ITV

Tag: Eros Digital

  • Eros International Media appoints Pradeep Dwivedi as CEO

    Eros International Media appoints Pradeep Dwivedi as CEO

    MUMBAI: Eros International Plc, a leading company in the global Indian film entertainment industry, today announced the appointment of Pradeep Dwivedi, as chief executive officer of its majority-owned subsidiary, Eros International Media Ltd (EIML).

    At Eros International Media Ltd, Dwivedi will be responsible for managing business growth and operations of the company and will also be responsible for all commercial negotiations and representations in various markets, forums, customers, vendors and regulatory authorities.

    Eros International Plc CEO and EIML executive director Kishore Lulla said: “We are delighted to have Pradeep Dwivedi joining us as CEO at Eros India. His energy, leadership credentials and relationships across multiple industries and deep understanding of media & technology business will be an asset in driving our growth. I am looking forward to working with him in successfully executing our strategy”

    Dwivedi said, “The Indian media & entertainment industry is poised for rapid transformation in the digital era and Eros India, with its strong legacy and innovative vision of Kishore Lulla, is all set to take advantage of the enormous market opportunities ahead. This provides a significant springboard to lead large-scale creation of value and business transformation. I am keen to work with all our stakeholders to accelerate growth and further success in the next exciting phase of its journey.”

    Pradeep Dwivedi, B Sc, MBA, is a senior media industry professional. He is an accomplished industry leader with an experience of over two decades in Advertising & Media Business, Telecom & Technology Enterprises, Banking & Financial services Institutions and Automotive sector, with established credentials in digital infotainment business as well as Print Publication, News Television channels and Experiential Events. He has a demonstrated track record in revenue growth, sales & marketing, value creation, joint ventures & partnerships, corporate investments, business operations & general management. In the past, he has been CEO of Sakal Media Group, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer of Dainik Bhaskar Group, and worked in leadership positions with organisations including Tata Teleservices, American Express, GE Capital, Standard Chartered Bank & Eicher Motors in India. He is an active participant in many media industry associations, such as Director of IAA (India Chapter) and a managing committee member of The Advertising Club of India.

    Eros International Plc has also appointed Vijay Vaishnav as chief finance officer at Eros Now, the premium OTT South Asian entertainment platform.  Vaishnav, BCom and CA, demonstrates exemplary expertise as evinced through the years of financial experience in established media & entertainment organisations such as Zee Entertainment, Viacom18 and Balaji Telefilms to name a few.

    Eros International Plc has further strengthened its legal team with the appointment of Bishwarup Chakrabarti as Legal-Head at Eros Digital. Bishwarup, a postgraduate from National Law School, Bengaluru has previously been associated with various law firms and media conglomerates such as Viacom18 and Sony. At Sony, he was heading legal and regulatory affairs for production across the network.

  • Eros Now Partners with Leading Indian Digital Marketplace FreeCharge to Grow Customer Base

    Eros Now Partners with Leading Indian Digital Marketplace FreeCharge to Grow Customer Base

    Mumbai: Eros International PLC (NYSE:EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, announced today that Eros Now, its cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform has partnered with FreeCharge, one of India's leading digital marketplaces for financial services and products. Through this association, Eros Now will facilitate a free month of access to its vast library of 11,000 plus movies, original shows, music videos and more for FreeCharge customers recharging pre-paid packages via the FreeCharge app. Additionally, this alliance will also give FreeCharge users a 60% discount on Eros Now’s annual subscription, which is otherwise priced at INR 999 (USA $7.99/ UK £4.99 GBP). The users will be able to use this discount by selecting FreeCharge in the payment selection pane on Eros Now.

    India is a fast growing market for the digitization of services, be it entertainment, shopping or payments. The recent report by NITI Aayog found the industry is expected to become a trillion-dollar market by 2023[1], which reflects the fast pace at which the digital payment space in India is growing. There is no doubt that sooner than we would know, the digital payments system will make way to the interiors in the same capacity as it has captured the urban markets.

    Talking about the partnership, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital, said, “The adoption and growth of digital ecosystems is currently at its peak. Users are going digital across categories as its hassle free and quick. Eros Now’s partnership with FreeCharge is a seamless blend of two customer centric brands that focus on consumer preferences and expectations. By bringing an exciting offer like this to our 113 million users, we reinforce our promise of bringing the best of entertainment with the top partners.”

    Commenting on the partnership, Sangram Singh, CEO, FreeCharge said, “The Company is continuously working towards creating opportunities to build deeper engagement with the consumers by presenting them more choices through such collaborations. The association with Eros Now is in line to further strengthen our digital payment services and augment customer experience. Such partnerships are an interesting add-on to our suite of offerings and encourage consumers to increasingly adopt FreeCharge to do more than recharges and bill payments. Together we aim to deliver convenience in terms of seamless subscription for the FreeCharge users for their regular dose of entertainment.”

  • Eros Now Strengthens its Presence in MENA by Partnering with E-Vision for ‘eLife Triple Play’

    Eros Now Strengthens its Presence in MENA by Partnering with E-Vision for ‘eLife Triple Play’

    Mumbai, October 2, 2018 – Eros International PLC (NYSE:EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film and entertainment industry, today announced that Eros Now, its cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform has entered into a strategic partnership with E-Vision, a fully-owned subsidiary of Etisalat, for its SVOD offering ‘eLife Video Packs.’ This partnership further strengthens Eros Now’s existing presence in MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

    With an ardent fan-base of Indian content including films, music and TV series, MENA countries have always been positively receptive towards Indian content. Bollywood content is also popular with the local Middle Eastern population in dubbed and subtitled formats – both of which are offered on Eros Now. Through this partnership, Eros Now’s rich library of over 11,000 film titles, original shows and music videos will be made available to eLife TV subscribers across the region.

    Commenting on the partnership, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital, said: “The partnership with Etisalat’s eLife Triple Play further intensifies our aim of being a globally present digital entertainment platform with the MENA region being of strategic relevance. Our objective continues to be focused on strengthening our philosophy of being platform agnostic, expanding our worldwide presence and providing the best value and experience to our customers.”

    Humaid Sahoo, CEO, E-Vision, said: “We are delighted to enhance our content offering by partnering with Eros. As a pioneer and trusted content aggregator in the region, E-Vision is constantly providing turn-key solutions for content aggregation and content management for IPTV platforms and multi-screens (OTT).”

    Previously, Eros Now had announced its mobile billing integrations with major telecom operators in UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. The integration with Etisalat reinforces Eros Now’s penetration strategy in the Middle Eastern markets.

  • Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital honored at BW Business World 40 Under 40 Awards and Summit

    Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital honored at BW Business World 40 Under 40 Awards and Summit

    Mumbai, October 1, 2018: Eros International, a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, announced today that Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO Eros Digital was recognised as one of the 40 winners at the 2nd Edition of the prestigious 40 Under 40 Awards by BW Business World held on September 27, 2018 in New Delhi, India.
    Ms. Singh was among the selected Young Business Leaders below the age 40, who were awarded for having demonstrated exceptional contribution in their work and personal growth and building new businesses or are making a difference in the success of their companies. Her role in building Eros International’s leading on-demand South Asian Entertainment Video Service Eros Now accessible worldwide to viewers across internet enabled devices including mobile, web and TV earned her the coveted place in the top 40 under 40 leaders, nominated from among almost 300 entrepreneurs across India.

    Speaking on the recognition, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO Eros Digital said, “I am very honoured and humbled to be included in this significant list. The award reaffirms my resolve to continue Eros’ vision to revolutionise and uplift the digital entertainment eco system with Eros Now. Backed by a visionary management and a fantastic team, we remain committed to enriching the experience of entertainment loving consumers across the globe’.

  • OTT players see subscription revenue as India’s future

    OTT players see subscription revenue as India’s future

    MUMBAI: Most Indian over the top (OTT) and even traditional mediums have assumed that Indian audiences aren’t willing to pay for content. But of late, discussions have shown that monetisation is happening at a slow pace. Though the return on investment (RoI) is not for the foreseeable future, the business minds are highly optimistic that the scenario will change in the next five years.

    Eros Digital COO Ali Hussein, SonyLIV EVP Uday Sodhi, Syntropic Systems managing partner Alap Ghosh, Atechnos founder Apurv Modi and Hungama Digital Media VP Soumini Shridhara Paul delved on the future of the industry at an OTTv Mumbai session.

    The session started with the age-old debate that Indian people don’t want to pay for content. The scenario hasn’t changed since last year’s panel.

    Hussein said the main challenge is not that people don’t want to pay but whether the platforms are able to grow a habit among consumers to return. “The question is to allow the whole ecosystem to pave the way for a feasible experience for the consumers to pay,” he said.

    Sodhi backed Hussein’s statement saying that everyone is paying for content in some way but it isn’t enough to allow evolution. 10 or 15 years ago, similar questions were thrown for traditional TV. He is optimistic in that next five years the scenario of the OTT industry will change too.

    “In the last two to three years, significant consumption appetite has been seen. Penetration of smartphone, easy access to 4g has activated this. Now some of us are encouraged to create content as we believe that some sort monetisation is coming through,” he said.

    Paul said, “When we come to down monetisation challenges, one has to look at how we can build something which is scalable.” She also thinks the quality of production makes a difference. Everybody cannot have $2 billion for content but ensuring the best product within budget is important. In spite of making some content similar, finding something different can really help.

    The reasons that make consumers hesitate to pay have never been found. Ghosh mentioned three reasons. One of the reasons is that people stop paying when they finish watching what they wanted to watch. The doubt on the validity of the expense also restricts them to pay again as the consumers are habituated to pay Rs 200 for 300 channels where they don’t have to think what to watch next.

    Whenever it comes to monetisation, everyone discusses subscription but it is advertising through which significant money can come through and that depends on good content. Going forward, revenue from both subscription and advertising will increase as the market will mature. As advertising is itself a complex ecosystem, there are bigger challenges for AVOD model to make money.

    While Modi said that there is enthusiasm from advertisers to engage in OTT platforms, Ghosh thinks that in the urge to be across platforms they choose to be on one or two select platforms like YouTube, Hotstar to create interest among viewers.

    Moreover, strategic partnerships for distribution also leave an impact to reach more consumers leading to better scaling as well as subscriptions.

    While monetisation has been the key challenge to Indian OTT industry, there are new avenues which can help to overcome the challenge. It’s important for the ecosystem to be able to allow growth of both advertising and subscription based models. The increased attention on statistics from optimising data can help the players to understand what is working and what needs to be changed to retain consumers.

  • Tendulkar-backed Smartron mobiles to have Eros Now app, deal signed

    MUMBAI: Eros Now, one of the fastest growing digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platforms, owned by Eros International Plc, has announced a strategic partnership with Smartron, a Sachin Tendulkar-backed India-based IoT startup, to provide its extensive entertainment repertoire to Smartron smartphone customers.

    Eros Now will be the exclusive digital OTT service for entertainment content on all Smartron devices. Sachin Tendulkar is an Indian sporting legend and one of the most accomplished cricket players of all time. He is the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.

    As their preferred partners, Eros Now will provide its vast repository of movies, television shows, music, originals and regional content across multiple languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi and Marathi to all Smartron customers. Eros Now will leverage from Smartron’s extensive marketing campaigns and packaging to promote the partnership.
    The smartphone user base in India reached 300 million in 2016 with the market growing by 18% as per a report by Counterpoint’s Research, paving the way for India to become the second-biggest smartphone market in terms of active unique smartphone users.

    Commenting on the association, Rishika Lulla Singh, CEO, Eros Digital said, “With high smartphone penetration and an all-time rise in content consumption on handheld devices, we are happy to join hands with Smartron as this strategic partnership strengthens our philosophy of bringing entertainment at audience fingertips anytime, anywhere.”

    “We are excited to partner with Eros Now as we get ready to roll out our highly intelligent and customized entertainment experience through our tronx platform,” said Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder and Chairman, Smartron. “All of our tronx users can experience great entertainment seamlessly across all our existing smart devices like the tphone, tbook, srtphone and the soon to be launched devices and beyond. We believe in making life smarter and simpler and, with this, even more people can tap into the incredible capabilities of our tronx IoT platform.”

  • OTT service ErosNow on Apple TV

    OTT service ErosNow on Apple TV

    NEW DELHI: Digital Over the Top sevice Eros Now has become available on the Apple TV media platform, Eros International Plc announced today.

    The announcement made simultaneously in New Delhi and London said Eros Now is now showcasing its extensive repository of Bollywood and regional language films and music videos, across Apple TV’s presence in 80 key countries including the USA, UK, India, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia.

    The Indian entertainment service includes full length movies, thematic curated playlists, English and Arabic subtitles for movies, music video playlists, regional language filters, video progression (users can continue watching a title they were watching on TV, mobile, tablet or computer) and access to a watchlist of titles discovered on any media platform that Eros Now is available on.

    Subscribers can now download the Eros Now app through the Apple TV App Store.

    Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh said, “We are pleased to announce Eros Now’s further expansion to additional media platforms offered by Apple, an illustrious global brand. With the success of our iOS application on iPhone and iPad, we are strengthening our connection to our subscribers who are using Apple’s products everyday by now bringing a compelling array of Bollywood and regional language content to their living room.”

    The Apple TV association reaffirms Eros Now’s presence across top streaming devices. The app is available across most smart TV platforms including Android TV, Samsung, Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV.

  • OTT service ErosNow on Apple TV

    OTT service ErosNow on Apple TV

    NEW DELHI: Digital Over the Top sevice Eros Now has become available on the Apple TV media platform, Eros International Plc announced today.

    The announcement made simultaneously in New Delhi and London said Eros Now is now showcasing its extensive repository of Bollywood and regional language films and music videos, across Apple TV’s presence in 80 key countries including the USA, UK, India, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia.

    The Indian entertainment service includes full length movies, thematic curated playlists, English and Arabic subtitles for movies, music video playlists, regional language filters, video progression (users can continue watching a title they were watching on TV, mobile, tablet or computer) and access to a watchlist of titles discovered on any media platform that Eros Now is available on.

    Subscribers can now download the Eros Now app through the Apple TV App Store.

    Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh said, “We are pleased to announce Eros Now’s further expansion to additional media platforms offered by Apple, an illustrious global brand. With the success of our iOS application on iPhone and iPad, we are strengthening our connection to our subscribers who are using Apple’s products everyday by now bringing a compelling array of Bollywood and regional language content to their living room.”

    The Apple TV association reaffirms Eros Now’s presence across top streaming devices. The app is available across most smart TV platforms including Android TV, Samsung, Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV.

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

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

    MUMBAI: With the majority of the OTT players operating on a freemium model, subscriptions are enjoying a new prominence as a revenue model for digital content and apps. While India saw Ditto TV working on the subscription revenue model, Balaji is all set enter the digital space with its digital platform Alt Digital Media.  

    The panel discussion on ‘Cracking the money code- Challenges and solutions for Digital Subscription models’ at FICCI FRAMES 2016 discussed the revenue models and the profit generation formula for this sector. Industry stalwarts included VUClip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar, Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, ALT Entertainment chief strategy officer Eklavya Bhattacharya, Eros Digital COO Karan Bedi and Spuul India CEO Rajiv Vaidya. The session was moderated by BBC World News presenter Ros Atkins.

    After throwing light on the revenue models that each of the platforms followed, the panellists broadly discussed the revenue models that are followed in India with their positives and negatives and the various challenges that OTT was facing due to certain issues like infrastructure, piracy, etc.

    Initiating the discussion with how the ‘freemium’ model helped the OTT platforms, VUClip’s Jakatdar said, “The thing with such an emerging market is that if you don’t give content for free to the viewers, they will switch to some other place where they are getting it. You need to have content beyond the subscription pay wall. For example, in Malaysia, we found that Korean content works well there and is extremely popular. We got the simulcast content rights for Korea which they had to pay for, but the library content was for free.”

    He further added that, “We believe in micro payments which means that viewers can pay per content they view.  This means that they can buy data for a single day and don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. This is working well for us.”

    “Even as we use the freemium model, the free content for is important. If we look at the free content on the platforms as an ad-revenue driver, then we may find it difficult to sustain in this space ,” he further added.

    Differing with Jakatdar, ALT Entertainment’s Bhattacharya opined, “I don’t agree that the consumers will move to a different platform if you charge them. That’s going happen if you provide the same content on different platforms. It is definitely a challenge to provide exclusive quality. People don’t want to watch free content. They want to watch good content. The key for such platforms is to target the most loyal audiences and to provide them good quality and exclusive content which they can’t resist to buy. If you are creating content and hoping that you can break-even on advertising, it’s not going to work out. If you are confident about your content, people will definitely pay for it irrespective of the cost. If you create content that the consumers can’t get anywhere, they will come to you.”

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

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

    MUMBAI: With the majority of the OTT players operating on a freemium model, subscriptions are enjoying a new prominence as a revenue model for digital content and apps. While India saw Ditto TV working on the subscription revenue model, Balaji is all set enter the digital space with its digital platform Alt Digital Media.  

    The panel discussion on ‘Cracking the money code- Challenges and solutions for Digital Subscription models’ at FICCI FRAMES 2016 discussed the revenue models and the profit generation formula for this sector. Industry stalwarts included VUClip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar, Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal, ALT Entertainment chief strategy officer Eklavya Bhattacharya, Eros Digital COO Karan Bedi and Spuul India CEO Rajiv Vaidya. The session was moderated by BBC World News presenter Ros Atkins.

    After throwing light on the revenue models that each of the platforms followed, the panellists broadly discussed the revenue models that are followed in India with their positives and negatives and the various challenges that OTT was facing due to certain issues like infrastructure, piracy, etc.

    Initiating the discussion with how the ‘freemium’ model helped the OTT platforms, VUClip’s Jakatdar said, “The thing with such an emerging market is that if you don’t give content for free to the viewers, they will switch to some other place where they are getting it. You need to have content beyond the subscription pay wall. For example, in Malaysia, we found that Korean content works well there and is extremely popular. We got the simulcast content rights for Korea which they had to pay for, but the library content was for free.”

    He further added that, “We believe in micro payments which means that viewers can pay per content they view.  This means that they can buy data for a single day and don’t have to pay a monthly subscription. This is working well for us.”

    “Even as we use the freemium model, the free content for is important. If we look at the free content on the platforms as an ad-revenue driver, then we may find it difficult to sustain in this space ,” he further added.

    Differing with Jakatdar, ALT Entertainment’s Bhattacharya opined, “I don’t agree that the consumers will move to a different platform if you charge them. That’s going happen if you provide the same content on different platforms. It is definitely a challenge to provide exclusive quality. People don’t want to watch free content. They want to watch good content. The key for such platforms is to target the most loyal audiences and to provide them good quality and exclusive content which they can’t resist to buy. If you are creating content and hoping that you can break-even on advertising, it’s not going to work out. If you are confident about your content, people will definitely pay for it irrespective of the cost. If you create content that the consumers can’t get anywhere, they will come to you.”