ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • TVF ropes in Vivek Saxena as north head for brand partnerships

    TVF ropes in Vivek Saxena as north head for brand partnerships

    MUMBAI: The Viral Fever (TVF), a digital platform, has announced Vivek Saxena as north head for brand partnerships. Saxena has joined TVF from Hotstar where he was managingagency relationship nationally with Publicis, IPG and Omnicom Media Group.

    “We’re delighted to have Vivek join us – he brings a wealth of experience and strengthens our excellent team based in New Delhi. With the branded content and video platform businesses both growing rapidly, Vivek’s acumen and leadership will help us take the next leap in our work in the north region and have more new categories take their first step towards branded content,” TVF brand-partnership head Vijay Koshi said.

    In his new position, he will be responsible for identifying and building new revenue streams as well as fostering deeper brand relationships. He will also help synergise the branded entertainment business for TVF network’s channels, optimising the price benefits for brand partners.

    “TVF has been doing some amazing work in creating content IPs and scaling them with brands. It’s an exciting time for brands as entertainment supply grows. I’ve always believed there’s life beyond YouTube and Facebook for brands. TVF has the ability to entertain with a great story, and meet brand objectives. With four major channel brands, and TVFPlay, the platform, TVF is uniquely positioned to take this advantage further. I’m excited about the opportunity to use my experience and help scale this fast growing business,” Saxena commented after new appointment.

    Saxena’s experience spans over 14 years across well-known companies. Moreover, Vivek has been in leadership roles and liaised with brands across sectors such as telecom,automobiles, FMCG and lifestyle. In the past, he has worked with the Times Group, Mid-Day Infomedia and Jagran Prakashan.

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  • Introducing Mobile Previews

    Introducing Mobile Previews

    One of the best ways to know if you’ll like a new series or movie is to watch a quick trailer. Today, we are excited to introduce mobile previews (launching today on iOS and coming soon to Android) to the mobile experience. Mobile previews present members with a fun, simple, and easy way to learn about all the new content on Netflix — and find something great to watch even faster.

    Each preview is about 30 seconds long and presented in a vertical format, so you can watch them without turning your phone. The previews are shown like a slideshow, so if you see something you like, you can tap play or add to your list. If not, you can swipe or tap the screen to advance to the next preview.

    Last year, we introduced video previews to the TV experience, which brought dynamic and engaging video to the TV interface. Years of testing has made it clear that video previews help our members browse less and discover new content more quickly. With the launch of mobile previews, we are bringing a video browse experience to your mobile phone in a fun and mobile-optimized way.

    Mobile previews load very quickly, are personalized to your specific tastes, and are easy to use. We hope you like using this new feature and that mobile previews help you find your next favorite show!

  • FuboTV raises $75 million from Fox, AMC Networks and Sky

    FuboTV raises $75 million from Fox, AMC Networks and Sky

    Days after ESPN launched its new streaming service ESPN+, FuboTV, a three-year old streaming TV service for sports fans, is announcing the close of $75 million in Series D funding. The round included new investor AMC Networks and existing investors 21st Century Fox, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky, and Scripps Networks Interactive, which was recently acquired by Discovery, Inc.

    FuboTV has been working to carve out a niche for itself in the streaming TV market, where a number of competitors are delivering television programming to cord cutters by way of the internet.

    While many streaming TV services offer some sports content in their base packages, or sell additional access through add-ons, FuboTV’s core focus has been on serving the sports fan.

    The service provides access to live games from the NBA, NHL, UFC, and football, including matches from Bundesliga, EPL, La Liga to Liga MX, MLS, FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and UEFA Champions League matches.

    FuboTV’s basic package with 70-plus channels, Fubo Premier, is $19.99 for the first month, which then becomes $44.99 per month after. The streaming service doesn’t just generate revenue from subscriptions, however, and also sells advertising.

    Since the last funding round ten months ago, the company has streamed its first MLB All Star Game, Playoffs and World Series; Tour de France; NFL regular season, playoffs and Super Bowl; college football; and the Winter Olympic Games. And it has exited beta on Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, iOS and Android; revamped its user interface; and debuted new features like “Lookback” and “Startover.”

    The lineup it offers has begun to broaden beyond sports in recent months, as well.

    While it has added several new sports additions in the last ten months, it has added entertainment networks, too–including those from its strategic investors. These include AMC, BBC AMERICA, CBS, CBS Sports Network, CBSN, Food Network, FUSION TV, HGTV, IFC, MSG, MSG+, NESN, NFL Network, Pac-12 Network, Pop, SNY, SundanceTV, The Olympic Channel, Travel Channel and WE tv.

    Combined, FuboTV offers viewers more than 30,000 sporting events per year and 10,000 plus titles in its video-on-demand library.

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    ALTBalaji’s Sethi reaffirms faith in originals

    Shilpa Shetty makes digital debut with Amazon dating show

  • ALTBalaji’s Sethi reaffirms faith in originals

    ALTBalaji’s Sethi reaffirms faith in originals

    MUMBAI: Among the plethora of over-the-top (OTT) players that sprung up in the Indian market, we have Balaji Telefilms’ ALTBalaji, which is striving to understand content through the eyes of its customers. The platform takes customer feedback seriously to predict which content will work.

    After gaining positive audience reactions for Bose: Dead/Alive, Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain and Haq Se, the platform may return with Haq Se season 2 as ALTBalaji CMO Manav Sethi confirmed in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com.

    With smartphones personalising everything, content is not left out of this change. Leveraging the shift in viewing patterns, OTT platforms are not only coming up with originals but also content of different genres to cater to every segment of the audience. According to a Deloitte report, Indian players have set aside about Rs 3300 crore for original content production.

    Despite the emphasis on original content by national as well as international players, a recently published report said that only 20 per cent of users in the US watched originals on Netflix. The other 80 per cent predominantly saw shows such as Breaking Bad, The Office, and Grey’s Anatomy. In that context, when asked if OTT platforms’ dependence on originals was overstated, Sethi reiterated the importance of originals for ALTBalaji.

    While ALTBalaji’s big hits-Bose:Dead / Alive, Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain, Haq Se, The Test Case, Ragini MMS Returns-were acclaimed by viewers, a variety of audiences tuned in. Some of the shows were adored by metro cities while some enjoyed popularity in small towns. According to estimates, OTT users are likely to exceed 355 million by 2020, faster if internet services improve.

    “There are certain stories that the small towns have evolved to appreciate. Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat, those shows did very well in small towns. There were actors from TV and household stories, which audiences could relate to,” Sethi said.

    Right now, the platform is bursting at the seams with 50 shows from various genres such as comedy and drama, each at different stages of execution. Many hit shows are being brought back for the second season among which Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain and Dev DD have already been announced.

    Indians can’t seem to get enough of drama with it being the favourite choice on ALTBalaji, too. A new genre combining horror and sex, which Sethi refers to as horrex, is the largest growing genre consumed by ALTBalaji consumers.

    The company is very frugal when it comes to marketing spends. “Our marketing strategy has been very out in the open. We spend most of the money on digital. We don’t believe in spending irrationally and in an exaggerating manner. We are focusing on acquiring the viewers and the subscribers,” Sethi said.

    “We keep focusing on content and analytics. We’re taking cognisance of all the signals our consumers give such as whether they like our shows, don’t like them, where the major dropouts are happening or which episode saw largest number of dropouts,” he added.

    Ever since launch, ALTBalaji has focussed on originals while competitors have dived into areas like sports and catch-up. International competitor Netflix has earmarked $6 billion for original and licenced content with a significant chunk for India. Amazon is spending $300 million in India for acquiring Bollywood movies and originals.

    While the international players are entering the market with a high amount of investment, the company wants to remain very cautious about its expenditure and level-headed about its content.

    Also Read :

    It’s raining awards for ALTBalaji this 2018!

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  • Shilpa Shetty makes digital debut with Amazon dating show

    Shilpa Shetty makes digital debut with Amazon dating show

    MUMBAI: In order to build a strong footprint in India, Amazon Prime Video has announced a new show Hear Me. Love Me around the concept of blind dating.  Bollywood actress and fitness guru Shilpa Shetty will host the show marking her debut on a digital platform.

    In search of “perfect recipe for love”, the show combines modern-day technology with the rules of old-world romance. Young women between 21 and 32 years of age, with different aspirations and from different walks of life, make an attempt to find love and companionship. The single woman who will be set up on three dates in a single day won’t be able to see what her dates look like. The theme is geared towards attracting India’s millennial audience.

    “This show is fun and fresh and we believe it will appeal to our current and future Prime members. It is based on the premise of choosing a date, but with a big twist and in a never-seen-before format in India.  I think Shilpa is a great fit for this show and the audience will love the role she plays in this Prime Original. We’re excited to add Hear Me. Love Me. to the slate of innovative shows we’re making for our Prime members,” Amazon Prime Video content director Vijay Subramaniam said.

    The show is being produced by FreemantleMedia India, which uses technology to take virtual dating to the next level. After three dates, the single woman has to choose one from among the dates. During the time of decision-making, Shilpa Shetty will help contestants.

    The bachelors wear a mini camera on their chest sharing their lives, but never revealing their faces, thereby eliminating looks as a deciding factor. This format provides a sneak peek into the day of the life of the date.

    “I am thrilled to make my digital debut with Amazon Prime Video with this unique reality show. I am sure all of us have wondered if looks are everything when it comes to dating.  Hear Me. Love Me. puts this concept to the test! The format of this unusual and edgy reality show revolves around dating through the heart.  The show tries to uncover what each contestant values the most in their date,” Shilpa Shetty said.

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    Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

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  • Netflix beats earnings forecasts riding on global user additions

    Netflix beats earnings forecasts riding on global user additions

    MUMBAI: Exceeding user addition forecasts, Netflix’s first quarter (Q1) earnings were in line with expectations while revenue bettered estimates.

    Revenue grew by 43 per cent year over year in Q1 due to a 25 per cent increase in average paid streaming memberships and a 14 per cent rise in the average selling price (ASP). Operating margin of 12 per cent rose 232 bps year over year. This was higher than the company’s quarter guidance, due primarily to the timing of content spend.

    Global net user adds totalled a new Q1 record of 7.41 million, up 50 per cent year on year and higher than the forecast of 6.35 million.

    “The variance relative to our guidance was driven by continued strong acquisition trends across the globe which we attribute to the growing breadth of our content and the worldwide adoption of internet entertainment,” Netflix said in its statement.

    In the US, it added 1.96 million memberships (compared with forecast of 1.45 million). Outside of the US, membership grew by 5.46 million (forecast of 4.90 million). Our international segment now accounts for 50 per cent of revenue and 55 per cent of memberships

    Netflix has relied on international growth and heavy investments in original content to drive subscriptions — and Monday’s results provided an update on their effectiveness.

    Netflix’s addition of 7.41 million international subscribers set a new record, marking growth of 50 percent from a year ago.

    Chief content officer Ted Sarandos said Netflix has shot original content in 17 countries as it focuses more on local programming, and that many of Netflix’s foreign-language shows would be considered “big hits” on American cable channels, thanks to artful subtitling. CEO Reed Hastings added that Netflix has also seen success on its international mobile app offerings. But Hastings also said that the company hadn’t changed its view on expanding in China, and will continue to license content.

    The company also said it expects to have $7.5 billion to $8 billion of content expenses this year, in line with previous estimates. Netflix had said it expects to grow to 60 million to 90 million members in the U.S. over time and that it would spend $8 billion on content and $2 billion on marketing this year.

    The company highlighted Spanish-language hit La Casa de Papel, unscripted series Queer Eye and franchises such as Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Grace and Frankie, Santa Clarita Diet and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Netflix also credited new talent, such as Shonda Rhimes and Jenji Kohan, for their “proven track record of success” and for allowing Netflix to cut back “reliance on third-party studios.”

    “We’re investing in more marketing of new original titles to create more density of viewing and conversation around each title,” the company said.

    The marketing spending comes after Netflix was barred from competing at the Cannes film festival due to a rule change — a setback the company called unfortunate.

    One thing that’s not on the spending slate, Sarandos said, is news programming.

    “Our move into news has been misreported over and over again. We’re not looking to expand into news beyond the work that we’re doing in long-form and short-form documentary,” Sarandos said. “Topical interview shows, absolutely, but keep in mind, those are entertainment.”

    Netflix faces increasing competition from Amazon and Disney, which have their own offerings, as well as traditional media companies and technology companies such as Apple. Hastings said the company still has a long way to go to compete with the likes of YouTube and noted that Netflix’s ability to raise prices depends on providing more value than competitors.

    At the same time, Netflix is expanding into cable bundles and recently announced a new offering with Comcast, in addition to bundles with Sky, T-Mobile and Altice.

    Netflix said on Monday the bundles allow the company to upsell existing subscribers. Executives said on a conference call that the “new wave” of operator partnerships was a consistent shift across all geographic markets.

    “We remain primarily a direct-to-consumer business, but we see our bundling initiative as an attractive supplemental channel,” the company said.

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    In February this year, Hastings, at a business summit in India, said that  Netflix saw a potential of adding 100 million customers in India. “It definitely helps to have confidence on the growth of the internet. Even we couldn’t predict the last two years of Indian internet growth,” he had said.

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  • LaLiga weekend brings new record for Barcelona and mixed feelings for Torres and Isco

    LaLiga weekend brings new record for Barcelona and mixed feelings for Torres and Isco

    Mumbai: Barcelona set another record and took a further step towards the 2017/18 title in a LaLiga weekend which also brought bittersweet moments for Fernando Torres of Atletico Madrid and Isco of Real Madrid.

    LaLiga leaders Barca were pushed all the way by Valencia at the Camp Nou on Saturday, but Brazil star Philippe Coutinho assisted goals for teammates Luis Suarez and Samuel Umtiti, and Dani Parejo’s penalty was not enough Los Che. A 39th consecutive game unbeaten saw the Blaugrana set a new all-time LaLiga record – and they now have an 11 point lead with just five games remaining.

    Atletico remain second, with Sunday afternoon’s 3-0 victory at home to Levante seeing Diego Simeone’s side into the Champions League for a sixth consecutive year. Angel Correa and Antoine Griezmann put the Rojiblancos in charge, before soon to depart fans’ hero ‘El Niño’

    Torres entered as a substitute and netted his 100th career LaLiga goal.

    Madrid jumped over Valencia into fourth spot by winning 2-1 at Malaga on Sunday evening, with Isco man of the match against his hometown club. The Malaga-born playmaker pointedly did not celebrate after curling in a 25 yard free kick, or when later setting up the second for teammate Casemiro. Diego Rolan’s injury time strike was not much consolation for the bottom side.

    The weekend began Friday, with Real Betis taking a firm hold of fifth place thanks to Joaquin Sanchez producing one of the assists of the season. The 36 year old Verdiblanco captain carried the ball at pace from his own half before playing in Loren Moron for the only goal at Girona.

    Sixth placed Villarreal went 2-0 up at Sevilla on Saturday afternoon through Daniel Raba’s header and Carlos Bacca’s goal against his old club. But the seventh placed Andalusians hit back through Nolito’s volley and Steven N’Zonzi’s long ranger as both clubs remained in likely Europa League spots.

    Celta Vigo’s European qualification chances took a blow as they lost 1-0 at Leganes on Saturday afternoon, with Miguel Angel Guerrero converting Nabil El Zhar’s cross. Alaves’ Swedish striker John Guidetti’s low strike after just four minutes decided Sunday lunchtime’s Basque derbi at Eibar. Later that day, Uruguayan defender Damian Suarez’s 35 yard free kick secured the three points as Getafe beat Espanyol to climb into the top half.

    In the relegation battle, Deportivo La Coruna gave themselves hope after Clarence Seedorf’s side edged a five goal thriller at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday evening, with Depor captain Adrian Lopez scoring twice for a second consecutive game. Las Palmas’ chances of survival were hit by a 0-1 loss at home to Real Sociedad, with winger Mikel Oyarzabal netting.

    A midweek round of LaLiga games begins Tuesday with Deportivo hosting Sevilla, leaders Barcelona at Celta and Leganes visiting Villarreal that same evening. Wednesday sees Athletic Club coming to Madrid’s Bernabeu, Valencia at home to Getafe, and Espanyol against Eibar at Cornella el-Prat.

    Thursday brings Atletico’s Griezmann back at his former club Real Sociedad, Girona at Alaves, Levante aiming to move closer to safety at home to Malaga, and Las Palmas really needing a win at Betis

  • The Quint India Selects Brightcove For Its Digital-First News Platform

    The Quint India Selects Brightcove For Its Digital-First News Platform

    MUMBAI: Brightcove (NASDAQ: BCOV), the leading provider of cloud services for video, today announced that its video platform has been selected by The Quint, one of India’s fastest growing news publishers, to manage and stream video content on its website, mobile apps and across social media channels.

    The Quint was founded in 2016 as a digital-first publisher catering to the millennial generation. During this time, The Quint has seen its traffic soar to 15 million unique visitors per day with users accessing content topics ranging from politics, policy, entertainment, sports, business, food, and pop culture. Video is a core part of The Quint’s content portfolio and user engagement strategy and it is both embedded throughout its articles and used as standalone content. The Quint monetises video with pre-roll advertising.

    “At The Quint, we cater to the millennial generation which is mainly mobile and digital-first. Video as a content type is highly effective at engaging our audience because it makes the hard- hitting news easy to digest. Our ambition is to deliver high-value journalism on digital platforms, which requires combining compelling content with the right technology to distribute and track readership and viewership,” Tushar Banerjee, head of product at The Quint, said. “The Quint selected the Brightcove video platform because of Brightcove’s proven track record of delivering the fastest and most seamless video experiences around the world – and particularly in India. With Brightcove’s local presence in India, the post-sales service has been top-notch, another critical factor for us in selecting Brightcove.”

    “It’s impressive to see the digital footprint The Quint has created in India in only a few years. The publisher has adopted a more visual approach in delivering the news in a way that matters to its audience while successfully leveraging video to engage its viewership,” Ben Morrell, general manager, Asia at Brightcove, said. “We’re proud to be a technology partner to The Quint to help the company realise its mission of conveying hard-hitting stories in a highly engaging manner, leveraging the Brightcove video platform to deliver exceptional video experiences to its massive user base.”

    About Brightcove

    Brightcove Inc. (NASDAQ:BCOV) is the leading global provider of powerful cloud solutions for delivering and monetizing video across connected devices. The company offers a full suite of products and services that reduce the cost and complexity associated with publishing, distributing, measuring and monetizing video across devices. Brightcove has thousands of customers in over 70 countries that rely on the company’s cloud solutions to successfully publish high-quality video experiences to audiences everywhere. To learn more, visit www.brightcove.com.

    About The Quint:

    The Quint is media with intelligence. The Quint is media for mobile consumption – quickly, visually and socially. The Quint is popular, digital journalism. It is a smooth blend of video, audio and text for the best and easiest experience. The Quint is hard news made easy. The Quint offers a modern, sharp take on the world, and guides people through topics ranging from politics, policy and entertainment, to sports, business, food and everything else that matters. A compelling combo of content, tech and distribution, we’re developing high-value digital journalism, storytelling, and advertising at scale. www.thequint.com

  • CDN players work for efficient content delivery experience

    CDN players work for efficient content delivery experience

    MUMBAI: Internet users in India are growing exponentially, riding on the back of cheap smartphones and low-cost data plans. By 2020, there will be 730 million internet users in India. This makes content delivery networks (CDN) crucial and the need to be efficient.

    In India, it’s a good time for CDN players to be in the market. The traffic growth is turning CDN into a necessity. While a major chunk of it is coming from tier III cities, rural areas where traditionally internet connection has not been good, Akamai media country sales manager Sandeep Reddy believes better in-depth optimisation can provide an enhanced experience to users at the fringes.

    “In India, we have been seeing massive growth. It’s poised to grow 30 to 35 per cent year on year. That’s one of the fastest growth you can see in the world,” Limelight Networks country head Gaurav Malik says.

    Several big CDN players provide added services. While some focus on fastest delivery of content, others highly emphasise on security to protect customer data. Along with digital growth, the CDN market also needs to ensure seamless viewer experience. If your content takes more than a few seconds to load, 50 per cent of the traffic is likely to bounce off. The need of the hour is faster delivery.

    Brightcove, a leading technology company in the field, started in 2004, has stuck to a B2B model since inception. Though it is not directly aligned to customers, the company’s obsession lies with end-user experience. Brightcove media head Greg Armshaw emphasises on the importance of fast delivery. Without claiming to be the fastest players, he says that engineers are working to focus on faster video loading and playing.

    Brightcove has its own proprietary software named Context Aware Encoding. “It’s a machine learning process where we examine the content of each frame of the video. We analyse based on past approvals and if we need to save more information about that frame,” says Armshaw.

    While cost of delivery is one of the biggest expenditures, Armshaw assures the company can save between 30-50 per cent of it with quality products. One of the features is to look at every frame, encode them and this allows for savings too.

    Among other CDN players and large competitors, he thinks this is one feature which adds value to Brightcove’s existence in the space. Recently, Young Hollywood reduced its operational cost using this technology. Its over the top (OTT) channel, Young Hollywood TV, realised a 23 per cent saving in storage and a 35 per cent saving in bandwidth.

    Despite the improvement in infrastructure, technological hurdles mar the outcome. One of the challenges, as Malik highlights, is that planned events can be executed better while unforeseen instances like the Ram Rahim row in Punjab can cause hassles. In case of these unplanned events, CDN can face a problem.

    With more OTT apps than ever, content discovery for users can be a challenge. Analytics can be the only way out to provide users with great recommendations by getting constant feedback of users’ experience. 

    Reddy thinks analytics can pave the way for good recommendation by analysing user habit. “Analytics is a growth area for understanding customers and harvesting information about people’s consumption,” Armshaw says.

    “Analytics of data is the core of any business, whether its OTT or not. That gives the visibility on what’s working and what’s not. It tells you how people are reacting and adapting to it so that you can improve, learn and improvise on that. It’s a constant feedback,” Malik adds.

    Reddy also mentions ‘deeper focus on analytics’ as one of the company’s new initiatives. “We have a tool called cloud test which helps to determine and understand user interaction with the site. End user performance monitoring is a big area of focus,” he says.

    CDNs are known to also be targets of piracy such as stealing of live stream and encoding it. However, some players believe streaming is not the primary root of piracy and creating a pay-worthy environment on platforms can curb the problem.

    To lessen the security threat also, CDN companies have various tools. While Limelight Networks uses a private network to manage everything across data centres, Akamai has a platform-based service to protect customers from attacks. The company also tries to provide smarter authentication protocols so that only legitimate users can avail the content.

    Content creators are churning out more to gobble and CDN players are there to provide users with better experience. But today, CDN companies are indulging in more services. The more good content and technology will go hand in hand, more users will be attracted to the digital content.

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  • Hotstar packs a punch with IPL 11 opening week user numbers

    Hotstar packs a punch with IPL 11 opening week user numbers

    MUMBAI: No longer do people have to stand outside shops on the streets to catch the cricketing action when they’re not at home. Technology has brought all the action to people’s palms. In 2015, Star India won the digital and media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) making viewers stick to matches through its over-the-top (OTT) platform Hotstar.

    Late last year, Star won the broadcast bid for the tournament in a mega auction worth $2.55 billion for five years, beating Sony Entertainment Television by a huge margin. The ratings are keenly awaited since it is being broadcast in Hindi, English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali; the coverage was restricted to English and Hindi on Sony Max for a decade.

    Hotstar saw 42 million users during the opening of the tournament, which was held on 7 April 2018, with 4 million users in peak concurrency. The OTT is leveraging Akamai Technologies, a cloud delivery platform, for the IPL. For the match between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on 10 April 2018, Hotstar garnered 5.5 million concurrent viewers.

    This is the largest on the Akamai platform for any live sporting event in the world and the largest for any single event online by a broadcaster. This is ahead of the previous high on the Akamai platform of 4.8 million peak concurrent users, established by Hotstar during the India and Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy Final in June 2017.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan said, “Crossing five million on a live sporting event is like breaking the 10-second barrier in the 100-metre dash. We are proud that we are the first to get here. But, of even more importance, we are excited that fans have embraced the immersive sports experience on Hotstar that has brought together live streaming, the expression of fan emotions and an interactive always-on game.”

    The IPL has been streaming on Hotstar since 2015 but this year it witnessed a sudden spike in viewers. One of the reasons for the increasing number of viewers is the innovations that Star added this year. Among these is Watch’NPlay, a skill-based game wherein a user gets to test his/her cricket knowledge and expertise with millions of other users tuned into the match. The feature takes the Indian cricket enthusiast’s innate behaviour of providing running commentary on player performance and strategy.

    Watching sports is a lean-back consumption method. Unless you’re playing a sport or a game on electronic devices, one is not leaning forward. One might be leaning back and having a glass of your preferred beverage, relaxing and watching sport. Whereas, OTT is a lean-forward and individual consumption method, where one has a phone or tablet and the viewer is watching it.

    In 2016, Hotstar had more than double its reach (unique viewers) for IPL. For all the games played until the playoffs (between 9 April and 22 May), 80 million people used the service, compared with 35 million a year ago. Whereas, in 2015, the app had recorded more than 110 million views for the IPL 8 till date. In comparison, the entire 2014 edition of the tournament registered 62 million views on starsports.com, last year. With 13 million views for Pepsi IPL 2014 at a similar point in the tournament last year, Hotstar has registered an 8.5X growth in viewership.

    The inaugural match of the 11th season played between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings registered viewership on television of 6,355,000 impressions (India urban, males 15+ AB, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council data). This equals to growth of 37 per cent over last year’s opening game. These are simulcast ratings of the original telecast aired on Saturday April 7th at 8 pm across 10 Star channels—Star Sports 1; Star Sports 1 HD; Star Sports Select 1 SD; Star Sports Select 1 HD (English); Star Sports 1 (Hindi); Star Sports 1 HD (Hindi); Star Sports 1 Tamil along with Suvarna Plus (Kannada); Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Maa Movies (Telegu).

    BCCI CEO Rahul Johri said, “The Indian Premier League has once again proven that it is the largest media property in this country. This is IPL’s first year of partnership with Star India and I am delighted to see with the innovations that we have introduced, viewership has set new records and the tournament is set to reach a wider audience globally than ever before. It’s setting up to be a great tournament with some fantastic cricketing action for the fans who can enjoy the games in 6 languages, live across TV and Digital for the first time.”

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