Category: iWorld

  • Niche regional OTT player Hoichoi offers Bengali content on iOS, Android and Chromecast

    Niche regional OTT player Hoichoi offers Bengali content on iOS, Android and Chromecast

    MUMBAI: As predicted by most observers, regionalisation as well as niche services are coming to the VOD or OTT ecosystem in India. It’s happening at a trickle now, but could gain momentum over the next few months. For with its large population of more than a billion mobile users, there is room for more — for sure. Kolkata-based Bengali entertainment major Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), is the latest to take the plunge with its OTT play called Hoichoi.

    Vishnu Mohta – one of the promoters – who has worked with KPMG Risk Advisory and Lloyds TSB corporate strategy in their London offices, is the driving force behind the new platform which is targeting 220 million Bengalis globally. With original web-series, short films, and documentaries exclusively for Hoichoi in the pipeline, the service will also offer over 500 Bengali Movies and 1000 songs for subscribers. Recently, in the run-up to the Hoichoi launch, SVF had rolled out an innovative social media campaign to promote its upcoming original web series, an adult-comedy, Dupur Thakurpo.

    Among the big players in the game figure global players such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, and homegrown startups such as Hotstar, dittoTV, Voot, ALT Balaji and SonyLiv, as well as independent platforms such as TVF Play and Spuul. The congested Indian OTT market has around 32 plus players – some with an overwhelming or exclusive content, some with niche content or pricing plans and others who want to be counted.

    SVF, on its part, had selected ViewLift, a global content distribution and monetisation platform, as its technology partner. The VOD service claims to provide the largest collection of the best in Bengali entertainment content on Web, iOS, Android, and Chromecast. ViewLift CTO Manik Bambha states, “Hoichoi is well positioned to capture significant opportunities in the space with a niche offering meant for Bengali consumers. Hoichoi will benefit from our extensive marketing, data and analytics tools that will help them enhance interaction with their audience.”

    “ViewLift is an expert in the OTT space,” says Vishn, who has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bond University Australia and MSc in International Business from Aston University Birmingham, UK. With enhanced service architecture, extensive data and analytics insights, and global client support, ViewLift delivers high quality video consumption experiences worldwide.

    SVF is helmed by Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni and Vishnu. Shrikant is SVF’s creative muscle who produced the internationally acclaimed ‘Chokher Bali’ and five other national award-winning films — ‘Raincoat’, ‘Memories in March’, ‘Apur Panchali’, ‘Chotoder Chobi’, and ‘Chander Pahar’. President of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), and an active member of Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), he initiated the shooting of Bengali films abroad.

    Under Soni’s leadership, SVF distributed almost 900 films including blockbusters like ‘Dangal’, ‘Sultan’, ‘Dabangg’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘’Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’, ‘Kahaani 2’, ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Kapoor & Sons’, ‘Neerja’, ‘Airlift’ and Drishyam.’ He also drives satellite and music syndication deals, along with film acquisitions.

    Mohta and Soni are pretty gung-ho about Hoichoi. The Indian consumer who has access to OTT entertainment — with internet penetration around 32-34 per cent today, and one-third owning smartphones — may well be spoilt for choice, now.

  • Voot brings BBC’s famed non-scripted original about social media madness today

    Voot brings BBC’s famed non-scripted original about social media madness today

    MUMBAI: Scaling a treacherous mountain pass, battling wildlife and river rapids in the forests and beating the gruelling desert sun – Can you survive and stay alive in these harsh, uninhabited terrains with the help of just a Smartphone and a data strong network?

    Viacom 18’s video-on-demand streaming service Voot is all set to answer this question with the launch of India’s first-ever ‘Digital Survival Series’ and its newest original – Vodafone presents “Stupid Man Smart Phone” powered by Motorola.

    Produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and hosted by the acclaimed actor and digital star Sumeet Vyas, the show will introduce the audience to a never seen before format in the history of Indian entertainment where a smart phone and a super network is the only means of survival.

    This unique and engaging show is all set to premiere exclusively on 20 September on Voot .

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures’ COO Gaurav Gandhi said: “Voot continues to take the leadership mantle on innovation with many pioneering initiatives across both content and technology. The latest Voot original, a category first, is one such initiative, that will offer a completely differentiated and engaging experience to our audience.”

    Voot head of content Monika Shergill said “For the first time, an internationally recognised non-scripted format of this scale is being produced as a streaming original series. The show is unique with today’s social media madness at the heart of it. It’s the only show where followers of Sumeet and his partners participate and aid in their survival choices. This unique concept with its social engagement potential, grandeur and edgy humour is sure to provide an immersive entertainment experience to all.”

    A winner of the ‘Best Multi-Platform Format’ at the 2017 International Format Awards in Cannes earlier, this Indian adaptation of the BBC Worldwide format features Vyas and a celebrity guest travelling across three unforgiving terrains, trying to complete the mission at hand while being aided by their smartphones and their legions of social media followers.

    BBC Worldwide SVP and GM – south-east Asia and south Asia Myleeta Aga said: “India is the first country in Asia that will air the Indian version of this BBC format and we will be producing it for our long-standing partners at Viacom.”

    Vodafone EVP – marketing Siddharth Banerjee said,“Vodafone is happy to partner with content that is new-age and digital. It’s is a show with connectivity at the heart of the storytelling. The format enables the protagonists to #MakeMostOfNow with the Vodafone Data Strong Network™ and navigate challenges as they traverse diverse geographies across India in the Voot show.”

    Motorola India head of marketing Rachna Lather said, “The viewers will see how much fun Sumeet and his friends have using the Moto Z2 play with Moto mods while performing the tough challenges”.

    Along with their inimitable personality, each celebrity guest also brings to the show their extensive social media fan base which coupled with Vyas’s massive internet following makes for relevant and often crucial interactions through all the episodes.

    In the lush rainforests of South India, Vyas teams up with the vibrant Evelyn Sharma while the harsh Rajasthan desert sun beats down upon YouTube funny man Sahil Khattar and TV hearthrob Karan Kundra keeps Sumeet company in the untouched mountains of Arunachal Pradesh.

  • Gaurav Gandhi says PWA enhanced content consumption experience as Voot triumphs at IBC

    Gaurav Gandhi says PWA enhanced content consumption experience as Voot triumphs at IBC

    MUMBAI: Content is the king, but technology is the supreme general.

    Voot has won the coveted International Broadcasting Convention 2017 (IBC2017) Innovation Award for Content Distribution for its Progressive Web App (PWA) product – Voot Lite, in Amsterdam on 17 September.

    Viacom18’s ad-supported VoD service, Voot, was the only online video service that was shortlisted for the awards amongst 190 plus global entries.

    Voot COO Gaurav Gandhi said, “In the video streaming business, both content and technology play an equally important role. While Viacom18 is well-known for pioneering efforts and leadership in the content business, it is indeed great to have our company featured on the global technology leaderboard as well. In this business particularly, partnerships and alliances are key to achieving big milestones and we would like to thank the team at Google for providing us support in our PWA.”

    IBC has recognised Voot’s initiative in giving mobile web users an app like experience in consuming digital video. Voot was an early adopter of this technology which led to a huge jump in users and video watch time on its mobile web.

    Voot is the first video platform to have launched a PWA product and that includes offline page caching functionality, fast loading, responsive interface and push notifications. The ‘Add to Home Screen’ feature of PWA allows the user to launch the page from their home screen like a native app and a service worker decreases load times.

    Launched in 2016, Voot at present hosts over 40,000 hours of content on its streaming service and has over 25 million monthly active users.

  • Asian OTTs use global, local content, AVoD and SVoD mix to consolidate position, says report

    Asian OTTs use global, local content, AVoD and SVoD mix to consolidate position, says report

    MUMBAI: Over-the-Top services are steadily gaining traction in APAC, but succeeding in a highly diverse and price-sensitive market will entail a thorough understanding of consumer preferences and intent.

    OTT players in the region are already partnering with mobile operators to drive subscribership. Examples include Viu’s various partnerships with Telekom Malaysia, Maxis and U Mobile in Malaysia, Indosat in Indonesia, CSL in Hong Kong and Idea cellular in India among others.

    A new report, “OTT Video in Asia-Pacific: Localised content and business models are key while mobile will offer opportunity for future video growth” has been added to the repository of Market Research Hub (MRH).

    Strategies of the four key OTT video service providers have been discussed in the report in the form of four case studies. The key OTT video service providers profiled in the case studies include Netflix, iflix, Viu, and Hotstar.

    The success of OTT services in any market depends upon a host of factors, with viewer awareness and receptiveness among the key factors. Smartphone ownership, cellular and broadband penetration levels, and pay-TV subscription are the other key factors that influence the scope of OTT video services in a market.

    The APAC region remains diverse, with a significant variation in internet and broadband penetration levels. Further, owing to lax piracy laws, a significant section of the consumer base is habitual of downloading pirated copies from the internet. In view of these factors, many OTT video service providers are using a mix of AVoD and SVoD to consolidate their position.

    According to the report, content remains an integral part of overall viewer experience in APAC. OTT video service providers have realised the importance of high-quality content, as a result of which, content production has gained prominence. Further, increase in smartphone ownership and launch of 4G services in several APAC countries are leading to collaboration between telecom service providers and OTT video service providers.

    According to the report, OTT service providers in countries that have low OTT readiness can commence with AVoD services to raise awareness and interest among viewers. The report comments that this strategy has helped Hotstar and Viu in gaining a significant foothold in the APAC OTT video services market.

    However, AVoD as a business model is likely to face a lot of challenges, on account of high cost of content acquisition. Further, relying on one particular form of content may not work, and OTT service providers may have to rely on a mix of local and international content to appeal to a wider target audience.

  • Hotstar to stream Emmy Awards in India on 18 Sept

    Hotstar to stream Emmy Awards in India on 18 Sept

    MUMBAI: It is bringing the world to India and taking India to the globe!

    Ahead of its launch in a “few international markets in the next couple of months” Hotstar, ranked number one by App Annie  in terms of MAUs, is also bringing the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards to Indian viewers. live.  This is even as the research firm KalaGato reported 73 per cent jump in Hotstar’s market share, that is expected to spurt with the addition of Emmys, CBS, and GoT.

    For Hotstar, which has over 100,000 hours of drama and movies in nine languages, and covers every major global sporting event, the Emmy countdown has now begun.  As the excitement builds up, viewers of the India’s leading video-on-demand service will be able to tune in to the awards simulcast on 18 September, at 530 am on 18 September 2017 from 8 pm onwards. Thereafter, the ceremony will be available in the Hotstar library from Tuesday, 19 September.

    Indiantelevision.com spoke to the Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan on Friday evening, but he sought queries on email, which have been sent.

    With a whopping 149 nominations across 23 shows that it has licensed from American studios, Hotstar is the home of the Emmys and will be the only digital platform in the country to telecast simulcast the event. Viewers will have the opportunity to watch the much-anticipated ceremony along with the rest of the world, from wherever they are. This year, the event will be hosted by Stephen Colbert, previous Emmy Award winner and host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

    From the Hotstar library, acclaimed shows like Westworld, Feud, Veep and Big Little Lies lead the extensive list with the most number of nominations. Other favourites include Night Of, This is Us, Silicon Valley, The Wizard of Lies, among others. Through their partnership with the world’s largest studios, like HBO, Disney and Showtime, Hotstar has managed to bring the most celebrated international shows to India, under the Hotstar Premium bucket.

     

    (For our readers: We, at indiantelevision.com got an email from Hotstar communications agency Text100 on 16 September at 11:19 pm after the Emmy Award Hotstar telecast press release was published on 16 September at 9:22 am. It had already been indexed by the Google News bot.  The Text 100 email read as follows

    Request you to disregard the announcement in this email. The information contained in it is incorrect. Hence, please do not publish it or use it in any form of story. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

    Another email followed from Text100 at 11:49 pm. It said:

    As discussed, request you to disregard the previous communication on Hotstar live streaming the Emmys. The information is incorrect. Hence, please do not use it in any form of story. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

    Here’s the link that was published – http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/over-the-top-services/hotstar-to-live-stream-emmy-awards-in-india-on-18-sept-170916?amp

    We have chosen to use the strikethrough text mode to inform readers that the story has been cancelled. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by the incorrect information provided by Hotstar’s agency, Text100. We adhere to the highest editorial standards and our effort is to  bring you the most accurate information possible. Always – Editor

    (Updated on 17 September 2017 at 10:57 am)

    Later in the day we got another email from Text100 stating that the Emmy Awards would be streamed on 18 September from 8 pm onwards. So now you know when to watch your favourite awards show on Hotstar. Hence, we removed the strikethrough mode and updated the story.

    (Updated on 17 September at 6:43 pm)

  • Hooq hooks  CBS’ Jennifer Batty as CCO

    Hooq hooks CBS’ Jennifer Batty as CCO

    MUMBAI: Earlier this year, OTT service Hooq cofounder and chief content & distribution officer Krishnan Rajagopalan relinquished his post, which lay vacant. Today, the burgeoning SVOD’s service’s CEO Peter Bithos announced that the position has been filled as a replacement has been found in former RTL CBS Asia executive vice-president programming Jennifer Batty.

    A 20 year veteran with exposure to channel development and programming in North America, Asia and Europe, Batty will now be bringing all her experience to bear as Hooq’s chief content officer (CCO). She built her career heading up programming at Modern Times Group (Viasat Broadcasting) pay-TV channels across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, and held various roles at Alliance Atlantis Communications, from content sales to content development in both Europe and Canada.

    “Jennifer understands the region and she knows customers’ media appetite. Her knowledge of Asia combined with her passion for content are assets we welcome to Hooq,” said Bithos.

    High on Batty’s to-do list is building on the OTT service’s previous week’s week’s agreement with Marvel for exclusive SVoD rights to three new series – Marvel’s Inhumans, Marvel’s Runaways and Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger.

    This represents an extension of a deal signed with Disney early in the year. Additionally Hooq is aiming to extend its list of Asian originals with ‘Saranair Love You’ currently playing in Thai cinemas and available on Hooq three months after the last cinematic screening as well as Asian originals co-produced by Hooq from Indonesia including Critical Eleven, Sweet 20 and Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, which was also recently screened at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes and this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

    “The growing access to multiple screens and improved connectivity underscores the reality that linear viewing is on the decline. With Hooq, viewers can choose to watch their favourite shows wherever, whenever they want. More than ever, we must provide compelling programmes and an easy-to-navigate platform to retain viewers,” said Batty.

    Batty was a key member in RTL Group’s expansion into India and then their joint venture with CBS Studios International, launching RTL CBS Entertainment and RTL CBS Extreme.

  • Netflix: DreamWorks’ Cobb to lead kids, family content team, deal with Orange renewed

    Netflix: DreamWorks’ Cobb to lead kids, family content team, deal with Orange renewed

    MUMBAI: Two significant developments have taken place at Netflix, a leading internet entertainment service with 104 million members in over 190 countries, including India, enjoying over 125 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including originals.

    Orange and Netflix have inked a major agreement and Melissa Cobb will lead Netflix kids and family content team.

    Orange, one of the leading telcos with sales of 40,9 billion euros in 2016, and Netflix have renewed the agreement signed in 2014 for the distribution of Netflix for Orange TV customers in France, and have expanded their partnership to all countries in which the Orange Group is present.

    This strategic partnership will enable the Group’s subsidiaries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to distribute Netflix in the future, bringing their customers exclusive content of this service to all their screens.

    Netflix will be offered to Orange Poland customers in the coming months as part of its TV offers. Other launches will follow in 2018.

    “We want to offer the best content,” notes Orange CEO Stéphane Richard.

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said, “This partnership offers the possibility for millions of our customers to enjoy the leading entertainment service seamlessly, in one place.”

    Cobb has joined Netflix as vice-president, kids and family, overseeing the creation and acquisition of series and films for children and families. Based in the Los Angeles office, Cobb reports to the chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

    In her role, Cobb leads the content team responsible for bringing kids and family titles to Netflix members with an expanded focus on high quality series and event programming across the spectrum of kids and family entertainment, including both animation and live action.

    Cobb joins Netflix from DreamWorks, where most recently she was the chief creative officer and head of studio for Oriental DreamWorks. Based in Shanghai, China, she oversaw all aspects of running the studio and U.S./China collaboration including creative oversight of all projects in development and production, business strategy, production strategy and more for a slate of high quality animated feature films targeted to a global audience.

  • Hoichoi original adult-comedy Dupur Thakurpo campaign launched

    Hoichoi original adult-comedy Dupur Thakurpo campaign launched

    MUMBAI: In the run-up to Hoichoi’s launch, SVF has rolled out an innovative social media campaign to promote its upcoming original web series, an adult-comedy, Dupur Thakurpo.

    The campaign, which highlights the personalities of some major characters from the much anticipated show, has just gone live on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It asks users to choose one of the several interesting Thakurpos (Devars or brothers-in-law) that would be most deserving of the newly arrived Uma Boudi’s affection (‘Boudi’ is the Bengali name for sister-in-law).

    Not only will the campaign tickle the funny bones of Bengalis, it will also create intrigue and anticipation for each and every Thakurpo in the Hoichoi Original web series.

    There are the six Thakurpos seeking Uma Boudi’s attention:

    1.     CD – Chitrobhanu Dutta, who wants to be Quentin Tarantino, the popular American Director, but has only 2 or 3 B-grade music videos to show as accomplishments.

    2.     Choco – Kajol Chakraborty is a physiotherapist who utilises his profession to fulfil his dark fantasies.

    3.     Kinky – Kinkar Sanyal has a secret import business of women’s undergarments. His favourite pastime is fantasizing about women in lingerie.  

    4.     Shomes – Aniruddha Shome thinks of himself as every Bengali’s Byomkesh Bakshi and every Englishman’s Sherlock Holmes, and thus has an investigative eye towards everything (basically, he is suspicious all the time!)

    5.     Phantom – Ashrafi is a cricketer from Bihar, who orders lassi in a pub.

    6.     MTV – Moral Tanu Bhaduri is an ambitious singer who unfortunately gets no producer.

    Director Debaloy Bhattacharya says, “The word ‘Dupur Thakurpo’ has always been there in our culture…a forbidden word, it has never been explored. Now, we are indulging in the stories and characters that show how the Boudi and Thakurpo relation can be so vibrant. The Arabs had their nights and the Bengalis their ‘dupur’.

    Dupur Thakurpo revolves around Indralok, a house situated in North Kolkata which is infused with new life as Jibon babu brings home a beautiful, young and vivacious bride, Uma. However, he is blissfully oblivious of the trouble likely to brew when a love-smitten Jibon babu agrees to let out three rooms to six young men on Uma’s insistence. Some not-so-appropriate things start happening. Five of them are completely enamored by Uma Boudi’s charms, ready to lay down their lives for a smile or a glance from her, while she plays around with them like a fiddle.

    Amidst this sexual tension and cuckoldry, Indralok is full of life, adventure, fun, frolic and fantasy.

    This series is one of the several entertaining and unique original web series being created with the best concepts, cast and crew of Bengali entertainment, exclusively for Hoichoi. It will be available on the App and Website.

    Dupur Thakurpo stars Swastika Mukherjee as Uma Boudi, Abhijit Guha as Jibon Babu, Anindya Chatterjee as CD, Indrajit Mazumder as Choco, Soumendra Bhattacharya as MTV, Kartikeya Tripathi as Shomes, Apratim Chatterjee as Kinky and Taufeeq Ahmed as Phantom.  

  • Airtel forges partnership with Korean mobile broadband co SK Telecom

    Airtel forges partnership with Korean mobile broadband co SK Telecom

    MUMBAI: India’s largest telecommunications services provider Airtel will partner Korea’s SK Telecom to potentially create the country’s finest telecom network and leapfrog into being a next-gen future-ready telco.

    The partnership will work across several areas including developing bespoke software to dramatically improve network experience, leveraging advanced digital tools including machine learning, big data and building customised tools to improve network planning based on every customer’s device experience. The capacity to identify, monitor and deliver improvements to the network experience on an individual device basis will be a first in India, helped by SK Telecom’s global leadership in this area.

    The two companies will also collaborate on an on-going basis to evolve standards for 5G, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Internet of Things (loT), and jointly work towards building an enabling ecosystem for the introduction of these technologies in the Indian context.

    Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said, “This partnership will bring an improved experience to Airtel customers in India by leveraging the expertise of a company that has built one of the best mobile broadband networks in the world.”

    “We will work closely with Bharti to achieve new network innovations so as to deliver a greater value to Bharti’s customers,” SK Telecom president and CEO Park Jung-ho.

  • Wireline broadband subs base falls, overall broadband subs base grows

    Wireline broadband subs base falls, overall broadband subs base grows

    BENGALURU: India’s wireline broadband internet subscriber fell further by 1.04 percent in the month ended 31 July 2017 (Jul-17) as compared to the previous month (Jun-17, month ended 30 June 2017). Earlier, the wireline broadband internet subscriber base had eroded by 0.11 percent in the month ended 31 May 2017 (May-17) as compared to the previous month (Apr-17). On both occasions, among the major contributors to the shrinkage of the overall subscriber base was the loss of subscribers by the two government telephone companies – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and its smaller and metro-centric peer Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). At the same time, ACT Broadband, probably the largest private wired internet service player in South India, continued to lead subscriber acquisitions in calendar year 2017 (CY-17, since 31 December 2016 or Dec-16) to July-17  with the addition of about  110,000 (0.11 million) broadband internet subscribers.

    It must be noted that TRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number of subscribers.

    Overall Broadband Internet Subscribers

    The good news is that the overall broadband internet subscriber base in the country which includes wired, wireless by mobile device users and fixed wireless subscribers (Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-Point Radio & VSAT) increased 3.17 percent to 300.84 million in Jul-17 from 291.61 million in Jun-17. The growth was led by a growth in wireless internet subscribers that access the internet on their mobile devices, with Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd once again leading in the growth.

    The top five service providers constituted 89.79 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Jul-17. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (128.58 million), Bharti Airtel (58.91 million), Vodafone (42.50 million), Idea Cellular (27.70 million) and BSNL (21.45 million).

    Wired Broadband Internet Subscribers

    As per data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) broadband wireline subscriber base in India declined in Jul-17 to 18.14 million from 18.33 million in Jun-17. Among the top five wireline broadband internet services providers in the country, BSNL and MTNL lost 70,000 and 10,000 subscribers respectively in the month of Jul-17. Airtel, the second largest wireline broadband internet player did not gain or lose any subscriber, while the minnows- Atria Convergence Technologies – ACT Broadband and You Broadband each added 10,000 subscribers. This implies that the other wireline broadband internet service providers in the country besides those mentioned above lost about 0.11 million subscribers in the month of Jul-17. Amongst the other wireline broadband internet service providers are Multi-system operators (MSOs’) and Local cable operators (LCOs’) that provide internet services through their video cables using technology that includes various versions of DOCSIS technology.

    As per TRAI data, as on 31 July 2017, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.66 million), Bharti Airtel (2.10 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.23 million), MTNL (0.97 million) and You Broadband (0.66 million).

    Please refer to the figure below for the total wireline subscriber base and subscriber base of the top 5 wired broadband internet service providers in India in calendar year 2017.

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    Wireless Broadband Internet Subscribers

    As mentioned above, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio juggernaut still continued to lead growth in wireless broadband internet subscriber growth in the country ten months after its commercial launch on 5 September 2016. Jio has added 56.42 million subscribers in calendar year 2017 (CY-17) until Jul-17.

    Wireless broadband numbers grew 10.23 million or 3.36 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) to 292.22 million in Jul-17 from 281.99 million in Jun-17 according to TRAI) data for the month of July 2017. As on 31 July, 2017, the top five Wireless Broadband Service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (128.58 million), Bharti Airtel (56.80 million), Vodafone (42.49 million), Idea Cellular (27.70 million) and Reliance Communications (12.75 million).

    Please refer to the figure below for the top 5 Wireless Broadband Internet Service Providers in India.

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    As mentioned above, MSOs’ and (LCOs’) or cable video service providers also provide broadband internet services in the country. These cable service providers have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger than the numbers of some of the wired internet services providers mentioned above.