Tag: Airtel

Shemaroo to further focus on digital

MUMBAI: Content aggregation and distribution company Shemaroo Entertainment is going into an overdrive on the digital ecosystem. And it’s working for the firm which is quoting currently at Rs 382 (on Wednesday 03pm) on the Bombay stock exchange.

In an interview with CNBC TV18 on 20 December, Shemaroo’s wholetime director and CFO Hiren Gada said, “Digital is currently contributing 20 per cent of its top line revenues,” and growth has been at a healthy 50 per cent and more.

Gada further elaborated that around Rs 24 crore of its previous quarter’s revenues of around Rs 100 crore came courtesy digital or new media. He was specially buoyant about the 4.5 million views per day that its channels on YouTube were generating. Its mother channel Shemaroo had 2.28 million subscribers, Filmi Gaane had 1.8 million subscribers, Shemaroo Movies had 431,579 subscribers, and Shemaroo Kids had 281,000 subscribers cumulatively generating 1.42 billion views, 1.26 billion views, 142 million views and 186 million views, respectively.

“So, that kind of bears out as a strategy and conviction that the content strategy that we are following is getting tremendous traction with the audience,” he said.

Gada disclosed that telcos such as Vodafone, Idea and Airtel which it has partnered are already adding a “large component of revenues” to the company’s topline. “Then, there are all these (platforms) which are the next level of services, some of which are nascent or new like Reliance Jio or Hotstar or iTunes or any other international platforms. They hold tremendous potential.”

Gada added that the company’s content is unmissable. “.. given the kind of content we are sitting on, no one can run a meaningful Bollywood service without some content from Shemaroo. So, to that extent, we are either in talks or already deployed on many of the platforms that are already operating.”

Gada was hopeful of maintaining or hiking the revenue growth levels of 50 per cent that its new media focus has been generating over the next quarter as well. He also highlighted that margins for this segment were also higher than for the company as a whole as operating costs are being kept in check.

Shemaroo has also tied up with DTH operators such as Tata Sky, Dish TV and Airtel to run specialised value added services for them covering movies, comedy, religious songs.

December 21, 2016
Shemaroo to further focus on digital

MUMBAI: Content aggregation and distribution company Shemaroo Entertainment is going into an overdrive on the digital ecosystem. And it’s working for the firm which is quoting currently at Rs 382 (on Wednesday 03pm) on the Bombay stock exchange.

In an interview with CNBC TV18 on 20 December, Shemaroo’s wholetime director and CFO Hiren Gada said, “Digital is currently contributing 20 per cent of its top line revenues,” and growth has been at a healthy 50 per cent and more.

Gada further elaborated that around Rs 24 crore of its previous quarter’s revenues of around Rs 100 crore came courtesy digital or new media. He was specially buoyant about the 4.5 million views per day that its channels on YouTube were generating. Its mother channel Shemaroo had 2.28 million subscribers, Filmi Gaane had 1.8 million subscribers, Shemaroo Movies had 431,579 subscribers, and Shemaroo Kids had 281,000 subscribers cumulatively generating 1.42 billion views, 1.26 billion views, 142 million views and 186 million views, respectively.

“So, that kind of bears out as a strategy and conviction that the content strategy that we are following is getting tremendous traction with the audience,” he said.

Gada disclosed that telcos such as Vodafone, Idea and Airtel which it has partnered are already adding a “large component of revenues” to the company’s topline. “Then, there are all these (platforms) which are the next level of services, some of which are nascent or new like Reliance Jio or Hotstar or iTunes or any other international platforms. They hold tremendous potential.”

Gada added that the company’s content is unmissable. “.. given the kind of content we are sitting on, no one can run a meaningful Bollywood service without some content from Shemaroo. So, to that extent, we are either in talks or already deployed on many of the platforms that are already operating.”

Gada was hopeful of maintaining or hiking the revenue growth levels of 50 per cent that its new media focus has been generating over the next quarter as well. He also highlighted that margins for this segment were also higher than for the company as a whole as operating costs are being kept in check.

Shemaroo has also tied up with DTH operators such as Tata Sky, Dish TV and Airtel to run specialised value added services for them covering movies, comedy, religious songs.

December 21, 2016
BSNL leads in wireline broadband internet subs addition in Sep-16

BENGALURU: In a change from the norm, the public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added 40,000 wireline broadband internet subscribers in the month of September 2016 (Sep-16). BSNL had been consistently losing subscribers in the calendar year 2016 (CY-16) until 31 August 2016 (Aug-16). Its gain in Sep-16 was just half the 80,000 subscribers it has lost in CY-16 until Sep-16. At the same time, the other public sector telecom operator – Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) has also been bleeding wireline broadband internet subscribers in CY-16 until Sep-16. MTNL has also seen a reduction of 50,000 subscribers in CY-16.Overall, the two public sector players have lost subscribers during CY-16 until Sep-16 and hence dampened the subscriber growth rate among the top five wired broadband internet players.

The wireline broadband internet (broadband) subscriber base in the country grew by 8.06 percent (by 13.3 lakh or 1.33 million) in the period between 31 December 2015 (Dec-15) or1 January 2016 until 30 September 2016 (Sep-16), from 165.1 lakh to 178.4 lakh. Telecom subscription data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for Sep-16 reveals that the contribution by the top five players’ was just 5 lakh new subscribers or 3.55 percent growth in the current calendar year until Sep-16 (CY-16).Overall, wired broadband subscribers grew 0.96 percent month-on-month (MoM) in Sep-16. The All India wired broadband base grew from 176.7 lakh to 178.4 lakh, while the five top players grew by 0.69 percent in Sep-16 as compared to Aug-16.

Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 until Sep-16 are private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel (Airtel, 30,000 additions in Sep-16) and regional player Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd (ACT, 20,000 additions in Sep-16) with additions of 2.7 lakh and 2.5 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16 until Sep-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 16.17 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 29.07 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Sep-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel has already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT has equalled its CY-15 performance Hence, by the end of 2016, with reports for a quarter of year to be published as yet, the two players should add a lot more subscribers than they did in CY-15.

While Airtel is a national level player, ACT is a regional player with operations in South India, hence probably making ACT the largest private wireline broadband player in South India. ACT has replaced the public sector MTNL at third place, pushing the latter to fourth spot in Aug-16 in terms of number of subscribers.Another private player among the top five – You Broadband (You BB) has added 70,000 subscribers (13.73 percent growth) in the current year until Sep-16.

Among the 5 top wireline broadband internet players in India, the public sector telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) leads by far with 98.8 lakh total number of wireline broadband subscribers as on Sep-16. However, as mentioned above, BSNL had seen its broadband subscriber base shrink by 80,000 in CY-16 until Aug-16. The largest private sector wireline broadband internet services player Airtel had 19.1 lakh subscribers as on 30 September 2016, ACT with 11.1 lakh subscribers was next and was followed by the other public sector player –MTNL with 10.7 lakh subscribers. You Broadband (You BB) with 5.8 lakh subscribers was the fifth.

Please refer to Fig 1 below for wireline subscriber data in CY-16 until Sep-16.

The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Sep-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber addition has fallen in CY-16 until Sep-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.73 percent as on 30 September 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

Month-on-month (m-o-m), the all India wired broadband subscriber base witnessed the second highest growth in CY-16 until Sep-16 in Aug-16 at 1.03 percent, while the top 5 players had a growth of 0.28 percent in that month. Please refer to figure 2 below:

Other wireline broadband players in India

MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectively whose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

Overall broadband subscriber numbers for September 2016 including wireless and mobile

Overall, as per the reports received by TRAI from the service providers, the number ofbroadband subscribers (including wireless, mobile, dongles) grew by a massive 11.99 percent by 20.59million or 205.9 lakh to 192.30 million (19.32 crore) in Sep-16 from 171.71 million (17.171 crore) in Aug-16. The growth was led by Wireless broadband subscriber numbers that use mobiles and dongles for internet access have increased m-o-m by 13.31 percent in Sep-16 to 173.87 million (17.387 crore) from 153.45 million (15.345 crore) in Aug-16. Fixed wireless subscribers that access the internet through Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-point radio and VSAT have increased 1.27 percent in Sep-16 to to 0.60 million (6 lakh) from 0.59 million (5.9 lakh) in Aug-16.

The top five service providers constituted 78.62 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Aug-16. These service providerswere Bharti Airtel (46.19 million or 4.619 crore), Vodafone (35.94 million or 3.594 crore), Idea Cellular(30.72 million 3.072 crore), BSNL (21.60 million 2.16 crore) and Reliance Communications Group (16.74 million 1.674 crore).

As on 30 September, 2016, the top five Wireless Broadband Serviceproviders were Bharti Airtel (44.25 million, 4.425 crore), Vodafone (35.93 million, 3.593 crore),Idea Cellular (30.72 million, 3.072 crore), Reliance Communications (16.62 million, 1.662 crore) and Reliance Jio (16.00 million, 1.6 crore).

TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

(2) 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.

(3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

December 10, 2016
BSNL leads in wireline broadband internet subs addition in Sep-16

BENGALURU: In a change from the norm, the public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) added 40,000 wireline broadband internet subscribers in the month of September 2016 (Sep-16). BSNL had been consistently losing subscribers in the calendar year 2016 (CY-16) until 31 August 2016 (Aug-16). Its gain in Sep-16 was just half the 80,000 subscribers it has lost in CY-16 until Sep-16. At the same time, the other public sector telecom operator – Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) has also been bleeding wireline broadband internet subscribers in CY-16 until Sep-16. MTNL has also seen a reduction of 50,000 subscribers in CY-16.Overall, the two public sector players have lost subscribers during CY-16 until Sep-16 and hence dampened the subscriber growth rate among the top five wired broadband internet players.

The wireline broadband internet (broadband) subscriber base in the country grew by 8.06 percent (by 13.3 lakh or 1.33 million) in the period between 31 December 2015 (Dec-15) or1 January 2016 until 30 September 2016 (Sep-16), from 165.1 lakh to 178.4 lakh. Telecom subscription data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for Sep-16 reveals that the contribution by the top five players’ was just 5 lakh new subscribers or 3.55 percent growth in the current calendar year until Sep-16 (CY-16).Overall, wired broadband subscribers grew 0.96 percent month-on-month (MoM) in Sep-16. The All India wired broadband base grew from 176.7 lakh to 178.4 lakh, while the five top players grew by 0.69 percent in Sep-16 as compared to Aug-16.

Leading the growth in subscriber additions in CY-16 until Sep-16 are private wired broadband players Bharti Airtel (Airtel, 30,000 additions in Sep-16) and regional player Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt Ltd (ACT, 20,000 additions in Sep-16) with additions of 2.7 lakh and 2.5 lakh subscriber additions respectively in CY-16 until Sep-16. Airtel’s wired broadband subscriber base grew 16.17 percent, while ACT’s base grew by 29.07 percent during the same period (CY-16 until Sep-16). In CY-15 (1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015), Airtel had added 2.6 lakh wired broadband subscribers and grown by 18.44 percent, while ACT added 2.5 lakh subscribers and had grown at a blazing 40.98 percent. By Sep-16, Airtel has already exceeded the number of subscribers it had added in CY-15, while ACT has equalled its CY-15 performance Hence, by the end of 2016, with reports for a quarter of year to be published as yet, the two players should add a lot more subscribers than they did in CY-15.

While Airtel is a national level player, ACT is a regional player with operations in South India, hence probably making ACT the largest private wireline broadband player in South India. ACT has replaced the public sector MTNL at third place, pushing the latter to fourth spot in Aug-16 in terms of number of subscribers.Another private player among the top five – You Broadband (You BB) has added 70,000 subscribers (13.73 percent growth) in the current year until Sep-16.

Among the 5 top wireline broadband internet players in India, the public sector telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) leads by far with 98.8 lakh total number of wireline broadband subscribers as on Sep-16. However, as mentioned above, BSNL had seen its broadband subscriber base shrink by 80,000 in CY-16 until Aug-16. The largest private sector wireline broadband internet services player Airtel had 19.1 lakh subscribers as on 30 September 2016, ACT with 11.1 lakh subscribers was next and was followed by the other public sector player –MTNL with 10.7 lakh subscribers. You Broadband (You BB) with 5.8 lakh subscribers was the fifth.

Please refer to Fig 1 below for wireline subscriber data in CY-16 until Sep-16.

The top five players have had a slower rate of growth as compared to the all India growth in CY-16 until Sep-16. The share of the top five players among all India wired broadband subscriber addition has fallen in CY-16 until Sep-16 from 85.28 percent as on 1 January 2016 to 81.73 percent as on 30 September 2016. The share of these players was 88.45 percent as on 1 January 2015.

Month-on-month (m-o-m), the all India wired broadband subscriber base witnessed the second highest growth in CY-16 until Sep-16 in Aug-16 at 1.03 percent, while the top 5 players had a growth of 0.28 percent in that month. Please refer to figure 2 below:

Other wireline broadband players in India

MSOs’ in India have started providing internet services on the back of their television cable networks using DOCSIS technology. In general, they have started reporting double and triple digit year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in internet subscribers and revenue. The television cable players see broadband services improving their Average Revenue per User (ARPU) numbers. Three of the major MSOs and a regional MSO – Hathway, Siti Networks Limited, Den Networks Limited , Ortel Communications Limited respectively whose results are available in the public domain have been showing steady growth in their broadband segment over the past few quarters.

Overall broadband subscriber numbers for September 2016 including wireless and mobile

Overall, as per the reports received by TRAI from the service providers, the number ofbroadband subscribers (including wireless, mobile, dongles) grew by a massive 11.99 percent by 20.59million or 205.9 lakh to 192.30 million (19.32 crore) in Sep-16 from 171.71 million (17.171 crore) in Aug-16. The growth was led by Wireless broadband subscriber numbers that use mobiles and dongles for internet access have increased m-o-m by 13.31 percent in Sep-16 to 173.87 million (17.387 crore) from 153.45 million (15.345 crore) in Aug-16. Fixed wireless subscribers that access the internet through Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Point-to-point radio and VSAT have increased 1.27 percent in Sep-16 to to 0.60 million (6 lakh) from 0.59 million (5.9 lakh) in Aug-16.

The top five service providers constituted 78.62 percent market share of the totalbroadband subscribers at the end of Aug-16. These service providerswere Bharti Airtel (46.19 million or 4.619 crore), Vodafone (35.94 million or 3.594 crore), Idea Cellular(30.72 million 3.072 crore), BSNL (21.60 million 2.16 crore) and Reliance Communications Group (16.74 million 1.674 crore).

As on 30 September, 2016, the top five Wireless Broadband Serviceproviders were Bharti Airtel (44.25 million, 4.425 crore), Vodafone (35.93 million, 3.593 crore),Idea Cellular (30.72 million, 3.072 crore), Reliance Communications (16.62 million, 1.662 crore) and Reliance Jio (16.00 million, 1.6 crore).

TRAI’s definition of broadband is internet download speeds greater than or equal to 512 Kpbs.

Notes:(1) The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR).The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

(2) 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.

(3) MSOs’ have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger. Hathway is a case in point.

December 10, 2016
Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

MUMBAI: Folks at Eros are popping bottles of champagne! Eros International’s OTT platform Eros Now has achieved two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and Vodafone.

Between the four platforms, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60 per cent of India’s total mobile user base of more than a billion. Jio has announced a user base of 52 million users in just a few months following their launch.

“Our strategy remains to distribute Eros Now, a world class OTT platform, to consumers across telecoms and OEMs with compelling content and product features. We view the recent demonetization move in India as a great opportunity for the OTT business as more consumers are signing up for online and mobile pay systems. I am really excited about the exponential growth in front of Eros Now and am confident we will continue to consolidate our leadership position and first mover advantage,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh.

These deals across 20 different telecom operators and OEMs alone provide visibility to a minimum of 4-5 million subscribers annually to Eros Now at an average annual ARPU of $4-5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Since these deals were agreed at various points in time in FY 2017, Eros Now will see the full year benefit of these deals flowing through in fiscal 2018. Most of these contracts are long term deals averaging five years.

With a movie library of over 5,000 films and a further library of 5,000 films being added to this list, Eros Now plans to offer the widest repertoire of Indian movie content across any OTT platform in the world.

In another development, Eros International’s Sanam Teri Kasam was one of the eight chosen films that were screened across 21 cities at the Bollywood Film Festival in Russia. The week-long event flagged off on 30 November.

The film debuts Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane and is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. Rane was also invited for the film’s screening and was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation the movie received.

December 9, 2016
Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs

MUMBAI: Folks at Eros are popping bottles of champagne! Eros International’s OTT platform Eros Now has achieved two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and Vodafone.

Between the four platforms, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60 per cent of India’s total mobile user base of more than a billion. Jio has announced a user base of 52 million users in just a few months following their launch.

“Our strategy remains to distribute Eros Now, a world class OTT platform, to consumers across telecoms and OEMs with compelling content and product features. We view the recent demonetization move in India as a great opportunity for the OTT business as more consumers are signing up for online and mobile pay systems. I am really excited about the exponential growth in front of Eros Now and am confident we will continue to consolidate our leadership position and first mover advantage,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh.

These deals across 20 different telecom operators and OEMs alone provide visibility to a minimum of 4-5 million subscribers annually to Eros Now at an average annual ARPU of $4-5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Since these deals were agreed at various points in time in FY 2017, Eros Now will see the full year benefit of these deals flowing through in fiscal 2018. Most of these contracts are long term deals averaging five years.

With a movie library of over 5,000 films and a further library of 5,000 films being added to this list, Eros Now plans to offer the widest repertoire of Indian movie content across any OTT platform in the world.

In another development, Eros International’s Sanam Teri Kasam was one of the eight chosen films that were screened across 21 cities at the Bollywood Film Festival in Russia. The week-long event flagged off on 30 November.

The film debuts Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane and is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. Rane was also invited for the film’s screening and was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation the movie received.

December 9, 2016
ATF 2016 discusses secret sauce for Asian OTT’s successes

SINGAPORE: The media and entertainment industry is known for its dynamic and unpredictable nature. With digital media taking an upward turn, over the top services are slowly making a mark and challenging traditional viewing methods. To address how effective are the various OTT models, the pre-ATF market conference on 6 December witnessed the session ‘View From Over The Top.’

The discussion was led by IndianTelevision.com group founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, and covered the scope of the new content buyers in the online evolution and the success in re-aligning company strategies to meet new demands.

The panelists consisted of an interesting bunch of execs whose services are as different as chalk and cheese: Hulu Japan (Japan), chief content officer, Kazufumi Nagasawa; Singapore-based Hooq co-founder and chief content officer, Krishnan Rajagopalan; LeTV (China), chief executive producer, Hao Fang; and US-based AwesomnessTV head of worldwide distribution, Rebecca Glashow.

Wanvari set the ball rolling by questioning whether OTT as a business concept is a pipe dream or a reality. “OTT services have not really made a dent on viewing habits for a large part in Asian markets where television viewing is still rating high with consumers,” he stated. “Yet close to 100 or so OTT/VOD services have launched in various Asian nations. No one knows what the right business model is — Is it AVOD? Is it TVOD? Or, is it SVOD? Or is it a freemium model? Or is it a telco-bundled/TV set-bundled service? What is the pricing sweet spot? How much time will it take to build them into viable businesses? It looks like the OTT industry looks like what the cable and satellite TV industry did in the early nineties across Asia. The broadcasters were making losses and kept on bleeding for a decade or so. Will the same happen to OTT? And, what could help accelerate its fortunes better? Is it data costs? Or consumer education?”

The panelists then went to on to talk about how they were each dealing with the market’s challenges. With China being the largest market in terms of mobile subscribers, LeTV took a strategic decision to bundle its streaming service platform with ‘Le’ mobile phones and in Hong Kong with its TVs. Consumers got LeTV free for varying periods as it was built into the price of the hardware.

On the other hand, Hooq, being a comparatively young player in the market, Rajagopalan mentioned that the Asian audience is slowly getting used to the idea of paid services. Hooq has strong partnerships with telcos such as Singtel, Airtel, Vodafone, Globe Telecom, Telkomsel in different regions as it rolls out. Partnering with other companies has enabled Hooq to reach out to consumers who might be unaware of Hooq or don’t want to shell out money as it’s a SVOD service. Hooq launched in Singapore in end-November adding to Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand – countries in which it has been investing.

AwesomnessTV follows a completely different approach; it perceives itself as a content creator for all the screens – TV, theatre, mobile, tablet – and its MCN strategy is totally a separate kettle of fish. Its advantage is that it has a strong millennial content focus on account of it strong digital talent. This has landed it deals with various platforms: Verizon for its Go90 mobile service; with ITV2 in the UK for which it is developing a millennial targeted commissioned programme block. A slate of feature films is also in the offing.

And because its productions have a slew of digital stars it uses their online social media following to tease their fans and lure them to watch the content it creates for the other screens. Glashow said that she was in Asia to explore and evaluate opportunities and build partnerships to help it with its Asian foray. With enough money from its varied parents right from Verizon to Dreamworks Animation and Hearst Entertainment, it can afford to be ambitious for the continent as well.

Hulu Japan – which is owned wholly by the broadcaster Nippon TV after Hulu exited a few years ago — follows the SVOD model, and has partnered with the Japanese major telco DoCoMo. As far as content is concerned, Nagasawa said that the OTT service has an international to domestic content ratio of 50:50. The service offers its users a smorgasbord of international top series as well as domestically produced content. Production budgets vary from 10,000 dollars to as much as a million dollars.

Nagasawa said he has plans to make Hulu a one-stop-destination for consumers as the company plans to expand its linear streaming service to include transactional video on demand (TVoD) and electronic sell-through.

Speaking about original content production, Hooq which recently released the trailer of its first original co-produced show ‘On The Job’ at ATF, Rajagopalan commented: “We have converted a movie into a TV series and are paying more than what goes into the production of a TV show as with multiple business models existing, content differentiation is the key to success. And that’s where the focus should be.”

Stressing the same fact, Fang added, “While creating our content, we almost feel as if we are buying a building as it costs us around RMB four to five billion! We want to produce more original content but it is difficult.”

When asked by Wanvari what kind of content and partners are the panelists looking for, Ramagopalan said that it all depends on how differentiated the content is. Glashow advised, “Before producing anything, know your audience and then reach out to them. For us, our client is the audience and so we take feedback from them and listen to what they want.” And, Fang revealed that LeTV is keeping an open mindset and is willing to participate with everyone.

December 8, 2016
ATF 2016 discusses secret sauce for Asian OTT’s successes

SINGAPORE: The media and entertainment industry is known for its dynamic and unpredictable nature. With digital media taking an upward turn, over the top services are slowly making a mark and challenging traditional viewing methods. To address how effective are the various OTT models, the pre-ATF market conference on 6 December witnessed the session ‘View From Over The Top.’

The discussion was led by IndianTelevision.com group founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, and covered the scope of the new content buyers in the online evolution and the success in re-aligning company strategies to meet new demands.

The panelists consisted of an interesting bunch of execs whose services are as different as chalk and cheese: Hulu Japan (Japan), chief content officer, Kazufumi Nagasawa; Singapore-based Hooq co-founder and chief content officer, Krishnan Rajagopalan; LeTV (China), chief executive producer, Hao Fang; and US-based AwesomnessTV head of worldwide distribution, Rebecca Glashow.

Wanvari set the ball rolling by questioning whether OTT as a business concept is a pipe dream or a reality. “OTT services have not really made a dent on viewing habits for a large part in Asian markets where television viewing is still rating high with consumers,” he stated. “Yet close to 100 or so OTT/VOD services have launched in various Asian nations. No one knows what the right business model is — Is it AVOD? Is it TVOD? Or, is it SVOD? Or is it a freemium model? Or is it a telco-bundled/TV set-bundled service? What is the pricing sweet spot? How much time will it take to build them into viable businesses? It looks like the OTT industry looks like what the cable and satellite TV industry did in the early nineties across Asia. The broadcasters were making losses and kept on bleeding for a decade or so. Will the same happen to OTT? And, what could help accelerate its fortunes better? Is it data costs? Or consumer education?”

The panelists then went to on to talk about how they were each dealing with the market’s challenges. With China being the largest market in terms of mobile subscribers, LeTV took a strategic decision to bundle its streaming service platform with ‘Le’ mobile phones and in Hong Kong with its TVs. Consumers got LeTV free for varying periods as it was built into the price of the hardware.

On the other hand, Hooq, being a comparatively young player in the market, Rajagopalan mentioned that the Asian audience is slowly getting used to the idea of paid services. Hooq has strong partnerships with telcos such as Singtel, Airtel, Vodafone, Globe Telecom, Telkomsel in different regions as it rolls out. Partnering with other companies has enabled Hooq to reach out to consumers who might be unaware of Hooq or don’t want to shell out money as it’s a SVOD service. Hooq launched in Singapore in end-November adding to Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand – countries in which it has been investing.

AwesomnessTV follows a completely different approach; it perceives itself as a content creator for all the screens – TV, theatre, mobile, tablet – and its MCN strategy is totally a separate kettle of fish. Its advantage is that it has a strong millennial content focus on account of it strong digital talent. This has landed it deals with various platforms: Verizon for its Go90 mobile service; with ITV2 in the UK for which it is developing a millennial targeted commissioned programme block. A slate of feature films is also in the offing.

And because its productions have a slew of digital stars it uses their online social media following to tease their fans and lure them to watch the content it creates for the other screens. Glashow said that she was in Asia to explore and evaluate opportunities and build partnerships to help it with its Asian foray. With enough money from its varied parents right from Verizon to Dreamworks Animation and Hearst Entertainment, it can afford to be ambitious for the continent as well.

Hulu Japan – which is owned wholly by the broadcaster Nippon TV after Hulu exited a few years ago — follows the SVOD model, and has partnered with the Japanese major telco DoCoMo. As far as content is concerned, Nagasawa said that the OTT service has an international to domestic content ratio of 50:50. The service offers its users a smorgasbord of international top series as well as domestically produced content. Production budgets vary from 10,000 dollars to as much as a million dollars.

Nagasawa said he has plans to make Hulu a one-stop-destination for consumers as the company plans to expand its linear streaming service to include transactional video on demand (TVoD) and electronic sell-through.

Speaking about original content production, Hooq which recently released the trailer of its first original co-produced show ‘On The Job’ at ATF, Rajagopalan commented: “We have converted a movie into a TV series and are paying more than what goes into the production of a TV show as with multiple business models existing, content differentiation is the key to success. And that’s where the focus should be.”

Stressing the same fact, Fang added, “While creating our content, we almost feel as if we are buying a building as it costs us around RMB four to five billion! We want to produce more original content but it is difficult.”

When asked by Wanvari what kind of content and partners are the panelists looking for, Ramagopalan said that it all depends on how differentiated the content is. Glashow advised, “Before producing anything, know your audience and then reach out to them. For us, our client is the audience and so we take feedback from them and listen to what they want.” And, Fang revealed that LeTV is keeping an open mindset and is willing to participate with everyone.

December 8, 2016
Hooq brings exclusive content for India

MUMBAI: Hooq has announced the addition of new exclusive set of DC titles to its already extensive content catalogue especially for its Indian audience. The new title includes illustrious and renowned names such as Supergirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Flash and Lucifer which will be available for Hooq users.

Indian audiences can now view new episodes of Supergirl on the same day as the US premier. Hooq complimentary trials are available for postpaid customers of Airtel, Vodafone and ACT Fiber net.

“The new addition of DC titles to our extensive library comes exclusively for our Indian audiences this time. This foregrounds how India is one of the key markets for HOOQ. We want to offer our customers the best and most exciting content from across the world and genres. HOOQ has one of the largest numbers of Hollywood titles and we are very excited to continuously add more content every month. With varied content on our platform, we aim to offer our audiences different flavors with an uninterrupted viewing experience. To propagate our efforts further, we have multiple partnerships in place, to give a few examples, the HOOQ complimentary trials are available for Postpaid customers of Airtel, Vodafone and ACT Fiber net. These partnerships will help consumer experience the freedom of viewing content anytime, anywhere with HOOQ and give them a window to what we have to offer,” said Hooq India MD Salil Kapoor.

Supergirl is an American drama television series that is based on the comic character, Supergirl, a costumed superheroine cousin to Superman. The series is about Supergirl’s journey of becoming a National City protector and how she deals with the feud between Earth and its extraterrestrial communities. What’s more? Indian audiences would now be able to view new episodes of Supergirl on the same day as the US premier. Hooq users will have an access to a new episode every Wednesday for the series.

Flash an American television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is an American superhero action-adventure television series. The show is a spin-off from Arrow and The Flash, existing in the same fictional universe. Lucifer is the story of a fallen angel who decides to retire and reside in Los Angeles

December 2, 2016
Hooq brings exclusive content for India

MUMBAI: Hooq has announced the addition of new exclusive set of DC titles to its already extensive content catalogue especially for its Indian audience. The new title includes illustrious and renowned names such as Supergirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Flash and Lucifer which will be available for Hooq users.

Indian audiences can now view new episodes of Supergirl on the same day as the US premier. Hooq complimentary trials are available for postpaid customers of Airtel, Vodafone and ACT Fiber net.

“The new addition of DC titles to our extensive library comes exclusively for our Indian audiences this time. This foregrounds how India is one of the key markets for HOOQ. We want to offer our customers the best and most exciting content from across the world and genres. HOOQ has one of the largest numbers of Hollywood titles and we are very excited to continuously add more content every month. With varied content on our platform, we aim to offer our audiences different flavors with an uninterrupted viewing experience. To propagate our efforts further, we have multiple partnerships in place, to give a few examples, the HOOQ complimentary trials are available for Postpaid customers of Airtel, Vodafone and ACT Fiber net. These partnerships will help consumer experience the freedom of viewing content anytime, anywhere with HOOQ and give them a window to what we have to offer,” said Hooq India MD Salil Kapoor.

Supergirl is an American drama television series that is based on the comic character, Supergirl, a costumed superheroine cousin to Superman. The series is about Supergirl’s journey of becoming a National City protector and how she deals with the feud between Earth and its extraterrestrial communities. What’s more? Indian audiences would now be able to view new episodes of Supergirl on the same day as the US premier. Hooq users will have an access to a new episode every Wednesday for the series.

Flash an American television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is an American superhero action-adventure television series. The show is a spin-off from Arrow and The Flash, existing in the same fictional universe. Lucifer is the story of a fallen angel who decides to retire and reside in Los Angeles

December 2, 2016