MUMBAI: E-commerce giant Amazon posted much-stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings. Owing to growth in prime subscriptions, cloud computing and nascent advertising business, the company topped $2 billion in quarterly profit for the first time in its history. Analysts predict those two factors will continue to push the company forward in coming quarters.
Net income increased to $2.5 billion in the second quarter while last year in the same quarter the growth was $197 million. Net sales increased 39 per cent to $52.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with $38.0 billion in second quarter 2017. However, the sales growth was slightly below Wall Street’s estimates.
“A big contributor to the quarter and the last few quarters obviously has been strong growth in our highest profitability businesses and also advertising,” CFO Brian Olsavsky said. “We’ve seen a greater-than-expected efficiency in a lot of our spend in things like warehouses, data centres, marketing.”
This was the third consecutive quarter that Amazon has topped $1 billion in profit. Amazon’s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services division, jumped to more than $6 billion in sales for the quarter. “Amazon Web Services is basically the silver bullet for them for future growth,” Synovus Trust senior portfolio manager Dan Morgan said as quoted by CNN.
“I would say that, in addition to the operating efficiencies, advertising is also starting to make an impact on gross profit, although advertising is smaller in the international segment than it’s in North America, it’s growing at a same rapid clip year-over-year,” Olasavsky said in an earnings call.
“We continue to invest. We’re investing in India obviously, and have seen good traction there. We just passed our Fifth Year Anniversary – celebrated our Fifth Year Anniversary, as the most visited site in India. So we think there’s a lot of great innovation that has continued to occur for Indian consumers and sellers, and that will continue,” he commented on Indian market.
Amazon is on an upward journey this year. Earlier this month, its market value topped $900 billion for the first time. Following the result, the stock jumped 3 per cent in afterhours trading.
MUMBAI: ZEE5 keeps expanding its regional content library with the launch of Liftman, a Marathi situational comedy web series. The newly launched web series of 10 episodes is running in a short duration of 8-10 minutes.
It features Bhalchandra (Bhau) Kadam of Chala Hawa Yeu Dya fame in the titular role. Along the line of the theme, it has been shot almost entirely in the lift. The series introduces a range of different personalities who encounter Bhau on their ‘journey’ up and down. Bhau Kadam is widely lauded for the comic roles played by him.
“The Marathi-speaking audience has an evolved sense of entertainment as may be evident from our rich heritage of theatre and cinema. With humour on the go, rich concept, relatable characters, and well-known artists from the space – Liftman has it all. Bhau Kadam in many ways is synonymous with comedy today in the Marathi industry, and I am glad that he chose to play the liftman in our short 8-10 minute snackable comedy web series,” ZEE5 India business head Manish Aggarwal said.
“The concept of Liftman is such a phenomenal one and I am thrilled about the new avenues of media such as ZEE5 that naturally render themselves to such innovative formats. This series marks my web debut in a titular role, and I couldn’t have chosen a better concept for the same. With smartphones becoming such a common feature, entertainment options with the audience is gradually changing. Today, literally everything is at one’s fingertips – and in such cases how can one be left behind?” Bhalchandra (Bhau) Kadam commented on the show launch.
MUMBAI: Netflix is all set to release a new Indian original film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe on 3 August. This is the first Netflix original from Yoodlee Films. The OTT platform has also released the trailer of the upcoming film.
The film stars Arjun Mathur, Nidhi Singh, Sheetal Thakur, Manav Vij, Sunny Hinduja, Vijayant Kohli and Yogendra Tikku. The story revolves around the life of 36-year-old Brij Mohan, a hosiery shop owner in a busy Delhi market.
“We are very proud to have films of the calibre of Brij Mohan Amar Rahe on the service, where millions of film-lovers around the world can discover these strong, captivating stories. We are also thrilled to get our first collaboration with Saregama off the ground, marking another milestone in our commitment towards forging solid relationships with Indian content creators,” Netflix international originals and acquisition director Swati Shetty commented.
“Netflix is the premium VOD player and it is especially gratifying that the very first two films in our slate have found a home on this platform. It encourages us to continue to make fearless films that will reach out to audiences both domestic and international,” Saregama VP TV & Films Siddharth Anand Kumar said.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently said advantages are tremendous in India for internet viewing. Its first original film in India Love per Square Foot also did well. The platform is enriching its Indian original bouquet since the beginning of this year.
MUMBAI: OTT platform Viu has expanded its footprint in the regional market by launching in the Tamil market. It has entered the market with localised content including Tamil language Originals, Tamil short films along with Korean dramas and curated content.
Viu is highly focusing on partnerships with leading players of the Tamil content industry. It has partnered with AP International Films, Sameer Bharat Ram, digital content producer Trendaloud , YouTube content producers Black Sheep and Fully Filmi.
“The youth of Tamil Nadu are unique. They have a perfect balance of modern unbiased outlook and deep-rooted culture and values. They have a unique liking for great stories told with local style and taste. We are here to offer them exactly that through our compelling curated content and fresh Viu Tamil Originals. We are deeply committed to investing in this market to develop the content industry and talent pool to serve the Tamil audience,” Vuclip president and COO Arun Prakash said.
The platform aims to win Tamil millennial audience by offering content in comfort language. The four new Tamil premium originals include Kalyanamum Kadhandhu Pogum, Madras Mansion, Door No. 403, Door No. 403 while two Tamil short films Masha Allah… Ganesha, The Wind will be exclusively available on the platform.
MUMBAI: After the stunning success of America Mappillai,ZEE5 – India’s largest and most comprehensive digital entertainment platformfor language content—today announced the launch of the second ZEE5 OriginalinTamil – Kallachirippu.ZEE5hosted a grand party to celebrate the launch that was attended by industry stalwarts including renownded directors Vettrimaran, Ram, Partiban, Aravind Krishna, Prasnna, Balaji Mohan and Vignesh Shivan.
Produced by Karthik Subburaj of Mercury and Jigarthanda fame, Kallachirippu that translates as ‘Picture Perfect’, is an intense thriller drama about a young urban couple whose arranged marriage goes horribly wrong when the wife accidentally kills her husband. This sets off a chain of events that reveal the true nature of every character involved in this marriage. On a deeper level, it delves into the unpredictability of life and the façade that one keeps up in society – what you see if not what you get, more often that not!It brings together elements of thrill, intrigue and excitement to the viewers.
The series stars Amrutha Srinivasan,who was applauded for her role inthe superhit Mental Madhilo, and will be available for binge watch from July 23rd onwards.
The story revolves around the 24-year old protagonist and opens with her confessing to her husband that she wants a divorce. A war of words follows ending in him deadby her hands.The rest of the series takes you through an eerie turn of events making this an edge-of-the-seat thriller.Narrated in a layered manner, the web series explores an interesting screenplay and edit pattern, hitherto unseen in the Tamil industry.The story narrative is meant to map the workings of Amrutha’s character’s mind making it a far more engaging watch. Amrutha is joined by a bevy of established artistes from Tollywood including Rohit, Vikas, Rajalakshmi, Uma, Maheswaran and Chennu Mohan.
Speaking at the launch event, producer of the web series Karthik Subbaraj says, “Kallachirippu is the first web series from my production house, Stone Bench Productions,and it explores thriller as a genre.The Tamil audience today is seeking more edgy content and hence the web-series formats work brilliantly for us. Given the ZEE Group’s prowess in producing unique content and their wide reach across the country and globally, I am thrilled to make my debut with them.”
ZEE5 India, Business Head, Manish Aggarwal said, “We have recently strengthened our Tamil content offering, and Kallachirrupuis yet another exciting addition.We have received phenomenal response from the Tamil-speaking audience all across the world which is indicative of their readiness for content such as ours.I am confident that Kallachirippuwill be a benchmark in Tamil digital content history and I am really looking forward to the audience response on this one. This confidence stems from the fact the trailer has garnered over three million in just four days of being uploaded.”
As India’s largest and most comprehensive digital entertainment platform for multilingual entertainment, ZEE5 is equipped to offer Voice Search by language to its users, making way for ‘glocal’ content consumption shift amongst consumers.
Riding on this unique proposition, the app has now strengthened its Tamil content library with Tamil films such as MOM, Mersal, MannarVagaiyara and IruMugan, as also ZEE5 Tamil originals such as America Mapillai. In addition, it has now made available original content hits in other languages from the ZEE5 stable including Zero KMS, The Story, Mehmaan, Tamashree, Sone Bhi Do Yaron, Table no 5 and Babbar Ka Tabbar (Hindi), Nanna Koochi (Telugu) and Utsaha Itihasam (Malayalam) in Tamil.
What’s more! Tamil dubbed versions of International titles like John Wick 2 and Young Pope are also listed. And, while you are it, you can catch episodes of Community, Maigret and Dr Foster (in English, though!) if you have missed them when it played on TV.
And as if this range of content was not attractive enough, here’s the clincher – you get to watch the first two episodes of all ZEE5’s original content shows as well as the international shows for free before you make up your mind – a true try-and-buy!
Availability: The ZEE5 App can be downloaded from Google Play Storehttp://bit.ly/zee5andand iOS App Storehttp://bit.ly/zee5ios. Also available at www.zee5.com, as a Progressive Web App (PWA), and on Apple TVand Amazon Fire TV Stick.ZEE5 also supports Chromecast.
Pricing: Freemium pricing model with both free and paidpremium content (including Originals) tocater to a mix of audiences. Viewers who subscribe to the ZEE5 subscriptionpack will get access to the entire library of content at a special launch offer price of INR 99 per monthinstead of the actual monthly pack price of INR 150.
MUMBAI: Premium video-on-demand service HOOQ has roped in two industry veterans who will focus on deepening the platform’s original and local content. Bryan Seah has been appointed as its head of original productions and Tina Arwin as its new head of content Indonesia.
Prior to his latest position, Seah worked as the original content head at Discovery Network where he oversaw original branded content for the likes of Nestlé, Audi and Samsung. He has produced and developed a range of programmes from current affairs to reality for media brands such as Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, NHK and TLC. His experience spans over 15 years.
“There’s really no better time to be a consumer or producer of quality content today – OTT platforms have given audiences full control of the viewing experience, while producers have more avenues than ever to share their stories. HOOQ has led the charge in delivering premium content in partnership with top producers. I am delighted to join the dynamic team at HOOQ and to be part of this commitment to bring world-class content to our audiences, and I look forward to working closely with the production community across Asia to showcase the unique stories from our dynamic region,” Seah commented on his new appointment.
Arwin worked as content and programming head of Viu Indonesia leading the content acquisition and programming strategy for the market. She has more than 18 years of experience in the Indonesian market. She worked with brands like MTV Indonesia, Fremantlemedia, Astro Indonesia and Vivasky.
“HOOQ presents an exciting opportunity, particularly in Indonesia where it is the market leader. Known for bringing in the best of local and Hollywood content to local viewers, I am thrilled to be joining the team and look forward to work together with the team to bring more local and original quality content that are both engaging and entertaining,” Arwin spoke about her new role.
MUMBAI: Netflix and Shondaland have announced the first batch of series developed by Shonda Rhimes. The shows will chiefly be female-powered stories, several of which will be led by female creatives.
As per a report by CNN, the platform has revealed eight shows in development as part of the company’s $300 million deals with Rhimes and her Shondaland banner.
“I wanted the new Shondaland to be a place where we expand the types of stories we tell, where my fellow talented creatives could thrive and make their best work and where we as a team come to the office each day filled with excitement. Ted and Cindy and everyone at Netflix have been incredible partners in making that happen. This is Shondaland 2.0,” said Rhimes as quoted by a blog post.
The projects include the following series (all titles are working titles)
Untitled Shonda Rhimes Project
Based on the New York Magazine article-‘How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People’ by Jessica Pressler. Manhattan makes a new friend like no other. But is she the stuff American dreams are made of or is she New York’s biggest con woman? Is it a con if you enjoy being taken?
Untitled Bridgerton Project
Based on Julia Quinn’s best-selling series of novels, this smart feminist take on Regency England romance unveils the glittering, wealthy, sexual, painful, funny and sometimes lonely lives of the women and men in London’s high society marriage mart as told through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.
The Warmth of Other Suns
Based on Pulitzer-Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book of the same name, this powerful groundbreaking series tracks the decades-long migration of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life in the North and the West between 1916 and 1970.
National Humanities Medal recipient, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and 2-time Drama Desk winning playwright Anna Deavere Smith (EP) is set to adapt.
Pico & Sepulveda
Set in the 1840s against the surreal and sensual backdrop of the then-Mexican state of California, the series tracks the end of an idyllic era there as American forces threaten brutality and war at the border to claim this breathtaking land for its own.
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Ellen Pao’s groundbreaking memoir detailing her life and career, including the lawsuit she brought against her former employer that sparked intense media scrutiny, shook Silicon Valley to its boys’ club core and pre-saged the Time’s Up movement.
The Residence
Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Kate Andersen Brower’s brilliant nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, which offers a vividly accurate insider’s account of White House residence staffers and the upstairs downstairs lives they share with the First Families at one of the most famous homes in history.
Sunshine Scouts
In this darkly comedic half-hour series, an apocalyptic disaster spares a rag-tag group of teenage girls at sleepaway camp who must then summon their moxie and survival skills to weather the fallout and ensure all that remains of humanity abides by the Sunshine Scout Law.
Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning re imagining of the classic ballet, The Nutcracker.
MUMBAI: Eros International is looking to reaffirm its distribution expertise in the regional markets as it is set to release the highly anticipated Telugu action fantasy thriller Saakshyam on 27 July. The leading company in film entertainment industry will release the film in association with Abhishek Pictures.
The action entertainer features superstar Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas and Pooja Hegde as main leads while Abhishek Nama has produced and Sriwass has directed the much-hyped movie. Well-known music director Harshavardhan Rameshwar has composed the music in the film with Arthur A Wilson as cinematographer and national award-winning fight choreographer Peter Hein. The story is based on five elements of nature.
“We are delighted to partner with Abhishek Pictures and come on board this eagerly awaited release. With a hugely popular cast, high octane entertainment and a talented director like Sriwass with who we hope to recreate the success of our previous venture dictator, we anticipate the film to be a mass entertainer. Our association on the film continues our focus to make strategic inroads into south Indian cinema,” Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla said.
MUMBAI: Digital entertainment company Hungama will make the most of its live streaming ability by broadcasting ‘Khazana – A Festival of Ghazals’. The company has been the digital partner of the concert for seven long years.
Users across the globe can tune in to Hungama Music, Hungama Play, Artist Aloud app and the platforms’ respective social media pages to catch the show. Moreover, post-show, it will also provide catch-up content from Khazana on Tata Sky Music, Tata Sky Music+, Airtel DTH, Airtel Linear Channel – Nazrana, Hungama Play, Mi TV and Mi Music.
The festival which will be held on 27 and 28 July will feature live performances from some of the greatest ghazal voices, including Pankaj Udhas, Talat Aziz, Anup Jalota, Rekha Bhardwaj and Sudeep Banerjee.
“Our association with Khazana is a unique blend of creativity and technology. It allows us to leverage the power of digital and take the craft of ghazals to an international audience. We are elated to take the festival live on our platforms and also extremely honoured to lend our support to the two charities,” Hungama Digital Media managing director and CEO Neeraj Roy said.
This year’s concert will also see performances from the most promising talent seen at the contest Khazana Artist Aloud Talent Hunt. The contest which has been executed digitally on Artist Aloud received participation from 75 cities across the country.
“Through Khazana we aim to help people discover the beauty of ghazals and fall in love with the art all over again. We are excited for this year’s festival as we’ll be introducing four fresh voices that we found through the Khazana Artist Aloud Talent Hunt. I am certain that through our association with Hungama, we’ll be able to take ghazal singing to greater heights,” the renowned Ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas commented on the association.
MUMBAI: Netflix has unveiled a new design that makes it easier for people to discover stories through the TV. The new interface is called App Menu, which aims to offer simpler and easier browsing using fewer buttons on the remote control.
Netflix director product innovation Stephen Garcia said, “At Netflix, we are constantly asking ourselves what can we do to make it even easier for our members to spend less time browsing and more time discovering stories they will love. We realise that there so many great stories on the service, and that sometimes our members need a little bit of help figuring out where to start. The new interface was based on rigorous research and testing around how we can make it easier to find titles on TVs, where navigation can feel a bit tougher when you are restricted to just a few buttons on a remote control,” according to AdvancedTelevision.com.
The new design rolled out to Netflix subscribers around the world from 18 July and is built specifically for the restricted navigation experience when using a TV remote.
According to Garcia, the new TV interface was designed to make the Netflix experience simpler and more intuitive in a few different ways. “We’ve also made it easier to access titles you’ve saved for later viewing in My List. In our testing of this new interface, we saw that this simpler design helped members find something great to watch.”
Other than the new side navigation bar, the Netflix interface is largely unchanged and is still tile-based with auto playing trailers and a vertical scrolling design.
“While this may feel like an obvious update to some, validating that this TV experience was better for our members took extensive research, testing and technology improvements. Along those lines, we will continuously learn from our members and evolve the TV experience so that it gets even more simple, fun and easy to find the stories that make Netflix great,” he added.
