ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • VoD, OTT music & gaming to overtake Indian traditional media by ’22: EY

    MUMBAI: Digital media may take over traditional by 2021-22, when broadband and smartphone penetration increases in India, according to EY India. The second factor is when broadband is equal to one-third of the smart phone penetration, which in India’s case will happen only by 2021-22, according to EY estimate. EY India media and entertainment advisory leader Ashish Pherwani said that the third factor was parity between cost of the two services.

    Market research firm e-Marketer has estimated that Indians spend around two-and-a-half hours a day on traditional media — radio, television, newspapers, and magazines, compared to an hour they spend on digital media on an average, PTI reported. Pherwani pointed out that the cost of a cable pack in the U.S. is US$ 80-90 a month and that of broadband is $25-30, while in India, it is the other way round, with cable costing Rs 250 and broadband at Rs 500-1000.

    That equation would change by 2020-2021. Therefore, one would see a big uptick in digital and a downfall of traditional media. In traditional media, English (print) was likely to get affected first because that shift was already pretty strong, he said. With the hike in regional media print circulation, Pherwani said that it had scope to grow.

    From Rs 8,490 crore at present, India’s digital sector market is projected to cross Rs 20,000 crore in the next three years. The industry includes the four key areas of digital revenues — OTT and digital advertising, music OTT subscription, video OTT subscription, and gaming (in app and paid).

    EY estimated that the smart phone penetration was expected to be up to 59 per cent by 2020, from 31 per cent in 2015, and digital ad-spend is slated to be Rs 18,500 crore by 2020, constituting a larger pie of the overall media spend. The real uptick, where the Rs 20,000 crore becomes Rs 30,000 crore, might happen between 2020 and 2022, Pherwani added.

  • Telestream to acquire IneoQuest

    MUMBAI: Telestream has announced its agreement to acquire IneoQuest, the global leader in video quality monitoring and analytics solutions for content distribution across managed and unmanaged networks.

    Founded in 2001, IneoQuest is headquartered in Mansfield, Massachusetts, with sales operations in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. With this acquisition, Telestream will enable its customers to deliver the highest possible video quality to their viewers on any device. The terms of the deal were not disclosed as both companies are privately held.

    With video quality a critical part of the viewer experience, IneoQuest’s analytics solutions help hundreds of media companies and service providers around the world deliver the highest possible quality across any network, managed or unmanaged.

    Recognised as an industry leader and innovator by Deloitte, Red Herring, Inc., Frost & Sullivan, and others, IneoQuest’s patented solutions continue to set the standard for measuring video quality, quality of service, and viewer experience.

  • dittoTV to stream Assembly election results live

    MUMBAI: The seventh phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh in 40 Assembly constituencies, with as many as 826 candidates contesting in this phase, ended on 8 March. This marks the end of the assembly elections in five states – Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and viewers across the country will now be glued to their favorite news channels for the results which will be announced on 11 March.

    dittoTV offers its subscribers one of the largest bouquets of national and regional channels to choose from to follow the poll results and catch the news as it breaks. The results of these 5 state elections will air on national news channels like Zee News, Aaj Tak and India Today and a gamut of regional channels on 11 March 10 am onwards. Viewers can watch it live and on-the-go all day long via dittoTV.

    Zee Entertainment Z5 India Business head of digital Archana Anand said, “The 2017 Elections in India have seen a considerable increase in the turnout of voters. Many people may end up missing out on the live airing since they may be out or may not have easy access to a television set. dittoTV now makes it possible for them to conveniently watch the results of the highly anticipated Assembly elections anywhere, anytime on any internet-enabled device, and at an extremely affordable price point. ”

    This year’s Assembly elections have witnessed a considerable jump in the voter turnout with the turnout percentage increasing to 61.6% as compared to the 2012 Assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections. With the Indian audiences becoming increasingly involved in the political scenario of the country, they can keep up with the elections all day via dittoTV.

  • Hotstar plans to enter other markets

    MUMBAI: Much is in store for Over-the-top (OTT) content aggregator platform Hotstar. A game-changer in the industry which managed to generate 175 million downloads in two years now plans to expand to other parts of the globe.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan has announced new territory launches. Speaking to Mumbrella Asia at the CASBAA OTT Summit in Singapore, he said, “The model can be global with mobile viewing and tech at the heart of things.”

    Though, he did now reveal how much investments had gone into the company or which countries were being looked at as the next markets in the global expansion plan. “We will look at other models too,” he said. “It may be that some of our customers want to pay to receive no ads whatsoever. And where we do run ads, we try to ensure they are personalised and not disruptive. So, for example, with the cricket the ads run during the break between overs.”

    Despite the high cost, he revealed that the app received 60 million active users last month due to its mix of national and international content. “It was a big bet for us to bring all the content together in one place, but that is what the consumer wants. India was ready for it but nobody had invested to connect up the dots before,” he added.

    He also said that the cricket test match between India and England has received as many as three million people using Hotstar at one time.

    Mohan also asserted that the company is seeing rapid growth on a dramatic scale. “Something big is happening in India. That’s clear in the numbers. It’s an exciting story for curated high-quality content and we now have massive brand equity. So we do see an opportunity to take Hotstar to other markets.”

    It will be interesting to see what card the company pulls out next.

  • CASBAA India OTT Forum: Asian players in search of a winning formula

    MUMBAI: Catering to regional choices, reasonable pricing coupled with fabulous viewing experience, good user interface (UI) and worthwhile user engagement through membership and social media connect seemed to the gist of “the Asian experience” conversation CASBAA chief executive Christopher Slaughter had with Hooq managing director Salil Kapoor, Spuul chief executive Subin Subaiah and NBA India managing director Yannick Colaco.

    Spuul and Hooq are Asian in nature and are willing to adapt according to every market they enter, including India. NBA (National Basketball Association) too is learning to be a player to contend with in a complex market like India.

    Kapoor admitted that, though Hooq has done well in Philippines and Indonesia and, in a small way, in Singapore, the India story is yet to happen after 18 months of presence in the country. “In the Philippines, for example,” Kapoor said, “We garnered good traction with the strategy of best of Hollywood and local content.”

    However, he added, in India, the audience is wide — different regional languages, dialects, content preferences, classes and masses — and a definite strategy is yet to evolve. Kapoor and others were speaking at the CASBAA India OTT Forum in Mumbai on 3 March 2017.

    NBA entered India with its own content. “Small players who seek a bigger premium have less fan growth,” Colaco observed. “If we want to control the destiny of our brand NBA, we need to be more nimble,” he added. “Our growth will depend on how we engage with the users,” the NBA executive said. Colaco elaborated how NBA, as part of user engagement, had put a reasonably-priced league pass behind a pay wall. “Content users, who bought the passes, have access to 1400 live games, archives, four different angles of game viewing and three types of commentaries,” he said.

    With various tie-ups OTT players are reaching out to maximum audience. Broadcasters, sometimes, Colaco felt, may limit content-providers’ engagement with the users. “But, through our association with Sony 6,” Colaco said, “we bring 14 live games to our audience every week.” Reiterating NBA’s aim to control the “destiny of their users”, the NBA man said they have managed to garner around seven million fans on Facebook and were exploring more efficient ways of engagement.

    Subaiah, who sees Spuul as the company’s livelihood in the sense it being a pure play OTT company with no other agenda, said that they were gathering metrics. “We have experimented and ruled out several content formats such as short form,” he added, pointing out that at times the consumer is challenged to find good content.

    Prodded by Slaughter on revenue in the broadcast versus pure play game, Kapoor said that different players may have experimented with SVoD and AVoDs, but the industry in India seems to be dominated by a couple of large players. He finds TVoDs to be an exciting challenge. He opined weekly passes or sachet pricing may work, but not AVoD.

    Colaco recommended that one needs to grow its fan base for the sake of content. Since the audience is the young generation, content makers/aggregators too need to evolve constantly. Many a broadcaster, he felt, was not always equipped to evolve constantly. Also, he observed, several content formats were inefficient for mobile platform: “We (NBA) shoot at least seven games a week only for the mobile (landscape) audience.”

    When pointed out that audio too was important for sports content, Colaco agreed, and said that they were actively looking at going regional. “We are already having the audio for 600 games in Chinese,” he stressed, adding in three months, NBA planned to have its games commentary in Hindi as well. Supporting the idea, Subaiah said that Tamil content dubbed in Hindi on Spuul was doing well.

    So who’s going to be ahead in the arms race? The Hooq executive felt that, although Bollywood was important, regional content seemed to be critical too. If one (player) is something in everything, there is an apprehension of being rendered irrelevant, Kapoor said, since the raw material (content) is becoming expensive by the day. And then, there is the new girl in town — originals. “How can we leave her alone?” he asked.

    So, there is original versus ‘freemium’ versus regional content. But, Subaiah believes that content, if not backed with worthwhile distribution and sufficient marketing, is of no use no matter how good it might be. The jury seemed to be out on a blend of original and regional coupled with high-decibel marketing.

    Who cuts the ice for this kind of cocktail? All OTT players in India seem to be testing the market and learning and evolving for the last 24 months. But, for how long? And, is it affordable too?

    Kapoor, having also done a successful stint at Dish TV selling satellite connections, however, did make an apt point on freebies being thrown at consumers. “An e-commerce giant is giving away good content almost free (Amazon), a telco (Reliance Jio) is giving data almost complimentary and a broadcaster (Star) is giving most of the content for free,” Kapoor said throwing up his hands, adding that there was a need to stop with such freebies that don’t make much business sense and “consolidate” as India has seen 17 telcom players playing the game initially, but now reduced to just four or five major and serious players.

    But, the NBA India chief was confident that the India code could be cracked. Pointing out that most MNCs believed in the power of India where 500 million people were under the age of 25, Colaco said as his parting shot, “There is an opportunity to reach out to the millenials. Let’s build on the opportunity — it’s tremendous.”

  • Nielsen: Millennials big-time streamers, watch 27% less TV than over 35s

    MUMBAI: It’s hard enough to hold one person’s attention, let alone an entire generation’s. Millennials—now the largest generational group in the U.S.—have grown alongside advancements in technology and media platforms, placing them in intriguing territory with regard to media habits. When it comes to television, their eyes are glued to the screen. With commercials, they’re still tuned in—but their eyes are on their cell phones.

    Nielsen’s inaugural Millennials on Millennials report is unique in two ways: It offers critical insight into the evolving media habits of this highly digital demographic, and it was produced by a team of Nielsen Millennial associates keen to help clients engage and reach a generation that every modern marketer is seeking a connection with.

    As marketers and advertisers look for the best opportunities to reach this demographic, they need precise insight into the evolving viewing and consumption habits of Millennials, which are closely watched and coveted.  

    Here are three things you might not have known about Millennials that the report uncovered.

    MILLENNIALS LOVE TV-CONNECTED DEVICES

    TV still constitutes the majority of video consumption, but every other screen is much more valuable to Millennials. TV-connected devices (DVD players, VCRs, game consoles and digital streaming devices) compose four times the percentage of Millennials’ total video minutes than adults 35 and older: TV-connected devices account for 23% of Millennials’ total time with video, compared with just 6% for consumers 35 and older. And as a result, Millennials spend about 27% less time watching traditional TV (89% among 35+ vs. 66% among Millennials).

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    MILLENNIALS ARE A DISTRACTED AUDIENCE

    The report looked at a handful of popular, primetime programs to understand the dynamics of multi-tasking and attention among Millennials compared with other generations. During premiere episodes of various primetime programs in the fall of 2015, Millennials were least likely to change the channel during commercial breaks.

    Less than 2% of 18-34 year olds changed the channel during commercials, compared with 5.5% of 35-54 year olds and more than 8% of viewers 55 and older. Given their engagement with other devices, however, Millennials had the lowest program engagement and lowest ad memorability scores during the studied shows.

    Knowing that audiences, including Millennials, may opt to skip advertising if given the choice, content providers often disable ad-skipping features in their VOD content. In terms of openness to advertising, however, Millennials are quite open to viewing ads as long as the content they are viewing is free on their mobile devices. As a result, marketers and advertisers have a notable opportunity to present their value propositions to young viewers who are tapping into the realm of content available via their connected devices.

    Upon further review of Millennial habits during commercials, these viewers report that they’re most likely to use their phones—a prime outlet to engage with social media. Smartphones provide a plethora of ways users can engage with other forms of content and social media serves as a notable slice of that pie.

    Given their engagement with social media during commercial breaks, it’s not surprising that Millennials score lower than older generations when it comes to ad memorability. Nielsen’s recent Millennial Media Advisors Report notes that TV ads have an average memorability of 38% among Millennials, 10 percentage points lower than among Gen X’ers 35 and over (48%).

    The low memorability rates, however, don’t stem from a dislike of advertisements.

    Rather, Millennials understand the necessity of ads in order for brands to inform the public of their products and services (79%) and many say that overall, ads don’t bother them (46%)—especially if the content they’re viewing is free (75%).

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    SOCIAL MEDIA STARS ARE “CELEBRITIES”

    Among Millennials, social media stars are becoming synonymous with the word “celebrity.” In a write-in section of our custom survey, numerous respondents named several social media stars multiple times when asked: “Please list your current top five favorite celebrities.” When tested against mainstream stars, social media stars hold their own in terms of celebrity status. For example, according to Nielsen’s N-Score, a measure of a celebrity’s marketability, male Millennials have a higher opinion of trending social media stars than they do for sports stars, pop stars, actors and actresses.

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    METHODOLOGY

    The Millennials on Millennials Report is led by Nielsen Millennial associates and analyzes the unique nature of this demographic group by leveraging Nielsen data-sets and fielding a custom survey to understand the “why’s” behind the data trends. The report includes data from The Nielsen Connected Device Report, Nielsen Custom Survey, Nielsen TV Brand Effect, Nielsen Total Media Fusion, Nielsen N-Score/Talent Analytics, Nielsen National TV Toolbox, Nielsen Social, and The Q1 2016 Comparable Metrics Report. Eight TV programs analyzed for this report were from all premiere episodes of 2015. They include a variety of genres including comedies and dramas from an assortment of different networks and episode lengths.

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  • Tug of war between AVoD & SVoD, who will win?

    MUMBAI: Content is the king and distribution is the queen. The year 2016 saw this phrase being used several times by the Over-the-top (OTT) players. But, does the struggle end there? Not really.

    While content remains to be crucial, changing consumption patterns is inevitable. Having the right content mix is still a challenge for the players in the digital eco-system.

    Discussing the importance of content and what can work well at the CASBAA OTT Roundtable Summit 2017 were Zee Entertainment Z5 India Business head of digital Archana Anand and Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gaurav Gandhi, moderated by TriLegal partner Nikhil Narendran, the session kick-started with the two leading players discussing their evolution.

    While Anand spoke about the ‘BeesKaTV’ app in detail, Gandhi mentioned how the year 2016 saw OTT players burning cash to acquire consumers while it was a fabulous year for them.

    “There is a a lot of demand for content consumption on mobile devices. As an advertising-led video-on-demand (VOD) service, we want to play on our strengths. Acquiring users comes with a heavy cost. There is a streaming cost, technology cost, content cost, etc. A platform has to bare the cost of a stream per user. Voot rides on four pillars – fandom around our reality and drama content available on our TV channel, Kids, Original play, and various languages content. We have built ourselves around content, and are still learning. The market can have 5-6 players with different strategies and we are enjoying a nice slice of the market,” said Gandhi.

    Today, OTT is not just limited to mobile, and the fact that linear TV is not going away yet cannot be denied. How do the consumers consume content is important for which discovery is essential. “Content is crucial and discovery continues to be important. It is beneficial to throw recommendations around one type of content. Curation of original content requires humongous marketing strategy. In the recent Oscars, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video grabbed several awards. What better way to applaud the OTT industry than this,” added Anand.

    It is given that, more than discovery or being a device-agnostic platform, there is a mindset shift required. Making people pay for content remains to be one of the many challenges for the SVOD players. With the data prices coming down, more and more people are going to consume digital video. Though, there is a segment of people who are not part of the data bandwagon, but they have consumed content. So, does it lead to the exit of linear TV in India? Perhaps, not.

    “The next 24 months are going to be crucial for the digital space. TV is here to stay for a long time. There are some segments that will grow faster than the rest. Ad-supported OTT platform complements TV perfectly. We create fandom around our popular TV shows on Voot which gets us more eyeballs and, at the same time, boosts our TV business. There is a lot of headroom for television,” said Gandhi.

    Anand resonated with Gandhi’s point of view on whether digital can replace TV framework.

    But, who will determine the right pricing for each of these platforms? Are the advertisers ready to buy slots? For advertisers to hop on board, the platform first needs to monetise its content, grab maximum number of eyeballs, and then measure it. “The choice is with the players whether they want to play by volume or margin. Indians are ready to pay for transactions than subscriptions. The transactional business will get its value, but the subscription business will take its time. Newer and better models will emerge in the market. The volumes are growing large, but the challenge is — pricing. The advertisers require volume for which more watch-time is a given,” added Gandhi.

    Contradicting that, Anand said, “The real challenge is: value for money. Even the advertisers are invisible in videos. Selling inventories to other broadcasters or platforms becomes difficult.”

    It remains to be seen who’s content will work in the long run, and which model proves to be successful for the players in the digital space.

  • Lionsgate properties in film and TV on Amazon Prime Video India

    MUMBAI: A large number of Lionsgate’s top acclaimed films, television episodes and upcoming new releases will become the subscription streaming home on Prime Video India following a long-time exclusive deal between Amazon and Lionsgate.

    Blockbuster movies like La La Land, which has grossed over $370 million at the worldwide box office and won six Academy Awards, event films including Deepwater Horizon and The Divergent Series: Allegiant and upcoming 2017 releases Power Rangers, The Shack and others will also be exclusively available only to Prime members, and will not be available on Satellite or Pay Television.

    Rohit Tiwari at Morris Street Advisors which represents Lionsgate in India negotiated and closed the ground-breaking deal.

    “It is awesome that Lionsgate has partnered with Amazon Prime Video to bring its original, daring and highly acclaimed content to Indian customers.” said Amazon Prime Video India director and company head Nitesh Kripalani. “We know our Prime members are going to absolutely love the selection of award-winning films, indelible characters and unforgettable stories from edge-of-the-seat thrillers to spectacular action to heartfelt drama – in true Lionsgate style. Their prestigious and prolific library of motion picture and television titles is sure to produce sizable viewership for us.”

    “Our collaboration with Amazon Prime Video India is the latest example of our commitment to bring world-class, award-winning movies and television series to the Indian market and its viewers,” said Lionsgate Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution president Jim Packer.

    “We’re very pleased to partner with Amazon as they continue to transform the face of entertainment in India and bring our premium film and television content to their viewers,” he added.

    Hit movie franchises like The Twilight Saga, which grossed over $3 billion worldwide, the Saw series, the highest-grossing long-running horror franchise in history, Red and Step Up 5 from the global blockbuster Step up franchise along with worldwide hit TV series such as Nashville, The Royals and Graves amongst others will have their exclusive subscription streaming home on Amazon Prime Video. In addition, popular series such as the iconic Mad Men andAnger Management are included in the deal.

    Amazon Prime Video has the largest selection of latest and exclusive movies and TV shows, ad-free across Indian and Hollywood movies, US TV shows, top/popular Indian and international kids’ shows, award winning Amazon Original shows along with content from top Bollywood, regional, Indian and international studios.

  • ALT Balaji working with OTT specialists Diagnal and Xstream

    MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, the digital platform from Balalji Telefilms, marks its entry into the world of global OTT entertainment space. Launched with the aim to reach out to individual audiences directly, ALTBalaji provides differentiated content with original shows spanning some 300 hours in the first year itself. This subscription based platform will be commercially available from mid-April 2017.

    ALTBalaji is developed, designed, and integrated by OTT specialists – Diagnal; the platform is powered by Xstream’s cloud based video management system, Xstream MediaMaker™. The multiscreen platform is available on iOS, Android, Windows, Roku, AppleTV, and many more operating systems.

    Created to provide an alternative to mainstream Indian entertainment & TV content, ALTBalaji brings fresh & interesting stories to audience. Offering unparalleled high quality shows featuring popular artists, acclaimed writers, and award winning directors, the platform fills in the existing void in the entertainment space and provide a real, exciting alternative to regular television based options.

    Unlike similar premium Subscription Video on Demand OTT service providers in the market, ALTBalaji allows users to watch select content and previews without requiring an active subscription. Content accessibility provides users with the opportunity to explore service features before choosing a subscription package that suits their content needs and budget. Premium subscribers to the service will have full-access to content and features like parental control and download to watch offline.

    Commenting on this association ALT Digital Media Entertainment CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “Consumers across the world are evolving aided by growing mobile reach; their requirements are becoming niche, rather than one formula fits all and this is where ALTBalaji belongs. We are excited to be associated with Diagnal and Xstream to bring in the best of technology and scalability together. ALTBalaji will offer extensive range of languages and genres to all age group and regions, both in India and abroad.”

    ALTBalaji is fully cloud based, using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to deliver incomparable performance and durability, ensuring high performance video delivery to all subscribers. ALTBalaji’s highlights include:

    ● A subscription based Video-on-Demand service with original and exclusive premium content at competitive prices to customers
    ● Pre-subscription access to selective content and previews
    ● Service across multiply connected devices with a seamless cross device user experience
    ● Parental control allowing kids to watch kids content while preventing them full access to all content
    ● Full scale analytics backbone with an inference engine and knowledge data store

  • Barjatya’s ‘Piyaa Albela’ on ZeeTV streaming live on dittoTV

    MUMABI: ZeeTV, well known for its ever-popular line up of TV shows is all set to launch the much-awaited romantic drama, ‘Piyaa Albela’, which can also be watched live on dittoTV. The show, produced by Sooraj Barjatya under the banner of Rajshri Productions, will launch on 6 March at 8.30 pm.

    ‘Piyaa Albela’ brings to viewers a perfect mix of romance, drama and comedy, with a touch of spirituality added in. Piyaa Albela will further strengthen the wide bouquet of Live TV shows across the range of 90+ channels that dittoTV offers to its subscribers.

    While Sooraj Barjatya is well known for working with the biggest stars in Bollywood and television, however, for this daily soap he chose to cast newcomers, Akshay Mhatre and Sheen Dass, as the main leads. Commenting on this, Sooraj explains, “The concept of a sage in meditation and a temptress attempting to break his penance is a very limited view of the Vishwamitra Menaka story. Very few people know of the love story that goes beyond the superficial layer of mere seduction. Our story is not mythological – it is set in contemporary times with real, relatable characters. It has elements, however, that can be compared to the classic. Our protagonist Pooja is approached by Naren’s parents – not to seduce their son but to ignite a spark for the real world within him. But how the two react to each other at the outset and then gradually come closer in the course of their interactions forms the crux of Piyaa Albela. We are pleased to have found the ideal Naren and Pooja in Akshay and Sheen, both making their fiction debuts as leads. Akshay’s eyes exude the brooding intensity required of Naren while Sheen has the verve, grace and positivity that Pooja needs to embody. The show is set in Dehradun and Rishikesh. We look forward to a great response.” The mysterious and suspense-filled storyline of Piyaa Albela is sure to resonate with the Indian youth, who form an important part of dittoTV’s subscriber base.

    Commenting on the launch of this new show, Z5 Business head of digital Archana Anand says, “dittoTV enables its subscribers to stay updated with all the diverse and gripping content that ZeeTV has to offer. We are extremely excited to bring Sooraj Barjatya’s romantic drama, Piyaa Albela, to viewers on our platform, dittoTV which allows viewers to catch their favourite programs live and on-the-go on their smartphones and internet connected devices, offering them the convenience of watching their favourite shows when they do not have easy access to a television set. With viewers increasingly becoming more selective about what they watch, it is highly essential to introduce differentiated and innovative content, which resonates well with the audience.”

    dittoTV subscribers can catch this new daily soap every day from Monday to Friday at 8.30 PM on their Android and iOS phones or any other internet connected device. The monthly subscription charge for the platform is INR 20 per month.