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Tag: Amazon

  • Endemol Shine sees scripted shows as new area of growth

    Endemol Shine sees scripted shows as new area of growth

    MUMBAI: Endemol Shine India (Endemol Shine), best known for producing shows such as Bigg Boss, Master Chef, Khatron Ke Khiladi and Dance India, has a lot going for it this year. The company will produce the second season of The Test Case for Balaji Telefilms’ OTT platform ALTBalaji after tasting success in the first season. Moreover, the production house is planning a slew of originals after securing book rights from Indian authors and publishers.

    In an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, Endemol Shine CEO Abhishek Rege said that while the focus remains on unscripted shows, it is the scripted shows that will help the company grow leaps and bounds. During the conversation, Rege revealed that Endemol Shine could dabble into owning an IP for a show if there is scope for pre-selling the material to broadcasters.

    Recently, the company joined hands with the premium video-on-demand service Viu to produce a localised, ten-episode adaptation of global phenomenon The Bridge. Going forward, the production house has set its sights on producing more original shows.

    Edited excerpts:

    Tell us about your plans for 2018.

    We are discussing the next subsequent series for The Test Case with ALTBalaji. We are also looking at a lot of developments in terms of originals, based on book rights with Indian authors; I think we will be able to make an announcement by May. We have tied up with Indian authors and publishers for the same. It’s still in the development stage; it could be in the international production level as well. We have reached non-scripted shows and will continue to grow with the same format. Having said that, what will help us grow is scripted shows. We treat digital or traditional TV platforms as scripted. Those are the growth areas that we see. As a company, we want to produce more original shows. We are expecting an increase, both in terms of revenue and bottom-line.

    What is your take on production houses retaining show IPs?

    If a project comes by and if we are allowed, we could take that risk but, ideally, not right now. The story should be good enough to take it to the international markets. We could do a pre-sale because we have the backend to do that. We could flip the model a bit, but broadly the same model applies that the Indian broadcaster would be paying much lesser than the cost.

    What do you think about GEC viewership being impacted during IPL season?

    We have probably moved past that thanks to the second screen. Largely, sports and news are already consumed on the phones. At the end of the day, traditional TV still survives because it’s the mass promotion mix. Whatever you do with the IPL, you have to advertise on the screens. Every individual will have their own screen. They have sports, Olympics to watch on one screen, they will have traditional TV to watch for something else. So, Amazon and Netflix are not affected and TV is also not affected.

    What is your take on mythological shows?

    As they say ‘old is gold’, all the old songs still work. Ten to fifteen years back, 18-20 year olds also watched that. Your grandparents taught you about mythology for your understanding; some are forced to consume these shows, while some willingly watched it. For instance, take a show named Jai Malhar, grandparents forced the youth to watch this show. The youth didn’t go to watch it, it was the pre-teens and the younger lot, in the evening, after coming back from playing or school, their grandparents have the TV on with Jai Malhar.

    What is your thought on content segmentation strategy?

    I don’t think that really exists. It used to be 10 years back. The assumption was that the channel wanted to keep their viewers to them, it was never a fight about the product, it was a fight about the channel. So, the idea behind it was, no one moves to another channel as the control shifts, the housewives will take over or the grandparents will take over…that was the theory earlier as it was channel to channel. Later there were many shows on different channels. So, right now it is more of a psychological thing rather than a strategy.

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  • India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    MUMBAI: Amazon’s unstoppable march continues worldwide, including India. Putting an end to the speculation around the number of Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has finally revealed the data in a letter to shareholders. The e-commerce giant has crossed 100 million subscribers for its Prime service globally. In the letter, Bezos specifically talks about its India feat to shareholders: “Prime added more members in India in its first year than any previous geography in Amazon’s history.”

    The letter includes an entire mention to India, not given to any other country, including the US. He said, “Amazon.in is the fastest-growing marketplace in India and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile, according to comScore and SimilarWeb. The Amazon.in mobile shopping app was also the most downloaded shopping app in India in 2017, according to App Annie.”

    He went on to state that Prime selection in India now included more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers and that Prime Video was investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and more than a dozen new shows in production.

    For the first time, after 13 long years of the service’s launch, the company has shared such a figure publicly. The reason could also be to counter Netflix’s revelation earlier in the week when it said that its subscriber numbers were up from 117.6 million a year ago to 125 million globally. Bezos started off the letter by congratulating its people for making Amazon rank first on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the eighth year in a row.

    In the letter, Bezos said that Prime Video continued to drive Prime member adoption and retention, countering analysts who said that Prime Video acts as a catalyst to boost its e-commerce business.

    Since its entry in the Indian market, it has left Netflix behind in the race, its prime competitor in the international market. To strengthen its foothold in the Indian market, it launched original shows for Indian audiences last year. It recently announced a new Prime Original reality show Hear Me. Love Me. It also announced the second season of Inside Edge after the show created a stir after its first season.

    Bezos lauded his customers in his letter. He said, “One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static–they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’. I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before.”

    He went on to state that the only way to stay ahead of rising customer expectation is by giving them high standards. He didn’t shy away from admitting that Amazon had seen ‘billions of dollars worth of failures’ on its way to meet this target.

    Amazon Music is also doing well globally. “Amazon Music continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers. Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months,” the letter read.

    Moreover, Amazon has managed to reduce the amount of time required to teach Alexa new languages using machine translation and transfer learning techniques that has helped it to serve countries such as India and Japan.

    In India, other than competing with local and global OTT players, it is also fighting its domestic e-commerce rival Flipkart. According to a Mint report, Amazon India nearly doubled its authorised capital to Rs 31,000 crore ($4.74 billion) last year. As India is a large market, the company is trying to explore every opportunity to woo more subscribers with better infrastructure and technology.

    “We continue to aspire to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and we recognise this to be no small or easy challenge. We know there is much we can do better, and we find tremendous energy in the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Bezos said concluding the letter.

    Also Read :

    Amazon India to launch 10 originals in 2018

    Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

  • The Chonkpur Cheetahs are back with Amazon

    The Chonkpur Cheetahs are back with Amazon

    MUMBAI: This time last year, while our favourite teams battled it out on the field, another contender emerged during the commercial breaks that we were all rooting for. This unlikely team captured the imagination of millions of Indians, as we saw a bunch of talented players work hard to become the next big T20 team, with a little help from Apni Dukaan.

    Oh yes, the Chonkpur Cheetahs are back, and this time with brand new rivals! This season, they’ve moved to a new city to get one step closer to their dream, only to realise that before they face their opponents on the field, they must face the unknown city and its googlies.

    The campaign “Ajnabi Shahar Mein Apni Dukaan”, shows the everyday struggles of an unknown city through this endearing team, where amazon.in, helps resolve dilemmas getting in the way of things truly important. Currently, the Cheetahs have emerged victorious against their first opponent.

    There is a new team to look forward to this time around, called the “Chellapuram Cheetahs”. These boys and girls will be seen in all the south states in India, embarking on their dream to be the next big T20 team. With the help of Amazon.in, they learn to face the problems of settling in a new city effortlessly, before facing their opponents on the field! Watch the coach (played by VTV Ganesh) prepare Kanika, Giri, Munni, Gaja, Mani, and Malini for their first opponent in the new city.

    Both the Chonkpur Cheetahs and Chellapuram Cheetahs (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh), will be seen on TV screens through this cricketing season, and we’ll be able catch-up with more of their journey through the new city on digital platforms.

    Conceptualised by Ogilvy Bangalore and directed by Hemant Bhandari of Chrome Pictures (Chonkpur Cheetahs) and Jerald Packiasamy of Still Waters Films (Chellapuram Cheetahs), the films bring to life charming stories of people settling into new cities, and how Amazon India can help by providing access to required products in a humorous and light hearted way.

    Amazon India director of mass and brand marketing Ravi Arun Desai says, “With more than 300 million interactions across touch points in 2017, Amazon had to bring back the Cheetahs in 2018, this time chasing a bigger dream in an ‘Ajnabi Shahar’. The insight behind this campaign is that almost all Indian families have someone who would’ve moved to a big Indian city in pursuit of ‘better opportunities’ for themselves and the next generation.”

    “The campaign encapsulates how Amazon supports millions of Indians in their pursuit of dreams, as we cater to their everyday needs. Our customers use Amazon to effortlessly settle down in a completely new environment. The campaign explores a few relatable stories of the Chonkpur Cheetahs trusting apni dukaan to help them tackle some problems of settling into an unknown city. With over 17 crore products to choose from, the obstacles are taken care of by Amazon.in, and all they now need to do is concentrate on fulfilling their dream,” Desai adds.

    Ogilvy Bangalore senior vice president Kiran Ramamurthy mentions, “With the launch of Chonkpur Cheetahs last year, Indian audiences came across a team that had potential, but whose dreams of playing in ‘T20’ matches was restricted by their ability to get things that they needed. That is, till Amazon came into the picture and helped them realise their potential by removing the obstacles of access to things they needed. This year, with an improved game, the Cheetahs land in a big city to progress in their careers.”

    The campaign is led by multiple TVCs through the course of cricketing season, amplified through an integrated campaign spread across digital, social, cinema, radio, and more.

  • BBC admits struggling to compete with Netflix, Amazon

    BBC admits struggling to compete with Netflix, Amazon

    MUMBAI: Even a broadcaster and ancient brand like the BCC cannot escape the threat of the new digital transformation and change in audience habit. In its second annual report, the British broadcaster admitted that it is facing a crisis as the viewing habits of younger audiences change.

    The kids of today find on-demand content more appealing. 82 per cent of children in the UK prefer YouTube for on-demand content, 50 per cent log into Netflix and only 29 per cent use BBC iPlayer. The report says children spend more time each week online than watching TV.

    “At the same time, maintaining the reach and time that audiences spend with our output is equally difficult, when they have so many other choices at their disposal,” BBC said in the report.

    The report estimates 16 to 24 year-olds spend more time with Netflix in a week than with all of BBC TV including the BBC iPlayer.

    Against this context, BBC wants to keep its commitment to the highest production and editorial standards. It will sustain investment in new and original British output, made all over the UK. “We will take creative risks and keep the right balance between new series and returning favourites,” BBC said.

    “Major new entrants such as Amazon and Netflix have meant that the global media market is increasingly dominated by a small number of US-based media giants with extraordinary creative and financial firepower,” BBC fears.

    BBC’s urgent challenge is to develop new ways to grow its income to keep pace with rich competitors like Amazon, Netflix whose money supply seems to have no end.

    Also Read:

    Netflix announces new Indian original film ‘Lust Stories’

    BBC launches news in Indian languages, ties up with Eenadu and India News

  • OTT players up the ante with niche content

    OTT players up the ante with niche content

    MUMBAI: With the digital era progressing at a geometric rate, India’s media and entertainment industry has seen the proliferation of a number of over-the-top (OTT) players, including many international players. As a result, several niche genres of content are finding a place to grow. Viewers are coming to associate each platform with a type of personality represented through its content.

    According to FICCI’s 2018 report, digital subscription in 2017 grew by 50 per cent, riding on the back of niche content. Global content, sports and, increasingly, OTT-only content are also other factors behind the whopping growth of rising viewership on digital.

    India’s burgeoning OTT market already has more than 40 OTT players according to estimates. To draw viewers, each platform has to make a separate identity for itself. Subscription-based video on demand has, however, a long way to go as only three per cent of Indian households are paid subscribers of online video-streaming services. To attract more paying subscribers, the video platforms need to come up with content which users will think are worth paying.

    Despite making inroads into several developed countries, Netflix is yet scraping the surface of the Indian arena. Its major international competitor, Amazon, has left it far behind here. However, Netflix has created its signature with its large number of original series such as The Crown, House of Cards, Bojack Horseman, Stranger Things etc. Moreover, other than the originals, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Rick and Morty, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Sherlock are streaming on Netflix attracting a large number of binge watchers. A report by Netflix stated that 88 per cent of its Indian viewers are binge watchers, the third highest in the world. The country finishes series in three days compared to the global average of four days.

    But the country lacks in good local content. Though it has added some famous Hindi movies to its library, it does not have enough regional content to offer. Realising the demand, Netflix announced a new multilingual original series in partnership with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.

    Compared to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video is doing good business in India. According to App Annie’s February report, Amazon Prime Video had 13.4 million active users but Netflix had 6 million active users. One of the main reasons for its success is that Amazon has a brilliant movie library for India’s Bollywood crazy fans. The e-commerce major has potential deals with five big long production houses-Yash Raj Films, Excel Entertainment, Dharma Productions, Vishesh Films, and T-Series. Data shows that Indians don’t mind consuming longer content on data connections. Viewers love to watch Hindi movies on the platform. Amazon realised early on that in multi-lingual India, you can’t make do with just Hindi and so delved into regional content as well.

    Star India’s OTT arm Hotstar is sprinting here with its large content library. The live streaming of sports matches is one of its best features. For multi-lingual audience, it offers a wide range of catch-up content in several languages while urban folks can watch shows from HBO, Disney, Fox such as Game of Thrones and Westworld.  

    IPL streaming on Hotstar is one of the biggest boosts for it. This year, it will be telecast in six languages – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. 

    Among other platforms, Voot has youth-centric TV shows including Big Boss, MTV Unplugged, Roadies, Splitsvilla. Gaurav Gandhi’s successor as Voot COO is likely to bring some change. Sony Liv also has exclusive rights of cricket matches from several countries.

    Amidst a huge number of OTT platforms and a long list of contents, content discoverability is a major issue. In this context, almost every platform is unable to satisfy audience with proper suggestions despite having a large variety of contents. To enhance their recommendation engines, the platforms have to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning. However, a recent study showed that none of these are yet able to beat good old word of mouth.

    OTT players have the work cut out for them here. From branding themselves to ensuring there’s something for everyone, the challenges lie spread out.

    Also Read :

    Hotstar Trends 2017: Women, small town, cross-language consumption rises

    Amazon’s content spend at $5 bn a year, confirms report

  • Amazon’s content spend at $5 bn a year, confirms report

    Amazon’s content spend at $5 bn a year, confirms report

    MUMBAI: Amazon is bucking up by opening its treasure trove for content. A recent Reuters report says that leaked documents show the company spends $5 billion a year for original and licensed content, which is a big chunk of the company’s expenditure.

    Amazon has tough competition because Apple recently said it would spend a whopping $4.2 billion a year on original content by 2022, much higher than its earlier estimate of $1 billion.

    The Reuters report also stated that Amazon’s top TV shows drew more than 5 million people worldwide to its Prime shopping club in early 2017. Amazon has never released figures for its total audience. The report adds that Amazon has about 26 million people in the US who watch its Prime Video content. The video content includes films and TV shows it licenses from other companies.

    Rival Netflix is way ahead in terms of US subscribers at 55 million. The company says that it is growing at a fast pace and the extra revenue it earns via subscribers will help it in invest more in original content. The company upped its spending for 2018 by nearly $1 billion. Hulu, which has subscribers mainly from the US, claims to have 17 million subscribers.

    The first season of the popular drama The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime Video had 8 million US viewers as of early 2017, according to the documents. The show cost $72 million for production and marketing and attracted 1.15 million new subscribers worldwide based on Amazon’s accounting. The Grand Tour had more than 1.5 million first streams from Prime members worldwide, at a cost of $49 per subscriber in its first season.

    It has often been said that Amazon’s strategy is to use video to convert viewers into shoppers. If it is wooing you with amazing content, such as the $200-250 million on Lord of the Rings, it is only to convince you to keep returning to it to make purchases. Amazon’s investment in Prime original shows has enabled these shows to bring nearly a quarter of the total viewership from 2014-2017.

    Amazon’s Prime club includes two-day package delivery and other perks for an annual fee making shopping more attractive. But these internal documents don’t indicate how much the Prime subscribers shop on Amazon. In interviews, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been vocal about how people who use the Prime Video service end up staying longer with the shopping club. These people even agree to become paying members after the free trial, willingly paying a higher rate than those who don’t watch Amazon videos.

    Some of Amazon’s videos have even won awards and thus you have Bezos saying, “When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes.”

    Also Read :

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    Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

  • Amazon Prime blends East, West in ‘The Remix’

    Amazon Prime blends East, West in ‘The Remix’

    MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video wants to hit the right chords with the music lovers of India. Its latest and third Indian original prime show The Remix wants to grab the eye of the music-loving spirit of the nation.  It is a spin-off challenge between DJs and singers to blend Indian and western music beats including regional songs. The Remix will launch as a 10 episode series starting 9 March 2018, with two episodes launching together followed by one every week.

    Till now, music reality shows were restricted to the television but this time it will be a digital-only appearance. The show is created and produced by Greymatter Entertainment while T-Series is the music partner. The success of previous showsInside Edge and Breathe gave Amazon the spirit to come up with a new one in a short time.

    In the new show, according to Amazon Prime Video India director-content Vijay Subramaniam, popular music will be re-imagined by singers and DJ duos, which has never been attempted in the space of reality. He said, “With The Remix, we’ve taken two things that Indian customers have told us they love – reality TV and Bollywood music and made a unique show that we hope will appeal to the whole family. With the launch of this show, we are set to give 10 dynamic musical duos an opportunity to present their unique talent to a global audience.”

    He goes on to say that today is the era of fusion and music was the perfect medium to launch an unscripted original series. “With ambient sound and Indian instruments coming together we feel The Remix as a show will perfectly reflect the blend,” he highlighted.

    Amazon will follow the same release format like Breathe. The strategy of releasing Breathe on weekly basis has worked out well with Amazon according to Subramaniam. “The staggered release allows more consumers to come in and engage over a period of time versus binge watch,” he said.

    The multimedia marketing campaign will soon commence but Subramaniam believes that since the show is about music, there will be much activity on social media.

    The contestants of the show will be judged by popular singer Sunidhi Chauhan, national award winning music composer Amit Trivedi, and king of the DJ console Nucleya, while the element of humor will be added by Karan Tacker as the host of this digital reality series.

    The contestants of the show are a mix of singers and DJs. Among the singers, they have Anirudh Bhola, Rashmeet Kaur, Sreerama Chandra, Rupali Jagga, Thomson Andrews, Prakriti Kakar, Akasa Singh, Sonam Topden, Yash Narvekar and Manasi Scott. And, in the talented DJs, they have Megha Kawale, SuReal, Candice Redding, Nawed Khan, NSG, Kiran Kamath, Skip, Rink, Kryll and Akhil Talreja.

    The competition features fusions of multiple genres of music from trap mixed with bhangra, to future bass mixed with East Asian sounds, from blues to desi beats and much more. The contestants explore different themes like ambient sounds, retro remixes, live instrumentation, sounds of India, global beats and more in each episode. Over the course of ten episodes, one team will be crowned the winner who will walk away with a booty of Rs 50 lakh.

    The Remix is the second original releasing in 2018 after Breathe and Amazon is planning to launch 10 originals in all this year.

    Amazon is keen to creep into every aspect of what makes an Indian viewer tick and it is leaving no stone unturned for it.

    Also Read :

    Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

  • Amazon India to launch in-house beauty products

    Amazon India to launch in-house beauty products

    MUMBAI: Online e-commerce giant Amazon India will soon launch its own line of in-house beauty and personal care products. Amazon India is talking to contract manufacturers and will be launching private labels (in-house brands) in a few categories within skincare and makeup.

    While Flipkart-owned Myntra has invested heavily in growing its personal care segment, Amazon is set to follow suit. With this, the race between India’s two top e-commerce majors to acquire customers will be further fuelled. 

    The cosmetics and personal care category is fast growing in India and dominated by smaller startups like Nykaa, Purple, etc. The category also has major international brands such as Loreal, Maybelline, Bobbi Brown, MAC among others that are well present offline and via online vendors.

    Amazon came to India in mid-2013 with a massive investment of $2 billion and launched its first in-house brand AmazonBasic in 2015. AmazonBasic had products like consumer electronic products like USB cord, backpacks, tripods, Alkaline batteries, etc. The brand also forayed into fashion segment with its Myx and Solimo a year later.

    According to Red-Seer consulting, the online beauty and personal care market in India is worth $300 million which is expected to cross $3.5 billion in 2 years. 

    Amazon declined to comment on the issue when a call was made from Indiantelevision.com seeking their confirmation on the same.

    If Amazon adds beauty and personal care segment to its category, the move would challenge its direct rival e-commerce platform Myntra that recently announced its plan to open beauty and offline stores. 

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  • TRAI seeks to regulate online streaming platforms

    TRAI seeks to regulate online streaming platforms

    MUMBAI: Online streaming platforms may come under the purview of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The regulator is likely to bring out a consultation paper to bring online video-streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar under the regulatory ambit, according to a report in Livemint.

    Industry stakeholders wrote to the TRAI to come up with a pricing framework and is likely to add a section in its upcoming consultation paper on over-the-top (OTT) services. They state that some broadcasters air content for free on their streaming platforms for which they charge customers on cable and DTH.

    Indian broadcasters such as Star, Zee and Viacom18 all have their own OTT sites and apps wherein some content is monetised while some is not kept behind a paywall.

    Some broadcasters and OTT players are up in arms against such a regulation because nowhere in the world does it exist. They claim that people have to pay for data charges if not content. OTT cannot be clubbed with DTH and cable and it comes under rules regarding net neutrality.

    Also Read:

    Pleased with India progress, says Netflix’s Reed Hastings

    Star to air IPL on 10 channels, in 6 languages; live on Hotstar

    Star to air IPL on 10 channels, in 6 languages; live on Hotstar

  • Shweta Jain joins Amazon Internet Services

    Shweta Jain joins Amazon Internet Services

    MUMBAI: Former NDTV senior vice president of software solutions Shweta Jain has joined Amazon Internet Services as head of media and entertainment services for South Asia.

    Amazon Internet Services is a local legal Indian entity that acts as a reseller for Amazon Web Service (AWS) in the country.

    As head of the media and entertainment vertical at AWS India, Jain will work with media organisations helping them initiate/accelerate their cloud adoption for better efficiencies and scalability.

    Jain has joined Amazon after a stint of more than 19 years with NDTV, where she worked closely with editorial and production teams.

    “Super excited to join the AWSome India team of @Amazon Web Services, to head Media and Entertainment business across India and neighbouring countries. Joining AWS empowers my own belief in the power of cloud and the huge impact it can have on the media enterprises–big and small, traditional and contemporary,” Jain posted on her Linkedin profile.

    “After a highly rewarding stint of nearly two decades at NDTV, where I enjoyed teaming up with many remarkably talented people doing some fantastic work, I’m now moving on to my next challenge,” she added.

    Apart from her stint at NDTV, Jain was also the founder director of a digital business incubated at NDTV, managing the P&L of a B2B vertical publishing TV listings (EPG) of over 1000 channels to more than 50 platforms in India and abroad. She also founded UREQA, a content discovery and personalised recommendation app for Android.

    Also Read:

    Making the news: A look at what news broadcasters did in 2017

    NDTV to reduce workforce by up to 25%