Category: iWorld

Amazon partners Green Gold for kids’ entertainment

MUMBAI: Amazon has partnered with Green Gold Animation in a multi-year content deal. With this deal, the production houses’s future TV episodes and TV movies like Chhota Bheem, Super Bheem, Mighty Raju, etc will be available on the streaming platform for the first time.

Prime members in India will have also have access to Green Gold Animation’s vast library of top-rated shows and movies like Krishna Balaram,Chorr Police, Luv Kush, Vikram and Betaal , Krishna, Chhota Bheem Himalayan Adventure, etc.

“Green Gold Animation is a leading creator of premium kids’ content and Amazon Prime Video is delighted to offer a home to their much-loved content for kids and their families. This partnership will offer Amazon Prime members the very best content for their kids to watch and be delighted by” said Amazon Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani. “This is the first step to exclusively bring the best-in-class kids’ entertainment to children in India.”

Amazon Prime already offers unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery to over 100 cities on eligible items from India’s largest selection of products, 30 minutes early access for members on top deals and more benefits for an unparalleled shopping experience.

“We are excited that Chhota Bheem, India’s #1 Kids show for last 9 years would now be available on Amazon Prime Video. Indian Kids will now have better Digital experience with our imaginative content as now they can view their favourite show when they want and where they want, added Green Gold Animation founder Rajiv Chilaka.

The service has also partnered with Johar’s Dharma Productions to own exclusive rights to stream all upcoming and backlog of movies under the banner. Whereas the deal with T-Series is only for upcoming releases such as Tum Bin 2 by Anubhav Sinha, Raabta with Sushant Singh Rajput, Noor starring Sonakshi Sinha, and Simran starring Kangana Ranaut.

It recently tied up wth acclaimed filmmaker SS Rajamouli, Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks. With this the magnum opus Baahubali under its content library which will be turned into a new multi-episode animated series titled Baahubali: The Lost Legends.

With an introductory price of Rs 499 for a year after which a prime subscription will cost Rs 999 a year. PrimeVideo will have access to Amazon Original Series, movies and TV shows from India and around the world.

In the U.S., Amazon Prime offers over 40,000 movies and TV shows, a million songs and 500,000 free ebooks for $99 per year. It has begun talks with Bollywood producers and independent production houses for building video content from India. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that $300 mn (approx Rs 2,000 cr) will be invested in its India unit.

With this, Amazon’s total investment commitment in India goes up to $5 bn.

October 13, 2016
Amazon partners Green Gold for kids’ entertainment

MUMBAI: Amazon has partnered with Green Gold Animation in a multi-year content deal. With this deal, the production houses’s future TV episodes and TV movies like Chhota Bheem, Super Bheem, Mighty Raju, etc will be available on the streaming platform for the first time.

Prime members in India will have also have access to Green Gold Animation’s vast library of top-rated shows and movies like Krishna Balaram,Chorr Police, Luv Kush, Vikram and Betaal , Krishna, Chhota Bheem Himalayan Adventure, etc.

“Green Gold Animation is a leading creator of premium kids’ content and Amazon Prime Video is delighted to offer a home to their much-loved content for kids and their families. This partnership will offer Amazon Prime members the very best content for their kids to watch and be delighted by” said Amazon Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani. “This is the first step to exclusively bring the best-in-class kids’ entertainment to children in India.”

Amazon Prime already offers unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery to over 100 cities on eligible items from India’s largest selection of products, 30 minutes early access for members on top deals and more benefits for an unparalleled shopping experience.

“We are excited that Chhota Bheem, India’s #1 Kids show for last 9 years would now be available on Amazon Prime Video. Indian Kids will now have better Digital experience with our imaginative content as now they can view their favourite show when they want and where they want, added Green Gold Animation founder Rajiv Chilaka.

The service has also partnered with Johar’s Dharma Productions to own exclusive rights to stream all upcoming and backlog of movies under the banner. Whereas the deal with T-Series is only for upcoming releases such as Tum Bin 2 by Anubhav Sinha, Raabta with Sushant Singh Rajput, Noor starring Sonakshi Sinha, and Simran starring Kangana Ranaut.

It recently tied up wth acclaimed filmmaker SS Rajamouli, Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks. With this the magnum opus Baahubali under its content library which will be turned into a new multi-episode animated series titled Baahubali: The Lost Legends.

With an introductory price of Rs 499 for a year after which a prime subscription will cost Rs 999 a year. PrimeVideo will have access to Amazon Original Series, movies and TV shows from India and around the world.

In the U.S., Amazon Prime offers over 40,000 movies and TV shows, a million songs and 500,000 free ebooks for $99 per year. It has begun talks with Bollywood producers and independent production houses for building video content from India. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that $300 mn (approx Rs 2,000 cr) will be invested in its India unit.

With this, Amazon’s total investment commitment in India goes up to $5 bn.

October 13, 2016
Airtel partners Ditto TV; launches new super app

MUMBAI: Competition makes for strange bedfellows. Airtel is partnering with the OTT platform of Zee Digital Convergence Limited’ dittoTV app as it seeks to battle the onslaught of Reliance Jio. Airtel has relaunched its MyAirtel App as a super app housing many other apps amongst which figures DittoTV. The telco said that Ditto TV with over 100 live TV channels and popular TV shows will be available without any subscription charges to its customers.

Other apps which feature in the new MyAirtel app include Hike Messenger, Wynk Music, Wynk Movies, Wynk Games, Airtel Money, Airtel Dialer and Juggernaut. All of them are apparently being made available free to subscribers.

The MyAirtel app also features Airtel Cloud and Airtel Dialer. Airtel Cloud provides 2GB of free cloud storage and back-up. The company said that there are no data upload charges for the scheduled overnight backups for prepaid customers currently, and this benefit will be made available to postpaid customers soon.

Airtel Dialer, on the other hand, offers 50 minutes of free Airtel-to-Airtel calling benefits, in addition to its call management feature.

With the launch of its new app suite, it’s quite clear that it’s going to be a corporate war in the mobile 4G space. First, Airtel, and Vodafone, Idea blocked calls from free call provider Reliance Jio until they were forced to open up to its services. Hence, the other players including Idea and Airtel are gearing up to attack Jio in the app space too. Idea too is currently putting together an app suite which will be unveiled by Q4-2017 and Q1-2018.

Said Bharati Airtel global CIO & director Harmeen Mehta: “As part of our Digital Airtel initiative, we are excited to bring you the new avatar of the MyAirtel App, which now offers a unified interface to the entire suite of our popular mobile apps and several new ones. All these apps have been curated to ensure customers are offered the best of the web, with more exciting apps and partnerships coming in the near future.

Customers who already have MyAirtel App on their smartphone can update to receive the new features, while new users can download the new MyAirtel App from Google Playstore and iOS App Store. The telco said that normal plan or pack data charges will apply on all the mobile applications on MyAirtel app.

Airtel is also working overnight to put together interesting data plans for potential customer. A couple of weeks earlier, the super telco had launched a special 4G data plan which offered data free for 90 days. Now, it is offering 15 GB of 3G–4G data at the price of 1 GB. The offer is valid for its pre-paid customers using Samsung J series of smart phones. Among the models which can opt for this offer include: Samsung J2 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J7 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J5 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J Max and Samsung J2 Pro.

The 3G–4G data is available to customers in 4G circles only. In non-4G circles, viewers can enjoy 1 GB of data any time of the day, but 4 GB can only be utilized between midnight and 6 AM.

October 13, 2016
Airtel partners Ditto TV; launches new super app

MUMBAI: Competition makes for strange bedfellows. Airtel is partnering with the OTT platform of Zee Digital Convergence Limited’ dittoTV app as it seeks to battle the onslaught of Reliance Jio. Airtel has relaunched its MyAirtel App as a super app housing many other apps amongst which figures DittoTV. The telco said that Ditto TV with over 100 live TV channels and popular TV shows will be available without any subscription charges to its customers.

Other apps which feature in the new MyAirtel app include Hike Messenger, Wynk Music, Wynk Movies, Wynk Games, Airtel Money, Airtel Dialer and Juggernaut. All of them are apparently being made available free to subscribers.

The MyAirtel app also features Airtel Cloud and Airtel Dialer. Airtel Cloud provides 2GB of free cloud storage and back-up. The company said that there are no data upload charges for the scheduled overnight backups for prepaid customers currently, and this benefit will be made available to postpaid customers soon.

Airtel Dialer, on the other hand, offers 50 minutes of free Airtel-to-Airtel calling benefits, in addition to its call management feature.

With the launch of its new app suite, it’s quite clear that it’s going to be a corporate war in the mobile 4G space. First, Airtel, and Vodafone, Idea blocked calls from free call provider Reliance Jio until they were forced to open up to its services. Hence, the other players including Idea and Airtel are gearing up to attack Jio in the app space too. Idea too is currently putting together an app suite which will be unveiled by Q4-2017 and Q1-2018.

Said Bharati Airtel global CIO & director Harmeen Mehta: “As part of our Digital Airtel initiative, we are excited to bring you the new avatar of the MyAirtel App, which now offers a unified interface to the entire suite of our popular mobile apps and several new ones. All these apps have been curated to ensure customers are offered the best of the web, with more exciting apps and partnerships coming in the near future.

Customers who already have MyAirtel App on their smartphone can update to receive the new features, while new users can download the new MyAirtel App from Google Playstore and iOS App Store. The telco said that normal plan or pack data charges will apply on all the mobile applications on MyAirtel app.

Airtel is also working overnight to put together interesting data plans for potential customer. A couple of weeks earlier, the super telco had launched a special 4G data plan which offered data free for 90 days. Now, it is offering 15 GB of 3G–4G data at the price of 1 GB. The offer is valid for its pre-paid customers using Samsung J series of smart phones. Among the models which can opt for this offer include: Samsung J2 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J7 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J5 (2015 and 2016 models), Samsung J Max and Samsung J2 Pro.

The 3G–4G data is available to customers in 4G circles only. In non-4G circles, viewers can enjoy 1 GB of data any time of the day, but 4 GB can only be utilized between midnight and 6 AM.

October 13, 2016
Twitter ads pro ecosystem to be created by Simplilearn

MUMBAI: Global professional training company Simplilearn has launched an initiative aimed at creating a larger ecosystem of Twitter-advertising aware professionals. Simplilearn is presenting educational content, powered by Twitter, as the core of its certification in Twitter Advertising which will educate marketers on how to leverage Twitter successfully for their business’s digital and social media marketing efforts.

Twitter ads have strategically benefited Fortune 500 and small and medium enterprises in customer acquisition, customer and user engagement as well as brand building. Edric Subur from Twitter’s marketing team is presenting on the power of Twitter Advertising through Simplilearn’s Online Self-Learning (OSL) model.

Edric Subur from Twitter’s marketing team, said, “We are really excited to work with Simplilearn to distribute a structured Twitter Ads course to thousands of marketing professionals. Many marketers are interested in leveraging Twitter Ads to grow their business but are unsure of what’s the best way to do it.”

Simplilearn chief business officer Kashyap Dalal, said “The Certification in Twitter Advertising will also be a part of Simplilearn’s flagship offering – the Full-stack Digital Marketer Masters Program Learners on this course will be trained to make the most of Twitter’s advertising platform, gain insights into audience targeting and content strategies, and learn how to measure results accurately to gauge the success of Twitter ad campaigns.”

Simplilearn is one of the world’s leading providers of online training for IT, Software Development, Project Management, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Digital Marketing, and many other emerging technologies.

October 12, 2016
Twitter ads pro ecosystem to be created by Simplilearn

MUMBAI: Global professional training company Simplilearn has launched an initiative aimed at creating a larger ecosystem of Twitter-advertising aware professionals. Simplilearn is presenting educational content, powered by Twitter, as the core of its certification in Twitter Advertising which will educate marketers on how to leverage Twitter successfully for their business’s digital and social media marketing efforts.

Twitter ads have strategically benefited Fortune 500 and small and medium enterprises in customer acquisition, customer and user engagement as well as brand building. Edric Subur from Twitter’s marketing team is presenting on the power of Twitter Advertising through Simplilearn’s Online Self-Learning (OSL) model.

Edric Subur from Twitter’s marketing team, said, “We are really excited to work with Simplilearn to distribute a structured Twitter Ads course to thousands of marketing professionals. Many marketers are interested in leveraging Twitter Ads to grow their business but are unsure of what’s the best way to do it.”

Simplilearn chief business officer Kashyap Dalal, said “The Certification in Twitter Advertising will also be a part of Simplilearn’s flagship offering – the Full-stack Digital Marketer Masters Program Learners on this course will be trained to make the most of Twitter’s advertising platform, gain insights into audience targeting and content strategies, and learn how to measure results accurately to gauge the success of Twitter ad campaigns.”

Simplilearn is one of the world’s leading providers of online training for IT, Software Development, Project Management, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Digital Marketing, and many other emerging technologies.

October 12, 2016
Mobclixs forays into south west Asia, Middle East

MUMBAI: Mobclixs recently announced its foray into south west Asia and the Middle East. The company that has seen over 25 per cent growth in two years aims to further penetrate the Asian market with its leading entertainment and lifestyle content including,music, games as well as Bollywood news and gossip.

The ripe Asian and Middle Eastern markets have made a favorable ground for digital companies to experiment with content across segments. With an expected growth of 35%, digital products have been in continuous demand with multiple choices and categories. Mobclixs has adopted a local-only approach to ensure relevant content keeping in mind consumers.

Mobclixs Technologies founder and CEO Dushyant Jani said, “We are glad that our gaming and entertainment content has been loved by our consumers so far and we hope to keep adding fresh and interesting content for consumers across the globe with our expansion. With a new set of consumers in our new markets we hope that we can replicate the same success and further expand into the African continent soon.”

Mobclixs recently completed two years of operations, with teleco partners like Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, Aircel to name a few, Mobclixs has become one of the most popular lifestyle and entertainment content companies.

October 12, 2016
Mobclixs forays into south west Asia, Middle East

MUMBAI: Mobclixs recently announced its foray into south west Asia and the Middle East. The company that has seen over 25 per cent growth in two years aims to further penetrate the Asian market with its leading entertainment and lifestyle content including,music, games as well as Bollywood news and gossip.

The ripe Asian and Middle Eastern markets have made a favorable ground for digital companies to experiment with content across segments. With an expected growth of 35%, digital products have been in continuous demand with multiple choices and categories. Mobclixs has adopted a local-only approach to ensure relevant content keeping in mind consumers.

Mobclixs Technologies founder and CEO Dushyant Jani said, “We are glad that our gaming and entertainment content has been loved by our consumers so far and we hope to keep adding fresh and interesting content for consumers across the globe with our expansion. With a new set of consumers in our new markets we hope that we can replicate the same success and further expand into the African continent soon.”

Mobclixs recently completed two years of operations, with teleco partners like Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, Aircel to name a few, Mobclixs has become one of the most popular lifestyle and entertainment content companies.

October 12, 2016
Yupp TV gets $50 mn funding from KKR-backed Emerald Media

MUMBAI: It’s a sign of the confidence international private equity firms have in India’s one-billion plus mobile user base, the over the top (OTT) ecosystem and the appeal south Asian content can have worldwide.

The Chernin-KKR-Ailleo-Kamath backed Emerald Media yesterday announced that it was investing $50 million (Rs 334 crore) in the Uday Reddy-run internet pay TV platform Yupp TV and gaining a significant minority stake in the firm. The purpose of the fund-raising: expand the OTT service’s footprint globally, its content library through originals and acquisitions, and in the process ramp up its subscriber base.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Yupp TV offers a mix of live TV (more than 250 channels in 14 languages), TV shows, movies and videos with a focus on the US, UK, Middle East, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. It has been making inroads in India too with an initial focus on the south Indian market, but has since been spreading nationally. The platform has more than 25,000 hours of entertainment content catalogued in its library, with nearly 5,000 hours of new on-demand content being added to it daily. It recently launched YuppFlix, its on-demand movie streaming service on the back of its 5,000 strong movie catalogue.

More than five million monthly visitors – peaking at 20 million – log on to the Yupp TV service using 27 integrated devices. The YuppTV app has had 10 million mobile downloads, 50 million Samsug TV and 300,000 LG Smart TV pre-installs globally. The app is also available for PS3 and PS4s.

Said YuppTV promoter & CEO Uday Reddy: “We couldn’t ask for a stronger partner than Emerald Media. YuppTV is a content distribution platform with a strong consumer connection, and Emerald Media has global media relationships. We hope to leverage their relationships and existing assets Endemol, OML, Fluence and Graphic India to create original programming and make this platform a next generation distribution and content powerhouse.”

Added Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat: “Emerald Media believes in driving change and value-creation by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth. The world is moving from traditional consumption to multiscreen delivery mediums. YuppTV provides a unique combination of technology, strong content relationships and revenues of scale and will be an anchor to our vision of building a new age media company.”

Said Emerald Media managing director Paul Aiello: “Uday and his team have created an exceptional online video platform with a loyal subscriber base that realizes the huge potential of the global Indian diaspora. Our investment and relationship will enable YuppTV to further their strong leadership position in the rapidly growing OTT space.”

YuppTV will need all the financial muscle it can get. The Indian OTT and VOD space is just about beginning to warm up with the likes of Amazon keeping aside a war chest of around $300 million for its Prime Video service. Additionally, Netflix, Hotstar, SonyLiv, Ditto TV, Voot, Hooq, Viu, Spuul, and the soon to be launched Alt Balaji are all nurturing ambitious investments and plans to capture a piece of the Indian mobile consumer’s wallet.

Also read:

Hooq plans to invest $2 million on original Indian content

Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

October 12, 2016
Yupp TV gets $50 mn funding from KKR-backed Emerald Media

MUMBAI: It’s a sign of the confidence international private equity firms have in India’s one-billion plus mobile user base, the over the top (OTT) ecosystem and the appeal south Asian content can have worldwide.

The Chernin-KKR-Ailleo-Kamath backed Emerald Media yesterday announced that it was investing $50 million (Rs 334 crore) in the Uday Reddy-run internet pay TV platform Yupp TV and gaining a significant minority stake in the firm. The purpose of the fund-raising: expand the OTT service’s footprint globally, its content library through originals and acquisitions, and in the process ramp up its subscriber base.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Yupp TV offers a mix of live TV (more than 250 channels in 14 languages), TV shows, movies and videos with a focus on the US, UK, Middle East, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. It has been making inroads in India too with an initial focus on the south Indian market, but has since been spreading nationally. The platform has more than 25,000 hours of entertainment content catalogued in its library, with nearly 5,000 hours of new on-demand content being added to it daily. It recently launched YuppFlix, its on-demand movie streaming service on the back of its 5,000 strong movie catalogue.

More than five million monthly visitors – peaking at 20 million – log on to the Yupp TV service using 27 integrated devices. The YuppTV app has had 10 million mobile downloads, 50 million Samsug TV and 300,000 LG Smart TV pre-installs globally. The app is also available for PS3 and PS4s.

Said YuppTV promoter & CEO Uday Reddy: “We couldn’t ask for a stronger partner than Emerald Media. YuppTV is a content distribution platform with a strong consumer connection, and Emerald Media has global media relationships. We hope to leverage their relationships and existing assets Endemol, OML, Fluence and Graphic India to create original programming and make this platform a next generation distribution and content powerhouse.”

Added Emerald Media managing director Rajesh Kamat: “Emerald Media believes in driving change and value-creation by providing a distinctive combination of capital, domain knowledge and management bandwidth. The world is moving from traditional consumption to multiscreen delivery mediums. YuppTV provides a unique combination of technology, strong content relationships and revenues of scale and will be an anchor to our vision of building a new age media company.”

Said Emerald Media managing director Paul Aiello: “Uday and his team have created an exceptional online video platform with a loyal subscriber base that realizes the huge potential of the global Indian diaspora. Our investment and relationship will enable YuppTV to further their strong leadership position in the rapidly growing OTT space.”

YuppTV will need all the financial muscle it can get. The Indian OTT and VOD space is just about beginning to warm up with the likes of Amazon keeping aside a war chest of around $300 million for its Prime Video service. Additionally, Netflix, Hotstar, SonyLiv, Ditto TV, Voot, Hooq, Viu, Spuul, and the soon to be launched Alt Balaji are all nurturing ambitious investments and plans to capture a piece of the Indian mobile consumer’s wallet.

Also read:

Hooq plans to invest $2 million on original Indian content

Challenges faced by the OTT players in India; the way ahead

October 12, 2016