ITV

Tag: Manish Agarwal

  • 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.”

  • Tyroo & Nazara to enable e-commerce in mobile games

    Tyroo & Nazara to enable e-commerce in mobile games

    MUMBAI: Tyroo Technologies, today, announced its partnership with India’s leading mobile game publisher and developer Nazara Games, to power their mobile game ‘Nazara Cricket’; riding on the cricket fever in India with the upcoming World Cup T20. Through this partnership, gamers soak on the spirit of cricket as well as get a chance to shop for their favorite merchandise and avail special e-commerce deals while staying within Nazara Cricket’s app. Going forward, Tyroo will also be powering all other mobile games of Nazara, including the crowd favorites like Chhota Bheem Race Game, Cut the Rope: Magic and Virat Cricket etc.

    It is a major leap in mobile game monetization as Nazara moves beyond interruptive advertising. Nazara will now offer contextual and personal experience to the consumer. In this first of a kind gaming integration, high-affinity products will be curated to the gaming users using Tyroo’s Native Commerce Ad platform. Tyroo’s Native Commerce Platform can curate from more than 20 million SKUs across e-Commerce brands today. On the basis of customer preferences and insights obtained from Nazara, Tyroo will offer relevant products to gamers.

    Speaking about the partnership, Siddharth Puri, CEO, Tyroo Technologies, said “The mobile gaming industry in India is poised to grow exponentially with the unprecedented rise of mobile-first population and Internet penetration. While our first phase was about digital commerce influencing customer choices by capturing their decisions, our objective now is to have a destination-less shopping experience. Nazara has always remained ahead of the innovation curve and this initiative to create a consumer to product relationship with enriched data will definitely help influence, engage and convert audiences into actual paying customers.”

    Commenting on the partnership, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies said, “Nazara’s IP based games have a huge fan following. IP based gaming builds a highly engaged community with context of gaming and we are offering a great opportunity to e-commerce companies to showcase their relevant merchandise to the millions of engaged fan boys/girls of the IP. This association with Tyroo will allow us to offer gamers on the Nazara network a very contextual shopping experience without interfering in the core game play.”

    Tyroo’s Native Product Ads technology has been developed keeping consumers at the epicenter of the mobile advertising ecosystem. While other e-commerce ads overwhelm and confuse a consumer by showing different products to choose from, Native Product Ads only show relevant products as per consumer interest, reducing their efforts of buying products online.

    Native Product Ads technology allows different formats for app developers based on their mobile app design, font and layout and drive purchase via Product Discovery. It also enables advertisers to monitor native product ad performance through an in-built dashboard and accordingly use product analytics to create more engaging content for the audiences.

  • Tyroo & Nazara to enable e-commerce in mobile games

    Tyroo & Nazara to enable e-commerce in mobile games

    MUMBAI: Tyroo Technologies, today, announced its partnership with India’s leading mobile game publisher and developer Nazara Games, to power their mobile game ‘Nazara Cricket’; riding on the cricket fever in India with the upcoming World Cup T20. Through this partnership, gamers soak on the spirit of cricket as well as get a chance to shop for their favorite merchandise and avail special e-commerce deals while staying within Nazara Cricket’s app. Going forward, Tyroo will also be powering all other mobile games of Nazara, including the crowd favorites like Chhota Bheem Race Game, Cut the Rope: Magic and Virat Cricket etc.

    It is a major leap in mobile game monetization as Nazara moves beyond interruptive advertising. Nazara will now offer contextual and personal experience to the consumer. In this first of a kind gaming integration, high-affinity products will be curated to the gaming users using Tyroo’s Native Commerce Ad platform. Tyroo’s Native Commerce Platform can curate from more than 20 million SKUs across e-Commerce brands today. On the basis of customer preferences and insights obtained from Nazara, Tyroo will offer relevant products to gamers.

    Speaking about the partnership, Siddharth Puri, CEO, Tyroo Technologies, said “The mobile gaming industry in India is poised to grow exponentially with the unprecedented rise of mobile-first population and Internet penetration. While our first phase was about digital commerce influencing customer choices by capturing their decisions, our objective now is to have a destination-less shopping experience. Nazara has always remained ahead of the innovation curve and this initiative to create a consumer to product relationship with enriched data will definitely help influence, engage and convert audiences into actual paying customers.”

    Commenting on the partnership, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies said, “Nazara’s IP based games have a huge fan following. IP based gaming builds a highly engaged community with context of gaming and we are offering a great opportunity to e-commerce companies to showcase their relevant merchandise to the millions of engaged fan boys/girls of the IP. This association with Tyroo will allow us to offer gamers on the Nazara network a very contextual shopping experience without interfering in the core game play.”

    Tyroo’s Native Product Ads technology has been developed keeping consumers at the epicenter of the mobile advertising ecosystem. While other e-commerce ads overwhelm and confuse a consumer by showing different products to choose from, Native Product Ads only show relevant products as per consumer interest, reducing their efforts of buying products online.

    Native Product Ads technology allows different formats for app developers based on their mobile app design, font and layout and drive purchase via Product Discovery. It also enables advertisers to monitor native product ad performance through an in-built dashboard and accordingly use product analytics to create more engaging content for the audiences.

  • Reliance Games ups Amit Khanduja as CEO

    Reliance Games ups Amit Khanduja as CEO

    MUMBAI: Reliance Entertainment has appointed Amit Khanduja as the new CEO of Reliance Games.

     

    Khanduja, who is currently the COO of the company, will take on his new position from 1 June, 2015 from the present CEO Manish Agarwal.

     

    With about 10 games scheduled to launch globally, Reliance Games is well poised for continued success in global markets, especially in North America and Western Europe. The company also announced a new market expansion strategy to gain share in the domestic market.

     

    Reliance Group, group managing director Amitabh Jhunjhunwala said, “Amit is a proven leader, and has built a strong foundation for innovation and growth. I am confident that under his leadership, we will chart a promising new phase of success in the global mobile and digital gaming space.”

     

    Khanduja added, “I am deeply honoured to take this role and lead the team on an exciting journey both in the global and fast growing domestic markets. We have been on the forefront of delivering great consumer experiences on digital platforms over the past 36 months, and will continue on the growth path with renewed focus on new innovations and market expansions in this space.” 

     

    Khanduja has an experience of over two decades in mobile and digital media. Prior to joining Reliance Group, he held various positions in companies like Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard among others. 

  • Gaming apps, YouTube, publishing can boost revenue for kids content producers

    Gaming apps, YouTube, publishing can boost revenue for kids content producers

    MUMBAI: Kids content is being developed worldwide primarily through satellite or public broadcasting or a combination of both. In the absence of a strong public broadcasting model, content creators can become completely dependent on satellite broadcasting only. Thus it becomes a challenge to build larger than life character brands from which alternate sources of revenue can be milked for higher returns. However, can Indian children’s programming develop towards embracing emerging alternate revenue sources in the digital age?

     

    At a FICCI Frames 2015 discussion titled, “Emerging alternate revenue sources for kid’s content,” panelists shared their experiences. On the panel were, Dream Theatre founder and CEO Jiggy George, Disney India VP and head consumer products Abhishek Maheshwari, Aditya Horizons founders GD Bakshi and Aditya Bakshi, Yaboho New Media founder and CEO Hitendra Merchant and Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal. 

     

    Panelists shared their views on how alternate sources of revenue for kid’s content can be monetized.

     

    Yaboho New Media founder and CEO Hitendra Merchant

    According to Merchant, when the multi-channel network started off it realised that it did not have to be a multi-national company (MNC) based in North America to create strong digital content. “We create pre-school content and we are one of the largest preschool content creators on YouTube.”

     

    He also said that a digital multi-channel network content provider did not have to rush towards a broadcast network to put forth their content. The changing dynamic of the media space, according to him, presented two opportunities. One was through YouTube, which could help monetize kid’s content and secondly through gaming apps that kids were increasingly using today. “Both are driven by storytelling, for example Angry Birds,” he explained.

     

    Disney India VP and head consumer products Abhishek Maheshwari

    Explaining about a large brand like Disney, Maheshwari informed that the revenue potential created through merchandising across categories like stationary and toys were a bigger source of revenue than the content itself (i.e films produced by the studio). “Publishing of our content both on print through books and on digital platforms are also value added propositions for us,” he said.

     

    He then went on to speak of the brand’s iconic journey so far the world over. The fundamental aspect to the success of Disney’s characters was that consumers were able to relate to the story and that later on translated towards revenue streams. “About 75 per cent of our focus is on storytelling. Mickey Mouse is a big gift that continues giving us maximum revenue across networks. ESPN as a sports brand is also a large contributor towards our overall revenues,” Maheshwari highlighted, adding that the brand was launching its next big theme park in Shanghai and the Marvel franchise was a big growth booster in India.

     

    Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal

    For Agarwal, gaming was going to become the next big reality in monetization of kids content. Illustrating his point through an example, he said that when parents today reached their respective homes, their smart phones were taken over by their kids in order to play games. Raising two key points, he said, “High speed internet without buffering issues was still a roadblock and secondly, propensity to pay for gaming apps is no longer a major issue as audiences don’t mind paying for the same.”

     

    He also remarked that the psychological roots of a gaming app pushed users towards purchasing items in the real world, which boosted additional revenues. Throwing in some vital statistics, he said that while a popular gaming app would easily see close to five to ten million downloads in a month, a newly created gaming app would receive a million downloads easily in a country like India because of a large market. Ads via these apps were revenue boosters too.

     

    Aditya Horizons founders GD Bakshi and Aditya Bakshi

    The father son duo are pioneers behind the brand called Indian War Comics. While GD Bakshi hails from a military background as he is a retired major general, his son Aditya is from a merchant navy background. “None of our educational systems today have values,” the former army man began. He said that the comics created by them were based on real life stories of Param Vir Chakra and Ashok Chakra real war heroes, who had laid down their lives for the country. “Values are not thought but caught,” he added. The target audience was sixth and seventh class upwards and the comics strive to propagate “national values.”

     

    Aditya, on the other hand, went on to explain that the comic company had tied up with institutions like schools, NGOs and self-help groups to distribute their comics as they found the traditional distribution systems daunting. The company’s step will be towards digital apps and toys in order to monetize.

     

    Dream Theatre founder and CEO Jiggy George

    George’s company is mainly into merchandising and licensing of content on three mediums i.e films, digital apps/games and television. For George, two trump cards that could help a lot in gaining from the licensing market in India were the size of the entertainment market and a rising consuming class that had strong and bigger pockets to purchase items. “In addition, local content on TV, like Chotta Bheem, will always perform better.”

     

    Towards the end, entrepreneurs were guided that they should explore the art of telling great stories for kids, while other monetizing options would follow. Catch them while they are young they concluded.

  • ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’: Unleash Singham’s fury with two exciting games based on the much awaited movie Singham Returns

    ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’: Unleash Singham’s fury with two exciting games based on the much awaited movie Singham Returns

    MUMBAI: ‘Aata Majhi Satakli’, that’s right you’ll be hearing a lot of it alongside ferocious lions roaring while you play supercop ‘Bajirao Singham’ with two exciting games that have been launched to enthrall gamers. At one moment you could be riding a sports car on a high speed action packed mobile racing game and in the next you could be in an exciting and thrilling running chase behind villains on the streets of Mumbai. The two games are based on the most anticipated movie of this year and it sure won’t disappoint you.

    On the running action thriller, Singham Returns – The Game, players can test their reflexes and collect coins as they jump, kick enemies and wield the famous Singham belt. The game features five stunning and beautiful environments of Mumbai City. Your villains have no chance as the fearless Singham unleashes his rage and hops on a police bullet chasing down his enemies. The game has been localized into Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada so players across India can enjoy the full gaming experience in their vernacular.

    Reliance Games is also excited with their partnership with Roosh Interactive for Singham Returns – TakeDown. This 3D racing game pops open a real map based on your phones geo-location and plots in other players playing the game awaiting a challenge. A selection of rides from exotic sport cars to even a military grade tank makes you feel indestructible.

    “Our vision for India has been to launch a bouquet of games that appeals to the diverse tastes of Indian mobile gaming audiences. Singham Returns presents the perfect opportunity to develop exciting games around a hugely popular movie IP that has captured the imagination of Indian fans worldwide. Gamers can now partake in the same excitement and energy as Bajirao Singham while playing on their mobile devices,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Games

    Deepak Ali, CEO of Roosh Interactive said “It has been a pleasure to partner with Reliance Games for Singham Returns – TakeDown and we look forward to many such associations in the future to launch exciting gaming titles in India”

     

    Celebrate this Independence Day by downloading these thrilling games and unleash the inner lion in you!

  • World Wide Open wins the digital mandate for BIG Cinemas

    World Wide Open wins the digital mandate for BIG Cinemas

    MUMBAI: World Wide Open, digital brand partner and strategy consultants have recently bagged the digital duties for BIG Cinemas. The objective of this campaign, developed by WWO, is to increase user engagement for BIG Cinemas, utilizing all mediums of digital marketing and reaching out to the target audience in bulk, as their customers are all online. Along with helping them with designing their website, WWO will also manage and strategies the media planning and buying, social media management, developing mobile applications and the marketing campaigns for their digital audiences.

     

    Commenting on the new account win, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital said, “We at WWO (World Wide Open) are extremely excited to work with BIG Cinemas, which is one of the largest chains of cinemas in India. We look forward to help them augment their brand through a delightful consumer experience across all internet connected touch points in a scalable and sustained manner.”

     

    Kushal Sanghvi, Head, World Wide Open commented, “With BIG Cinemas on board, we aim to bridge the gap between the digital and creative aspect of the brand. With some path breaking campaigns designed for them already, the team at WWO is all charged up to serve BIG Cinemas in the best way possible.”

     

    Commenting on the associating with WWO, Shirish Srivastava Sr. VP – Sales & Marketing, BIG Cinemas said, “At BIG Cinemas, we are taking a lot of path breaking initiatives to deliver business value. A robust and dynamic digital presence is critical in this regard, and so we are very happy to have WWO on board.”

     

    World Wide Open is Reliance Group’s new vertical under Reliance Entertainment Digital. Positioned as digital brand partners and digital strategy consultants, WWO aims to fulfill the gap of Digital Brand partner who can help in brand building primarily via digital, by having under one roof, combination of skill sets namely deep consumer insights, strategic brand thinking, conceptualization ability of digital products & services, knowledge of technology to drive innovations and content creativity to engage consumers with contextual and innovative content.

     

    BIG Cinemas, is India’s largest cinema chain with about 516 screens spread across India, US and Malaysia. After pioneering the IMAX experience in India, it recently launched 3D and 6D technology and is the only cinema chain to screen films in all three formats. It is also launching the first megaplexes in the country.

  • BigFlicks launches online HD movie- on-demand service

    BigFlicks launches online HD movie- on-demand service

    NEW DELHI: BigFlicks, a part of Reliance Group’s Digital Entertainment Business, today launched India’s first online Movie on Demand service, BigFlix Plus, which lets the user just click and play a catalogue of 500 movies at a subscription fee across PCs, tablets and mobiles.

     

    BigFlix Plus is a user’s Personal Blockbuster Theatre, which allows the user to stream and download HD (High Definition) quality content for a subscription fee of Rs 249 per month by logging on to www. Bigflixplus.com.

     
     

    It provides movies at the users preferred time, sans the advertisements, across all devices such as desktop, tablets, smart phones and connected TVs.

     

    According to Reliance Entertainment COO – Digital Business Manish Agarwal, “BigFlix Plus is the first movies on demand subscription service that offers a vast choice of HD uality movies to the net savvy movie buffs in India, at their convenience, across all internet connected devices. We are looking at replicating a ‘NetFlix’ in India, In order to provide this world class experience. Reliance entertainment has hugely invested in developing the movies on demand ecosystem spanning across product, distribution & content.”
     

    BigFlix Plus offers an extensive HD quality movie library across Hindi, English, and several regional languages.
  • Gaming on Reliance

    Gaming on Reliance

    MUMBAI: There’s a saying: a prophet is respected but in his own country. And that applies quite well to Reliance Games, the mobile gaming division of Reliance Entertainment (Digital). It has successfully been involved in developing games for a slew of Hollywood studios and has been struggling to get Indian film producers to invest in them.

     

    The company recently launched the official mobile game of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire that released in the US on Friday. It is one of the first multi-player games to be developed in India and Reliance is hoping that it will gain traction. Just like its 17 October 2013 release — “Real Steel: World Robot Boxing” – did with seven million downloads in about a month.
    Reliance Entertainment (Digital) CEO Manish Agarwal thinks the company’s gamble in the gaming business has worked well for them

     

    Reliance Entertainment (Digital) CEO Manish Agarwal says that he is amazed with the strong response to Real Steel. “We were expecting 10 million downloads in three to four months’ time but I guess that will happen within 40-50 days,” he says, adding that the expectations from the recent game too are high because it’s different in itself as it can’t be played solo.

     

    “Making just a multi-player game is a bold move for us,” explains Agarwal, who thinks that in India the game might not work well because of the rather low internet speeds, “But it has huge potential to work in countries like Korea, US, UK etc where MOGs are the norm.”

     

    The company signed a deal with Lionsgate, the studio that has produced the movie, to develop the game earlier this year. Agarwal says that getting the deal wasn’t really difficult for Reliance.

     

    “What has been an advantage for us is that we have become very close to many of the Hollywood studios with credible works like Snow White, Total Recall, Real Steel etc in our portfolio. The studios have a comfort level with us. And our game based on the movie After Earth (that was launched earlier this year) became a real advantage for us as the recent game is along the same lines and helped us close the deal with Lionsgate Films,” affirms Agarwal.

     

    The deal was inked on a revenue-sharing basis. Agarwal thinks that a set-up like this works best for both the parties. “Unlike Bollywood that works largely on minimum guarantees, Hollywood is much more mature and the studios there look at gaming as an integral part of the entire process. They don’t take it just as a pre-launch marketing gimmick but look at building it as a franchise, which makes working with them much more exciting,” emphasises Agarwal, who thinks that in India something similar would happen when the gaming market becomes big.

     

    “The Indian movie gaming industry is still very small. And we would only be able to ape Hollywood when the Indian movie guys truly believe that their movies will be played by millions and they see sizeable revenue coming out of it,” he explains.

     

    Currently, Agarwal thinks that since the gaming industry is small, the question of revenue-sharing between the game developers and studios in India is completely out of tune as every producer wants to earn his or her pound of flesh.

     

    “Once the movie guys see profit coming out of it, they will start spending. In Hollywood, they don’t hesitate in spending on games because there’s huge revenue coming out of it from markets like the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Korea etc.”

     

    Though the company has had both success and failure in the gaming business with something as popular as World Robot Boxing to a complete flop like Dancing With The Stars, Agarwal says that overall it has been an enjoyable journey.

     

    “In a portfolio of business, we need to ensure that we maximise whichever is the hit and cover for the losses or failure and that’s what we are doing. Our gaming business will double this year, it has been really profitable giving us confidence to plan on a higher scale for next year,” says Agarwal.

     

    After producing successful games this year in India, another positive that he has come across is that the company’s Indian team is capable of delivering a world-class product. “That has given us even more confidence to bring many other international projects to India. Today in India we don’t have any competition. We are far ahead of anybody else because the Reliance group has supported us in terms of investments as each of the games is anywhere between half-a-million to a million dollar. It’s a gamble in which we have succeeded,” he concludes.

  • BigFlix gets into licensing agreement with Vishesh Films

    BigFlix gets into licensing agreement with Vishesh Films

    MUMBAI: BigFlix customers have a reason to rejoice and why? Well, the movie-on-demand service by Reliance Entertainment Digital, in order to strengthen its Bollywood offering has formed a licensing agreement with Vishesh Films. The agreement will allow users to stream as well as download several movies produced under the banner over the years.

    With this alliance, BigFlix continues to tie up with leading entertainment companies, thereby acquiring internet rights of some of the best titles of the industry.

    The catalogue that is now live on BigFlix, offers some highly acclaimed movies from the past produced by Vishesh Films like Sadak, Ghulam, Sir etc. The recent releases of the production house that included movies like Jannat, Kalyug,Murder and Jism series are also being offered.

    What’s more? One can enjoy these movies minus ads and at the time and space of their convenience by just logging into BigFlix on the smart device – PC, mobile or tablet by just single login.

    Commenting on the addition in the catalogue, Reliance Entertainment Digital CEO Manish Agarwal said in a release, “Vishesh Films has been amongst the most popular banners in Bollywood for 25 years now. Home to veterans like Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt, the banner has given Bollywood a variety of films – from intense and hard-hitting subjects, to romantic musicals and commercial films based on para-science. Having these films is a definite value addition for BigFlix subscribers.”

    The move will benefit over one million registered users and over 100,000 subscribers of BigFlix. The movies can be streamed or downloaded and watched offline using the newly launched ‘download’ feature, at no additional cost.

    ‘Vishesh Films has been a banner that represents a very diverse, powerful and identifiable library of films and we are glad to have bought it to the finger tips of our audiences with the emergence of platforms like BigFlix,” said Vishesh Films producer and director Vishesh Bhatt.