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Tag: ALTBalaji

  • ALTBalaji associates with Stylecraze and HerHQ

    ALTBalaji associates with Stylecraze and HerHQ

    KOLKATA: In an attempt to woo the millennial women audience, popular OTT platform ALTBalaji has tied up with Incnut Digital's properties – Stylecraze & Bridal Box, a brand operated by and for women with a vision to create a thriving ecosystem of information, opportunity and support for women.

    The association comes at a time when ALTBalaji's latest release Paurashpur is creating waves for its depiction of a fictional kingdom under patriarchal rule, where women strive against discrimination and fight for gender equality.

    "As India's biggest community of 50 million millennial women, we strongly believe that the media's role and power to influence the portrayal of women is more important now than ever. We have and continue to witness violence in various forms which stems from the struggle for power, acceptance and more importantly the physical and economic disparities which continue to co-exist between the sexes even in today's times," Incnut Digital vice president- business development and strategic partnerships Natasha Garyali said.

    ALTBalaji marketing, analytics, and direct revenue SVP Divya Dixit said, "With this partnership, ALTBalaji wants to ensure stringent support to the women out there who act as a strong catalyst. We create shows that depict women's empowerment and stand by it. Our content viewership has a huge percentage of women audience and hence, there is no better tie-up than this to showcase our appreciation and respect to these influential individuals, along with helping us expand our narrative to inspire them."

    HerHQ’s purpose is to help brands leverage heterogeneous women communities from different life stages, said founder Meera Chopra. In this association, HerHQ acts as a catalyst bringing content and communities together. “ALTBalaji's original content – Paurashpur gives us a peek into the kingdom dominated by men where women fight the ultimate battle of gender inequality eventually winning it. We believe, IncNut is the obvious choice given its expansive platform reach of 50 million women community,” she added.

    Growing from strength to strength on the back of innovative business strategies, ALTBalaji has become one of the major players in the Indian OTT industry. With a vast library of 70+ originals across genres that cater to all kinds of audiences, the shows at ALTBalaji are a mix of thriller, crime, drama, romance, youth drama, horror, comedy, amongst others.

  • After dip in revenue, ALTBalaji offers cashbacks on subscription

    After dip in revenue, ALTBalaji offers cashbacks on subscription

    KOLKATA: ALTBalaji has teamed up with payment gateways Paytm and Amazon Pay to offer consumers up to Rs 300 cashback on the first Paytm wallet or Paytm UPI transaction on subscribing to the OTT platform. On the other hand, consumers can opt for Amazon Pay and get a cashback between Rs 10 to 250. Both the offers will be valid for Android, and web only from 1 December to 31 December 2020.

    The offer comes on the back of the streaming service registering marginal degrowth in subscriber revenue in Q2, down to Rs 12.2 crore from Rs 12.9 crore in the preceding quarter. The company attributed this to downtrend to the Unlock phase, as customers returned “back to work and social commitments." In the same period, however, the platform clocked four million subscribers and an ARPU of around Rs 140–150.  

    To avail the offer through Paytm and Amazon Pay, the audience needs to buy an ALTBalaji subscription for Rs 100 or more. These offers can be availed only once, during the campaign validity. Once the whole amount is paid from Paytm wallet or UPI, cashback will be credited to the user's bank account linked to their Paytm UPI ID. For Amazon Pay users, it will be credited as Amazon Pay balance within three working days.

    ALTBalaji CEO and Balaji Telefilms group COO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “Since the launch, our main focus has been on offering quality content which is also affordable. Available to stream at 0.80 paise per day today, we are one of the most affordable OTT platforms in the country. Our association with key payment gateways like Paytm and Amazon Pay is in sync with our objective of keeping our consumers at the very core and going deeper into the Hindi heartlands.”

    For the upcoming festive season, ALTBalaji has an exciting pipeline consisting of multiple shows. The festive month of November started with Mum Bhai, followed by Bicchoo Ka Khel and Dark7White. Coming up next are Paurashpur, LSD, Class of 2020 Season 2, Who’s Your Daddy Season 2, and Crashh, to name a few. Each of these new shows is high-octane dramas, which the audience can binge-watch through the festive season.

    With an extensive library of 68 Indian originals across genres that cater to all kinds of audiences, the shows at ALTBalaji are a mix of thriller, drama, romance, youth drama, horror, comedy, amongst others. Romantic dramas like Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat, It Happened in Calcutta, Baarish, Dil Hi To hai etc enjoy a growing fandom amongst women in the 25-45 years TG. While on the other hand, thrillers like Apharan, Fixxer, Boss, Ragini MMS, Code M are consumed by men in the 22- 45 age bracket. In addition to the above, shows such as Mentalhood, The Test Case, MOM: Mission Over Mars, Bose: Dead/ Alive, The Verdict – State v/s Nanavati are being consumed extensively by the urban audience across all age groups.

  • Balaji Telefilms sees stronger Q2 FY21

    Balaji Telefilms sees stronger Q2 FY21

    KOLKATA:  The Ekta Kapoor headed content production house Balaji Telefilms on Monday reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 78.3 crore in the second quarter, up 123 per cent from Rs 35.05 crore in the first quarter. The company has narrowed down EBIDTA to a negative Rs 12.4 crore from the negartive Rs 26.3 crore in the previous quarter. The company has posted a net loss of Rs 19.5 crore again an improvement over Rs 27.9 crore in Q1 2020.

    In a regulatory filing, Balaji Telefilms has stated that content production has resumed slowly leading to higher production cost of Rs 60.5 crore. 176.5 hours of TV content have been produced in the quarter. Six shows were on air during the quarter and the company is expected to launch two new shows in the coming quarter.

    “This quarter we took steps to restore our content production activity and have slowly returned to more normal levels of TV content production. The teams are adapting to the new processes of shooting and I am confident we will adapt quickly given our strength and successful track record. Our digital businesses had limited fresh content during the quarter but we have managed to get better engagement using our library of over 65 original shows. We will soon restart adding more shows to the platform as shows are ready for launch. Overall some of the cost optimization programs initiated should continue to allow us to see strong profitability as our operations return to pre-COVID levels,” Balaji Telefilms managing director Shobha Kapoor said.

    Total Revenue for ALTBalaji stood at Rs 14.7 for the quarter compared to Rs 14.9 in the previous quarter. The OTT platform has witnessed a marginal uptick in international subscriptions as it is gaining traction globally. While average daily subscriber addition in the quarter has stood at 9000, average revenue per user (ARPU) remains between Rs 140 to Rs 150 a year.

    The direct subscription revenue has witnessed a marginal de-growth as the country has slowly opened up and customers are returning back to work and social commitments. Moreover, revenue from its Zee5 deal has also resumed in the quarter. As there has been a huge change in content consumption trends, the recent lockdown has accelerated the shift of consumer base from tier 1 into non-metro and tier II or tier III towns and cities. 

  • ALTBalaji to conduct Writers’ Lab, a YouTube online masterclass series to inspire & educate aspiring students of cinema!

    ALTBalaji to conduct Writers’ Lab, a YouTube online masterclass series to inspire & educate aspiring students of cinema!

    To bridge the gap between the prolific writers of the entertainment industry and aspiring students of cinema, ALTBalaji – one of the country’s leading OTT platforms has come up with a thoughtful and unique initiative – ‘The Writers' Lab’. Proposed to be an online masterclass where renowned writers and directors from the entertainment world will provide information focusing on nuances in scriptwriting and direction directly to the students.

    The idea behind ‘The Writers' Lab’ is to create a platform on ALTBalaji's YouTube channel which imparts tips and tricks of writing for the web (films and digital shows), wherein the industry professionals would be interviewed directly by the aspiring students.

    For the same, the team of ALTBalaji has collaborated with the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC) to conduct weekly online masterclass starting from the second week of October. This intends to provide post graduating film making students with a platform to voice out their questions and get a better perspective from the writers’ point of view.

    One of the biggest and most successful content creators on the web, ALTBalaji has been able to create multi-genre Indian original content, including drama, crime, comedy, adult, thriller, love stories, etc. The masterclass will include scriptwriting tools and apps that one can use, structuring the script, ways to develop an idea, writing the script for episodic series and multiple seasons, understanding of scenes and sequences, developing character arcs and dialogues, research involved in scriptwriting, etc.

    The renowned names from the digital world comprising the masterclass activity include the likes of Harsh Dedhia (Director – Broken But Beautiful), Nandita Mehra (Director – Baarish), Abhijit Das (Director – Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain), Ritu Bhatia (Writer – Mentalhood), among others.

    Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO ALTBalaji, and Group COO Balaji Telefilms said, “The Writers’ Lab initiative is our way of giving back to our community. It is specifically curated to support new writers and directors who want to learn and enhance their craft in their respective areas of expertise. The YouTube specials series would be led by real students asking the right questions to the working professionals having successful scriptwriting and direction background. It is a great platform to discover and develop your skills and prepare the next-gen of filmmakers for a better tomorrow”. 

    Dr. Ruchi Kher Jaggi, Professor & Director, SIMC, Symbiosis International (Deemed) University, adds, “Besides the didactic nature of the project, it is an opportunity for the students and the stakeholders in the project to draw on to the online mediums’ potential of reaching a spectrum of audiences. The aim is to have industry experts educate the generation on the nuances of using the medium for diverse storytelling.”

    Catch the first episode featuring Abhijit Das talking about stories inspired from life:

  • ALTBalaji acquires 17.5 per cent stake in Tring

    ALTBalaji acquires 17.5 per cent stake in Tring

    KOLKATA: ALTBalaji has acquired 17.5 per cent stake in the online celebrity digital engagement platform, Tring. With this investment, Tring’s valuation rose to about Rs 100 crore in the short period since its inception earlier this year.

    The celebrity shout-out and engagement platform was started in February 2020 by Akshay Saini, Rahul Saini and Pranav Chabhadia. Tring has over 2000+ celebrities and offers a wide range of digital services like personalized video shoutouts/messages, live video calls, DMs on Instagram, etc. for two-way engagement between celebs and their fans.

    As part of this transaction, ALTBalaji will be entitled to appoint one board member to represent them on the board of B. D. Inno Ventures Pvt. Ltd. (the parent company of Tring). The investment reinforces ALTBalaji’s presence in the lucrative celebrity commerce business in India.

    Commenting on the new development, Balaji Telefilms Ltd joint managing director Ekta Kapoor said, “Having been in the business of entertainment for more than two decades now, we value the bond between celebrities and their fans. Both ALTBalaji and Tring work with talent and try to bring them a step closer to their fans and vice-versa. We believe this synergy will work in favour of both the brands and help each other widen our reach.”  

    Balaji Telefilms Ltd managing director Shobha Kapoor said, “This investment in Tring allows us to better connect with audiences across India. The team at Tring has done a tremendous job in such a short period, and we are confident that with our investment and support, they will scale much faster, bringing audiences closer to the celebrities they adore.”

    Speaking on this investment round, Tring co-founder Akshay Saini said Balaji’s  investment in Tring will help the platform continue its market penetration and better reach the masses. “We have just begun, it is day one,” he added.

    Tring’s existing investors include ace-photographer and movie producer Atul Kasbekar, along-with industry-leaders and super angel investors viz. Kalyan Krishnamurthy CEO Flipkart, Sujeet Kumar CEO Udaan, Gaurav Munjal CEO Unacademy, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh, Sumit Jain, Dinesh Godara (Founding team Unacademy), Keshav Sanghi (Ventureworks India), Dalbir Saini (Chairman BDI Group) amongst others.

  • OTT platforms gear up to resume production

    OTT platforms gear up to resume production

    KOLKATA: The Covid2019 crisis struck India in March and the entertainment industry came to a standstill. While TV production resumed in July, shooting for film and original content remained on pause for a lot longer. The industry, which lost six months of valuable production time, is slowly limping back to sets and studios.

    More people may have switched to over-the-top (OTT) platforms during the pandemic, but on the flip side, it has inflated the audience’s appetite for content. These streaming services have maintained a steady click of new releases so far but the constrain of shooting large scale projects is a major concern.

    Experts predicted that the pandemic would affect the pipeline of long-format premium originals till the first half of FY22. Although most major players have resumed filming, no one is certain how soon full-fledged production will be back on track.

    Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos said during the recent ET Global Business Summit Unwired 3.0 that getting back to production safely tops the organisation’s list of priorities. This, however, has been particularly challenging in India, he said.

    Read more news on OTT

    Not surprising, considering the country is leading the highest number of daily positive cases; this problem is further compounded by the strict rules and guidelines imposed by the Maharashtra government on film production. But Netflix fans, fear not; more than ten Netflix India productions are scheduled to start in November.

    Desi OTTs 

    The homegrown players are also stepping up their efforts to keep the content flow alive. MX Player already has one show on the floor and will be pushing a few more projects into production by end of October, chief content officer Gautam Talwar said.

    “Given the pandemic, audiences are spending more time online and OTT platforms including ours have seen a sharp increase in engagement, emerging as the preferred choice for content consumption. To cater to this rising demand, we’ve launched over 27 shows from March until now. We still have a couple of shows in the pipeline that we have shot which are currently in post-production; you should see those releasing over the next quarter,” Talwar added.

    ALTBalaji has also resumed filming some of its shows with minimum staff and in restricted places with appropriate permissions. ALTBalaji CEO and Balaji Telefilms group COO Nachiket Pantvaidya assured that they are diligently following all the requisite standard operating procedures.

    “We recently launched ten episodes of Bebaakee on ALTBalaji. Shooting is ongoing for the show and we will release more episodes soon. October onwards, audience will see a host of shows, including Mumbhai, Bicchoo Ka Khel, Dark 7 White, LSD, Who’s Your Daddy Season 2, Kahin to Milega to name a few,” Pantvaidya stated.

    Amid regional players, Bengali OTT Hoichoi started production back in August since West Bengal initiated Unlock prior to most other states. Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta revealed that the platform has already completed shooting for seven projects. Two of the post-pandemic shows are already streaming on Hoichoi while others will be gradually made available to users.

    Despite production challenges, hope remains

    Even as India’s Covid2019 tally is flirting with the 70 lakh-mark, stakeholders in every segment of the industry remain hopeful while adjusting to the new normal. Hoichoi’s Mohta said they are trying to restrict the shoots as much as possible to indoor locations, and make sure to sanitize the entire set very carefully before starting work. Despite all the constraints, things are looking up; it has become easier to get schedules and dates of famous actors and directors, he divulged.

    ALTBalaji’s Pantvaidya admitted that since production has to abide by a number of precautionary measures, the work is going slower than before. Nevertheless, with shooting gradually resuming, he is optimistic that viewers will have a handful of shows to look forward to in the coming months. 

    A leading producer who wished to remain unnamed commented that safety measures and longer timelines are stretching already-limited production budgets.

    Pantvaidya expressed the view that shooting at a full-fledged scale is still going to take some time due to the current situation. He said that the platform’s focus is making sure everything works out smoothly, with the safety of cast and crew being top priority. 

    “We’ve all started by putting our best foot forward – keeping in mind precautionary measures and complying with social distancing norms etc. To my mind, full-fledged production as of right now looks like it will only start by January 2021, when multiple shows can be put on the floor, hopefully without too much worry,” MX Player’s Talwar said.

  • How OTT platforms stay innovative in a cluttered market

    How OTT platforms stay innovative in a cluttered market

    KOLKATA: As OTT platforms are making all the necessary moves to keep the users hooked, these players are realising that innovation is the key mantra to achieve this objective. To keep up with the pace with which users are adapting to streaming services, most of the players in the ecosystem are scaling up their offerings. However, innovation is more of a continuous process rather than a revolutionary change.

    In a webinar hosted by Indiantelevision.com in association with Accedo and moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, experts from the industry shared strategies and experiences around innovations.

    Hoichoi technology lead Aloke Majumder stated innovation is what should drive the OTT platforms. Innovation not only shapes the product but also strengthens the relationship with users. According to him, the platforms need to stay inspired by the users, other brands, all the current happenings in product offerings for the breakthrough. The largest Bengali platform has been adding new features in recent times including parental control. It is currently working around encoding to have seamless delivery of the videos even with low latency.

    Balaji Telefilm’s digital venture is also looking at a robust product offering. ALTBalaji chief technology officer Shahabuddin Sheikh said that the platform is highly focusing on metadata. “It’s a mix of both the worlds in terms of using technology and manual interventions where we can have more enriched metadata in terms of characters, keyframes, emotions which can be tagged and which is fed into the system. While the user is watching or viewing content, it can be liked back to his experiences and accordingly help to plan or program the content for him,” he added. Using experiences, the platform is also bringing other small changes like adding markers where users can identify content genres.

    "Epic On has done a couple of upgradations which are paying the platform good dividend now, " said Epic On chief operating officer Sourjya Mohanty. The platform has attempted to bring a multi-format experience by accumulating video, e-books, games, podcasts which has resulted into a good surge in mobile engagement. It is also factoring in the current situation while bringing new experiences. As more people are inclining towards smart TVs to enjoy in-home cinema experiences, the platform has brought few changes on that front which have yielded positive feedback yet, Mohanty said.

    However, innovations always don’t turn out to be fantastic if user need is not understood properly. Arre GM technology Rohit Bapat spoke of such an experience. While they ran a web series with an option to allow users to click on a specific character to provide information on that individual, they did not see any traction. Down the line, they had to take off the feature. Bapat acknowledged that it would have been more effective for events like sports tournaments where users would be keen to get match statistics.

    Like other players, fitness app Simple Soulful is also innovating user experience but more often as it has to deal with real-time issues. screen SSK Osmosis product head Soumik Solanki shared some examples. According to a users’ need, it is customising rest time feature during exercises. For users who don’t are already accustomed with various workouts and don’t want to watch the entire video, the app has come up with a complete programme list for that segment. It is also using a 360-degree camera view to help users exercise with correct postures.

    Accedo innovation director Niklas Bjorken agreed to the other panelists that innovation is key to a brand’s relevancy in the moving world. According to him, knowing users properly, adapting to new user behaviours, embracing technology, learnings from other services should drive the changes. 

  • ALTBalaji seeing rapid uptake in tier II & III cities during post-Covid period

    ALTBalaji seeing rapid uptake in tier II & III cities during post-Covid period

    KOLKATA: Going beyond the initial metro syndrome, over-the-top (OTT) platforms in India are seeing massive adoption in tier II, tier III cities, and even in rural areas. The massification is happening faster than it was predicted courtesy to content in Indian languages, better bandwidth, easier payment options. Meanwhile, homegrown platforms are becoming more relevant in the game.

    Unlike many other platforms, which had to tweak their content strategy, pricing models to attract the new section of OTT users, ALTBalaji has always focused on mass India. The strategy is reaping good results as the platform is seeing a rapid uptake of the platform in tier II and tier III cities post-Covid period.

    “As India is a price-sensitive market, we think consumers from tier II and tier III cities will need a very affordable price proposition and therefore our focus is on converting these first-time samplers into avid subscribers of premium content on the platform. ALTBalaji with its less than a rupee a day pricing has been successfully meeting this challenge and it is one of the lowest-priced video streaming players in the market, this has allowed us to quickly penetrate and grow our reach,” ALTBalaji management said in an earnings call after q1 results. 

    “Viewers spend an average of 60 minutes and 90 minutes per week in metros and non-metro markets respectively, the highest in its category in 2019, this trend continues in quarter one FY2021,” it added. According to a report from RedSeer Consulting, the OTT consumption to see 80 per cent share from tier I, tier III cities and rural areas by 2022.

    While ALTBalaji has recently made a strategic investment in fan connect platform Tring, one of the main reasons lies in the fact that the latter also wants to target tier II, tier III cities. “The synergies for this are the fact that both of us are in the area of getting onscreen talent and more importantly both Tring as well as Balaji want to target Tier II and Tier III cities of India. So, I think that is the synergy, it is kind of a talent representation business and we work with talent and so does Tring,” the management commented.

    At the beginning of the lockdown, the platform’s subscriber addition zoomed to 14000-15000 per day. However, due to lack in fresh content and the initial phases of unlock,  the number has come down to 10000 per day which is at per with pre-Covid period. However, the platform currently has 1.5 million active user base with a churn rate of 66 per cent.

  • Balaji Telefilms elaborates how pandemic hit

    Balaji Telefilms elaborates how pandemic hit

    KOLKATA: The complete shutdown of more than three months has had a sizeable impact on television and movie content creators. Although there has been a notable surge in TV viewing, leading broadcasters are also staring at huge losses as brands have limited their ad spends. In an earnings call, Balaji Telefilms management said that there would be a renegotiation with broadcasters. 

    “We will all have to take a small cut in our end prices but I think we are trying to compensate that by also reducing the cost so that we get closer to the gross margins of this year. It will be a little late than what was there in the financial year that just ended but we are trying to make that good by putting more volume,” the management stated. 

    Balaji Telefilms Ltd had witnessed a sharp decline of Rs 18 crore on the television business side in the Q4 of last financial year. While the pandemic induced crisis started towards the end of the quarter, the production house attributed Rs six crore to the Covid2019 crisis.

    When the industry started feeling the heat of the pandemic, Balaji Telefilms joint managing director and creative head Ekta Kapoor announced that she would forgo a year’s salary of Rs 2.5 crore. Later, several reports floated in late April that it would cut three months salary of their employees. The management mentioned that the salary bill was down to 50 per cent from where it was in pre-Covid2019 time in April, May and June. 

    While production cost was non-existent in that period, it is looking at an overall reduction of minimum 10 to 15 per cent in the production cost both on the digital and television side. “But this has to be measured on a week-to-week basis in the first two weeks of starting production. We are on track and we will keep you updated on how these cost-cutting measures take shape as the year goes on,” the management also mentioned. 

    “All the content that we put on ALTBalaji is for individual audiences whereas our movies and television are for family audiences. Given that theatres are not going to open too soon we will have our business model skewed more towards digital releases, especially for films that cost less than around Rs 25 crore to Rs 30 crore,” it added. 

    The management also addressed the query on finding investors, which was reported earlier by a publication. Although it did not clarify it did not refute it altogether as well. ”We have a roaring digital future. We keep getting enquiries from investors to invest in our platform but we are still holding our horses because we feel we have not reached the peak of our potential and it is going to be an opportunity in this crisis that we are fully poised to exploit in the remaining months of the financial year,” the management said. 

  • ALTBalaji witnesses a significant growth in the subscription base

    ALTBalaji witnesses a significant growth in the subscription base

    KOLKATA: One of the major players in the OTT space – ALTBalaji (India’s leading homegrown OTT platform) has witnessed higher engagement with the platform, with consumers watching more shows, including older library content that offers a bouquet of different genres of content spread across 62 original shows.

     Understanding the changing OTT behaviour in urban towns v/s rural places, the percentage of traffic observed from top eight metros including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Kolkata during the fourth quarter is 44 percent as compared to viewership from non-metros, tier 2 /tier 3 towns, and cities, which equals to 56 percent. It translates to an increase in subscriber base from the hinterlands, with them spending more time on the platform hence providing a dual advantage.  

    ALTBalaji CEO and Balaji Telefilms group COO  Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “There has been substantial growth in the subscription of ALTBalaji even before the lockdown had begun and more importantly during the three months of lockdown. As per statistics, India’s tier two and three towns have seen an upswing of internet users that has been hugely beneficial to the OTT platforms." .”

     There’s no denying the fact that there has been tremendous growth in digital consumption, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown. Naturally, there has been a huge spike in the OTT subscription by the content-hungry populace.

     He further added, “The last few months have been beneficial, in terms of content and subscribers’ growth. The growing demand for new seasons of the popular shows including, Baarish 2 and KehneKoHumsafarHain 3, among others, have also added to the brand popularity. Post lockdown, the target is to launch two shows every month, and we have got around 10-12 shows that are in various stages of production. We are the No 1 player with 62 original shows in various genres, and we will continue fuelling that position by putting more shows on our platform.” 

    According to a recent survey, the percentage of increasing internet users in rural areas is surprisingly more than the urban cities. The latest report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (published in Times of India) suggests that rural India had 227 million users, 10 per cent more than urban India’s about 205 million.