ITV

Tag: Amazon Prime

  • Zodiak shows to be on Amazon Prime in early ’17

    Zodiak shows to be on Amazon Prime in early ’17

    MUMBAI: Zodiak Kids has announced that it has sold a series of titles to Amazon India, in a deal amassing over 100 hours. The shows are set to launch on Amazon Prime Video in early 2017.

    Amazon India has acquired all four seasons of popular children’s animation Horrid Henry. The show centers on a boy who constantly feels like life just isn’t fair. Of course he’s only a kid, but with a perfect little brother called Peter, a Mum and Dad who’d love him dearly if only he’d stop behaving, well, like a kid, and a moody girl next door who’s on a mission to make Henry’s life miserable, who can blame him?

    Henry’s looking at life from the bottom up, and from where he stands it’s him against the rest of the world. So if that means getting out of swimming class by pretending there’s a shark in the pool, organizing an anti-school uniform campaign with his friends or setting up a pet sitting business in his bedroom to supplement his measly allowance, then that’s all part of life as Henry knows it. Horrid Henry is produced by Novel Entertainment Ltd for CiTV.

    Amazon Prime Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani said, “We are extremely happy to announce our collaboration with Zodiak Kids by bringing immensely popular characters like Horrid Henry to India. This alliance adds further volume to our existing bouquet of great kids’ programming, thus paving the way for us to have the largest exclusive selection of kids’ entertainment in India.”

    Amazon India has also picked up animation series’ Extreme Football, Street Football and Sally Bollywood the Bollywood tastic mystery solving show. All series are produced by Zodiak Kids Studios.

  • Zodiak shows to be on Amazon Prime in early ’17

    Zodiak shows to be on Amazon Prime in early ’17

    MUMBAI: Zodiak Kids has announced that it has sold a series of titles to Amazon India, in a deal amassing over 100 hours. The shows are set to launch on Amazon Prime Video in early 2017.

    Amazon India has acquired all four seasons of popular children’s animation Horrid Henry. The show centers on a boy who constantly feels like life just isn’t fair. Of course he’s only a kid, but with a perfect little brother called Peter, a Mum and Dad who’d love him dearly if only he’d stop behaving, well, like a kid, and a moody girl next door who’s on a mission to make Henry’s life miserable, who can blame him?

    Henry’s looking at life from the bottom up, and from where he stands it’s him against the rest of the world. So if that means getting out of swimming class by pretending there’s a shark in the pool, organizing an anti-school uniform campaign with his friends or setting up a pet sitting business in his bedroom to supplement his measly allowance, then that’s all part of life as Henry knows it. Horrid Henry is produced by Novel Entertainment Ltd for CiTV.

    Amazon Prime Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani said, “We are extremely happy to announce our collaboration with Zodiak Kids by bringing immensely popular characters like Horrid Henry to India. This alliance adds further volume to our existing bouquet of great kids’ programming, thus paving the way for us to have the largest exclusive selection of kids’ entertainment in India.”

    Amazon India has also picked up animation series’ Extreme Football, Street Football and Sally Bollywood the Bollywood tastic mystery solving show. All series are produced by Zodiak Kids Studios.

  • HOOQ raises US$ 25 million from Sony Pictures, others; open to outside investors

    HOOQ raises US$ 25 million from Sony Pictures, others; open to outside investors

    MUMBAI: Southeast Asian streaming platform HOOQ, a Netflix challenger, has raised US$25 million (Rs 1.7 billion) in capital from existing investors — Sony Pictures, Singtel and Warner Brothers, it was announced through a stock exchange filing from Singtel.

    HOOQ went live in Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand in 2015. Recently launching in India, Amazon Prime Video is now an international challenger.

    HOOQ CEO Peter Bithos said that the company was preparing to welcome outside investors.

    The filing stated that Singtel had invested an additional US$ 15.5 million with the other investors contributing the remainder. It was also disclosed that HOOQ had earlier raised US$ 70 million, taking the total recent investment to US$ 95 million.

    HOOQ was founded two years ago by the trio with Singtel having a majority holding. Following the deal, the companies retained the same shareholding with Singtel owning 65 per cent; Warner and Sony each taking 17.5 per cent.

  • HOOQ raises US$ 25 million from Sony Pictures, others; open to outside investors

    HOOQ raises US$ 25 million from Sony Pictures, others; open to outside investors

    MUMBAI: Southeast Asian streaming platform HOOQ, a Netflix challenger, has raised US$25 million (Rs 1.7 billion) in capital from existing investors — Sony Pictures, Singtel and Warner Brothers, it was announced through a stock exchange filing from Singtel.

    HOOQ went live in Indonesia, Philippines, India and Thailand in 2015. Recently launching in India, Amazon Prime Video is now an international challenger.

    HOOQ CEO Peter Bithos said that the company was preparing to welcome outside investors.

    The filing stated that Singtel had invested an additional US$ 15.5 million with the other investors contributing the remainder. It was also disclosed that HOOQ had earlier raised US$ 70 million, taking the total recent investment to US$ 95 million.

    HOOQ was founded two years ago by the trio with Singtel having a majority holding. Following the deal, the companies retained the same shareholding with Singtel owning 65 per cent; Warner and Sony each taking 17.5 per cent.

  • Why Ajit Mohan allowed Amazon Prime to advertise on Hotstar

    Why Ajit Mohan allowed Amazon Prime to advertise on Hotstar

    MUMBAI: Hotstar subscribers were a little taken aback when they logged into their accounts to see Amazon Prime being promoted on the masthead during its launch week.

    Some media observers even questioned whether Novi Digital (which runs Hotstar) CEO Ajit Mohan had lost it as he was allowing competitors to use India’s leading OTT/VOD platform to gain traction. Would the Times of India allow a fit and hungry rival to advertise its launch in the newspaper?

    However, Ajit Mohan explained in an internal email to his team why he chose to allow Amazon Prime to advertise on it.

    Indiantelevision.com has got access to this internal communication. Says Ajit in the email:

    “Team:

    Many of you have asked me over the last couple of days why we chose to allow Amazon Prime Video to advertise on Hotstar earlier this week, as part of their India launch. Here is why:

    We are now an indispensable platform for any advertiser that is looking to target users on digital who actually have money to spend. And, nowhere else on digital, whether on social or on news or video, can they find audiences as engaged as they are on Hotstar. It is, therefore, not surprising that Prime Video was keen to launch their service on our platform.

    Equally, we have always assumed that when users are given a choice, they will choose a service that offers a better experience and a more diverse content range. That’s the reason why we are the leading premium video service today. And we will continue to be the leader so long as we focus on retaining our extensive advantage on the above two. And, therefore, there is no reason for us to put artificial barriers vis-à-vis potential competitors. We are not planning to win by blocking others, we will win by continuing to do what we are doing well today.

    Lastly, on Monday, the day Prime Video was on our masthead, we hit the highest watch time ever on Hotstar. Looks like we are adding value to our advertisers even as consumers are showing more and more loyalty to our service.”

    We reached out to Hotstar to get more details on how much Amazon Prime paid for the prime position but came up against a wall. However, observers estimate that it is probably the highest that it has earned for that slot. Stay tuned in for more!

  • Why Ajit Mohan allowed Amazon Prime to advertise on Hotstar

    Why Ajit Mohan allowed Amazon Prime to advertise on Hotstar

    MUMBAI: Hotstar subscribers were a little taken aback when they logged into their accounts to see Amazon Prime being promoted on the masthead during its launch week.

    Some media observers even questioned whether Novi Digital (which runs Hotstar) CEO Ajit Mohan had lost it as he was allowing competitors to use India’s leading OTT/VOD platform to gain traction. Would the Times of India allow a fit and hungry rival to advertise its launch in the newspaper?

    However, Ajit Mohan explained in an internal email to his team why he chose to allow Amazon Prime to advertise on it.

    Indiantelevision.com has got access to this internal communication. Says Ajit in the email:

    “Team:

    Many of you have asked me over the last couple of days why we chose to allow Amazon Prime Video to advertise on Hotstar earlier this week, as part of their India launch. Here is why:

    We are now an indispensable platform for any advertiser that is looking to target users on digital who actually have money to spend. And, nowhere else on digital, whether on social or on news or video, can they find audiences as engaged as they are on Hotstar. It is, therefore, not surprising that Prime Video was keen to launch their service on our platform.

    Equally, we have always assumed that when users are given a choice, they will choose a service that offers a better experience and a more diverse content range. That’s the reason why we are the leading premium video service today. And we will continue to be the leader so long as we focus on retaining our extensive advantage on the above two. And, therefore, there is no reason for us to put artificial barriers vis-à-vis potential competitors. We are not planning to win by blocking others, we will win by continuing to do what we are doing well today.

    Lastly, on Monday, the day Prime Video was on our masthead, we hit the highest watch time ever on Hotstar. Looks like we are adding value to our advertisers even as consumers are showing more and more loyalty to our service.”

    We reached out to Hotstar to get more details on how much Amazon Prime paid for the prime position but came up against a wall. However, observers estimate that it is probably the highest that it has earned for that slot. Stay tuned in for more!

  • Pritish Nandy Communications to produce series for Amazon Prime

    Pritish Nandy Communications to produce series for Amazon Prime

    MUMBAI: Last week saw the high profile launch of Amazon’s Prime Video service in Mumbai. The video on demand OTT platform announced a slew of tieups with different production houses which would be rolling out original content for it.

    Now Pritish Nandy Communications has informed the Bombay stock exchange that it is partnering with Amazon Prime Video. The company said that it would be developing a 10-12 part series for Amazon Prime titled 4 More Shots Please. The series is being penned by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan while it has been created by Rangita Pritish Nandy. Its digital wing is headed by Ishita Pritish Nandy.

    This could come as a shot in the arm for the company which earlier this year reported a loss of Rs 70 lakh on an income of Rs 24 lakh in the quarter ended 30 September 2016.

  • Pritish Nandy Communications to produce series for Amazon Prime

    Pritish Nandy Communications to produce series for Amazon Prime

    MUMBAI: Last week saw the high profile launch of Amazon’s Prime Video service in Mumbai. The video on demand OTT platform announced a slew of tieups with different production houses which would be rolling out original content for it.

    Now Pritish Nandy Communications has informed the Bombay stock exchange that it is partnering with Amazon Prime Video. The company said that it would be developing a 10-12 part series for Amazon Prime titled 4 More Shots Please. The series is being penned by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan while it has been created by Rangita Pritish Nandy. Its digital wing is headed by Ishita Pritish Nandy.

    This could come as a shot in the arm for the company which earlier this year reported a loss of Rs 70 lakh on an income of Rs 24 lakh in the quarter ended 30 September 2016.

  • YouTube contemplates YRF, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee & studio tie-ups

    YouTube contemplates YRF, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee & studio tie-ups

    MUMBAI: With competition in the OTT space getting tougher every passing day, the players have to ensure that they boast an edge over the rest. In a move to compete with its rivals – Netflix and Amazon Prime, Alphabet’s YouTube is in talks with some of India’s biggest production houses and broadcasters.

    Yash Raj Films, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee, etc are some of the big banners the streaming service is considering to partner with. It also plans to possess exclusive content for its Indian viewers from a large number of south Indian studios.

    Though, the deals could be different in nature. YouTube APAC regional director Ajay Vidyasagar in an interview with Hindustan Times has stated that some of the deals may bundle the content for YouTube first followed by TV while, some can tweak it for YouTube.

    YouTube is facing serious competition from rivals — Netflix and Amazon Prime not just in India but also in America. Globally, YouTube added 400 hours of content every minute to its platform last year. With Amazon signing a deal with Dharma Productions for exclusive content, with few more to be added soon, YouTube has competition knocking at its door. Even Netflix is closing in deals with studios like Phantom Films apart from its original production.

    Though, Vidyasagar is not letting the players affect his brand. He believes that Netflix is a high-value, low-volume business with limited reach. It creates content in one place and makes it globally available globally.

    But, YouTube claims to have found its way in having large volume and diverse content catering to local needs. According to Vidyasagar, it is expanding to become a local player in every country. Even in small towns, YouTube is the default native video platform that everyone chooses.

    Even after Star India taking away its famous talk show, Koffee with Karan which airs on Star World, off YouTube, Vidyasagar asserted that they have an extraordinary volume and in a few quarters time, they might look at the traffic.

    YouTube will also look more at exclusive content. In India, it will keep the business free, dependent on ad revenue. Even after having a Netflix-like subscription model in some countries, YouTube does not plan to do the same in India at least in the next few months.

  • YouTube contemplates YRF, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee & studio tie-ups

    YouTube contemplates YRF, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee & studio tie-ups

    MUMBAI: With competition in the OTT space getting tougher every passing day, the players have to ensure that they boast an edge over the rest. In a move to compete with its rivals – Netflix and Amazon Prime, Alphabet’s YouTube is in talks with some of India’s biggest production houses and broadcasters.

    Yash Raj Films, Shemaroo, Sony, Zee, etc are some of the big banners the streaming service is considering to partner with. It also plans to possess exclusive content for its Indian viewers from a large number of south Indian studios.

    Though, the deals could be different in nature. YouTube APAC regional director Ajay Vidyasagar in an interview with Hindustan Times has stated that some of the deals may bundle the content for YouTube first followed by TV while, some can tweak it for YouTube.

    YouTube is facing serious competition from rivals — Netflix and Amazon Prime not just in India but also in America. Globally, YouTube added 400 hours of content every minute to its platform last year. With Amazon signing a deal with Dharma Productions for exclusive content, with few more to be added soon, YouTube has competition knocking at its door. Even Netflix is closing in deals with studios like Phantom Films apart from its original production.

    Though, Vidyasagar is not letting the players affect his brand. He believes that Netflix is a high-value, low-volume business with limited reach. It creates content in one place and makes it globally available globally.

    But, YouTube claims to have found its way in having large volume and diverse content catering to local needs. According to Vidyasagar, it is expanding to become a local player in every country. Even in small towns, YouTube is the default native video platform that everyone chooses.

    Even after Star India taking away its famous talk show, Koffee with Karan which airs on Star World, off YouTube, Vidyasagar asserted that they have an extraordinary volume and in a few quarters time, they might look at the traffic.

    YouTube will also look more at exclusive content. In India, it will keep the business free, dependent on ad revenue. Even after having a Netflix-like subscription model in some countries, YouTube does not plan to do the same in India at least in the next few months.