals and video & music titles, especially curated for Prime Day.

    “Prime Day has become the biggest celebration of shopping, savings and entertainment that members, brands and sellers in India look forward to each year.” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Manager, Amazon India. “Prime members in India enjoyed shopping the deals and new launches, buying thousands of products from small & medium sellers, artisans, entrepreneurs and innovators and our sellers, Kala Haat artisans and emerging Launchpad startups all saw a sharp increase in sales. Our brand partners increasingly see Prime Day as the ideal event to offer highly anticipated and never-before seen products – giving these coveted items a launch like no other.”

    Members from over 70% pin codes of India shopped this Prime Day. More than twice as many customers signed up for a Prime membership during the announce to event period compared to last year; Over 40% of new members came from cities outside the top 10 cities including Durgapur, Kurukshetra, Hooghly, Guntur, Satara, Bharuch, Chittoor among others. 1 out of 3 orders placed during Prime Day have already been delivered by the next day. 

    This Prime Day was the biggest sales event ever for Amazon devices in India. Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were among the top selling deals in India, with Fire TV Stick being the top-selling deal across all categories this Prime Day. Top sellers (excluding Amazon Devices) in India included Syska 9-Watt Smart LED Bulb compatible with Amazon Alexa, BoAt Rockerz Sports Bluetooth Wireless Earphone and Godrej Aer Pocket Bathroom Fragrance.

    Members enjoyed shopping for unique products and new launches from small and medium sellers who saw sales volumes increase 67% over last Prime Day.  Kalahaat artisans witnessed their sales volume increase close to 150% and Launchpad sellers experienced a YoY jump of over 65% increase in sales over last Prime Day

    Highlights from Prime Day 2019

    Shopping

    Prime Day 2019 was the biggest 2-day shopping event for Prime members on Amazon.in. 
    This Prime Day was the biggest sales event ever for Amazon devices in India. The most popular deal in India this Prime Day was the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.
    Customers worldwide made their home smarter this Prime Day by purchasing millions of smart home devices,  and top-selling deals in India included the Echo Dot + 9W Syska bulb
    Top selling smartphones included Apple iPhone XR, Prime day launches OnePlus 7 – Mirror Blue, Samsung Galaxy M40 – Cocktail Orange, OPPO F11 Pro – Waterfall Gray, Redmi Y3, Samsung Galaxy M30 & M20, LG W30 – Aurora Green and flagship models of OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro. Xiaomi was the no.1 selling smart phone brand by unit sales with Redmi Y3 being the highest selling smartphone on Amazon.in by unit sales.Customers purchased top deals in minutes including OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy M10 and Apple XR.
    Top selling large appliances included Samsung’s top-load washing machines, Bosch’s front-loading washing machine/dishwashers and LG & Whirlpool refrigerators. Customers also gave a big thumbs up to the newly launched IFB Alexa-enabled washing machine, Whirlpool’s top-load washing machine & Haier’s side-by-side refrigerator.
    Top-selling apparel brands included U.S. Polo Association, United colors of Benetton, Levis, Jockey and Biba. Popular luggage brands included American Tourister, Skybags and Safari and top-selling footwear brands included Fila, Sketchers, Catwalk and Paragon. Top-selling handbags included Lavie, Caprese, Hidesign and Van Heusen while top-selling Jewelry brands included Tribe by Amrapali and Peora.
    Headphones, Bluetooth speakers and cameras were the most bought consumer electronics. Top selling brands were Mi, BoAt, Boult, JBL and Sennheiser. Xiaomi emerged as the top consumer electronics brand by unit sales.
    Members enjoyed the convenience of shopping for Everyday essentials. Top sellers were Maggi Fusian, Max cold pressed virgin coconut oil and Lipton tea bags. Other popular brands included Tata Sampann, Kellogg’s cornflakes, Aashirvaad Ghee and Dabur Honey among others.
    Entertainment

    Members watched Prime Video in over 4,000 towns and cities across India.
    From the announcement to the Prime Day period, Prime members streamed music in over 35 Indian and international languages on Prime Music.
    Prime Music India saw the highest listeners ever in the week leading up to Prime Day.
    Since the announcement to the Prime Day event, the most streamed celebrity curated playlists were Neha Kakkar, Armaan Malik, Shreya Ghoshal and Hrithik Roshan.
    Savings

    Members used Amazon Pay to shop 50% more on partner sites during the announce to event period enjoying cashbacks and special offers from sites like Yatra, Box 8, Eazydiner, Medlife.
    2 out of 5 Prime members using HDFC bank cards for their purchases availing 10% instant bank discount
    Spotlight on Small and Medium sellers

    Members appreciated the unique selection from small and medium businesses. With exposure to Prime members across India at an all-time high, over 4500 small & medium sellers in India saw sales above INR 10 Lakhs. 
    Top selling products from SMBs included Power Gummies Hair Vitamin, Anti-Theft Backpack with USB Charging Port and Ayurvedic products from Kapiva.

    Shrey Badhani, Founder at Kapiva Ayurveda, said “At the outset, we would like to thank our customers and the Amazon team for their constant support and guidance that led to a successful Prime Day for brand Kapiva! This was our second Prime Day and our first with the Launchpad team. We have seen our highest ever per day sales over these two days and are excitedly waiting for Prime Day 2020!”

    Ankita Chaudhary, COO Power Gummies said ''Prime Day gave us an unique opportunity to showcase our brand Power Gummies hair vitamins and also provided us a key insights on pricing and inventory. It helped us in boosting our revenue and brand recognition. During the event, we saw our highest ever per day sale – Thank You Amazon!''
     

  • Netflix confirms Q3 roll-out of lower-priced mobile-screen plan for India

    Netflix confirms Q3 roll-out of lower-priced mobile-screen plan for India

    MUMBAI: Finally taking note of the price-sensitive Indian market, streaming giant Netflix has decided to roll out a lower-priced mobile screen plan in India. The streaming giant sees the new plan, which will launch in Q3, as an effective measure to expand its subscriber base in India. Earlier, the streamer had highlighted the need to lower prices for greater accessibility and more subscribers after its Q1 results.

    “After several months of testing, we’ve decided to roll out a lower-priced mobile-screen plan in India to complement our existing plans. We believe this plan, which will launch in Q3, will be an effective way to introduce a larger number of people in India to Netflix and to further expand our business in a market where Pay TV ARPU is low (below $5). We will continue to learn more after launch of this plan,” the company said in its letter to shareholders.

    It was reported a few months ago that the streaming giant was experimenting with a mobile only monthly plan priced at Rs 250 and weekly plan priced at Rs 65. It was reported that the mobile-only plans would allow users to access the platform on mobile phone and tablet but only on one screen at a time. However, the company has not revealed any price point yet.

    The move comes at a time when the Indian over-the-top (OTT) scene is witnessing a fierce battle among both international and home grown players to gain a stronger foothold in the market. All the OTT platforms are taking several steps including special subscription packages, telco bundling and sachets to attract more subscribers. Despite significant investment in high-quality content like Scared Games, Netflix has not yet been able to be break into the top-three OTT platforms list in India.

    While Hotstar is still leading the race, international rival Amazon Prime Video is also way ahead of Netflix. Moreover, Indian consumers are heavily inclined to consume content on small screens given the affordability of smart phones and cheaper mobile broadband data.

    “We're quite certain that we should do something to find a price tier that's lower than the existing lowest price tier to broaden that accessibility. We think that they'll be important to adding members in India. We'll see what the right mix of features is, because there is a bit of a magic to try and get the right set of features at the right price point in a way that the consumer can relate to, right, it has to be sort of natural and intuitive to the consumer that this is what they're getting. So we've got more work to go do there, but it's something we're highly focused on,” Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said in an earnings call after the Q1 result. Peters also said mobile-only plans can be a great example to get subscriber economy right.

    Explaining the relevance of the move, Peters said in an earnings call after Q2 results that there is an opportunity to broaden the access to the service, especially at a time when the company is expanding content offering. He also added that they are seeing a growth in engagement. 

    "So that's the primary motivator for that move, so we can broaden the audience that can love that content, enjoy that content that Ted's team is making. And that's great because like when we launched Sacred Games season 2, when you have a bigger audience for it, that means we can create more social buzz and more excitement about that show. So we're doing that. We're also working on the partnerships we have in the market because we think there are specific opportunities to improve accessibility via those partnerships as well," he added.

    While the streaming giant has very recently announced five new originals for India, it is particularly excited about Baahubali. At a time when Netflix is increasing its focus on original films, this will be the first move into a really large scale Indian original film. 

    "It's based on a film that was hugely popularly a year ago and this is a series prequel, sequel model that way things going to be incredibly popular in India and we've been seeing steady, nice steady increases and engagement with our Indian viewers that we think we can keep billing on. Growth in that country is a marathon. So we're, in it for the long haul and we're seeing nice steady progress," Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos commented. 

  • Netflix’s first domestic subscriber loss in 8 years; misses international addition estimate

    Netflix’s first domestic subscriber loss in 8 years; misses international addition estimate

    MUMBAI: The streaming giant Netflix witnessed domestic subscriber loss for the first time in the last eight years since it separated its DVD mail-order system and streaming platform. In the second quarter (Q2) of 2019, Netflix also added nearly 2 million fewer international customers than expected.

    In contrast to the projected 5 million addition in international subscribers, Netflix only gained 2.7 million subscribers. On the other hand, the company also lost more than 100,000 subscribers in the US. The company in its letter to shareholders said that Q2’s content slate drove less growth in paid net adds than it anticipated. Netflix added that the missed forecast was more noticed in the regions where prices were hiked. However, the company also denied any impact of the increased competition on the Q2 results.

    “Additionally, Q1, there may have been more pull-forward effect than we realised. In prior quarters with over-forecasts, we’ve found that the underlying long-term growth was not affected and staying focused on the fundamentals of our business served us well,” the company said in a letter to its shareholders.

    The streaming platform has started the third quarter with a returning season of its hit show Stranger Things while the final season of another iconic show Orange is the New Black will be released in the quarter. The company expects the subscriber growth to return to more typical growth in Q3, and said it is seeing that in these early weeks of Q3. It also forecast Q3 global paid net adds of 7 million with 0.8 million in the US and 6.2 million internationally.

    However, Netflix posted revenue of $4.92 billion, in-line with Wall Street’s $4.93 billion estimate, and earnings of 60 cents per share beating analyst consensus estimates of EPS 56 cents. “Much of our domestic, and eventually global, Disney catalog, as well as Friends, The Office, and some other licensed content will wind down over the coming years, freeing up budget for more original content,” the company added.

    The company also highlighted building out its licensing and brand partnerships effort, which is optimising for fan and viewer engagement over revenue maximisation. It also noted during the launch of Stranger Things season 3, the platform partnered with best-in-class brands like Coke, Nike, Burger King, and Baskin Robbins to build deep connections with the fans.

    More importantly, it announced a very important move in its important international market India in front of the product initiative. “After several months of testing, we’ve decided to roll out a lower-priced mobile-screen plan in India to complement our existing plans. We believe this plan, which will launch in Q3, will be an effective way to introduce a larger number of people in India to Netflix and to further expand our business in a market where Pay TV ARPU is low (below $5). We will continue to learn more after launch of this plan,” the company said.

  • SonyLIV and Amazon Pay partner to offer a convenient and easy digital payment option for viewers

    SonyLIV and Amazon Pay partner to offer a convenient and easy digital payment option for viewers

    MUMBAI: In its efforts to make payment getaways more convenient for consumers, SonyLIV, India’s first premium video on demand (VOD) platform, has partnered with Amazon Pay, adding another secure payment option on its platform. While the service is already available for the subscribers, the cashback gratifications will start in less than 2 weeks. To access this payment mode, users will have to select Amazon Pay as their mode of payment on SonyLIV’s payment page and as part of the collaboration, users will get an instant cashback of 30% (up to Rs. 150/-) over a period of 90 days.

    Amazon Pay will be extended across the country to SonyLIV subscribers and allow them to enjoy an uninterrupted online viewing experience and discover good quality content, through an easy and hassle-free mode of payment.