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Tag: Meri Nimmo

  • Eros International profits up in first quarter

    Eros International profits up in first quarter

    BENGALURU: The Sunil Lulla-led Indian film and media company Eros International Media Limited (Eros) reported 25.3 per cent year on year (y-o-y) jump in profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter ended 30 June 2018 (Q1 2018, quarter, period under review) as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter (Q1 2018). Eros reported PAT at Rs 59.95 as compared to PAT of Rs 47.86 crore in Q1 2018. On account of items that will be classified later as a profit or a loss, total comprehensive income more than doubled (up 1.31 times)y-o-y to Rs 100.91 crore in Q1 2019 from Rs 43.56 crore.Calculated simple EBIDTA for the period under review increased 48.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 93.33 crore (42.8 per cent of operating revenue) from Rs 47.86 crores (24.2 per cent of operating revenue.)

    Eros operating revenue in Q1 2019 declined 16.1 per cent y-o-y to Rs 217.93 crore from Rs 259.62 crore. Total Income declined 18.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 223.57 crore from Rs 273.36 crore.

    The company says in its earnings presentation that revenues during the quarter were driven by releases of Bhavesh Joshi(Hindi), Meri Nimmo (Digital release), Blackmail (Overseas), Haami (Bengali), Goodnight City (Bengali), Alinagarer

    Golokdhadha (Bengali) and others. Eros released a total of 14 films during the quarter, consisting of 1 medium budget and 13 low budget films  as compared to 5 films in Q1  2018, consisting of 1 High Budget, 1 Medium Budget and 3 Low Budget Films). TV and Others segment included satellite sales of catalogue films to Zee TV and others.

    Eros says that Theatrical Revenues contributed – 30.7 per cent, Overseas Revenues – 12.6 per cent and Television & Others – 56.7 per cent as a percentage of income from operations.

    Company speak

    Eros executive vice chairman and MD Lulla  said: “We have started the year on an excellent note on operational and strategic parameters. Our strategy of a content driven approach reflected in a robust green lighting process enabling us to de-risk our model. Our film content is deeply researched and evaluated for its revenue potential across platforms and markets by our business leaders, due to which we were able to again deliver margin enhancing performance in Q1 2019.

    The new JV kicking in with V. Vijayendra Prasad for Hindi and regional content and Reliance Eros Productions LLP for USD 150 million already in process is bound further boost our content strategy and reflect in our financial performance in the forthcoming quarters. The first quarter was marked by the successful releases of our films which contributed to the overall growth. Our strong slate across languages, active pre-sales and catalogue monetization of our films ‘ library further supported the performance during the quarter. Looking ahead, we have drawn a compelling line-up for the remainder of the year featuring high-potential movies such as Color Yellow Productions Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi, Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyan, the IndiaChina co-productions, Panda by Kabir Khan, trilingual Haathi mere Saathi and multiple other films across languages.

    Lulla further added, “As always, we continue to be a pioneer in industry innovations in catering to the changing tastes and preferences of the audiences. In this quarter, we released Meri Nimmo straight-to-digital on the Eros Now platform. I am happy to share that the film received a tremendous response from the audience and we look forward to launching more such films and originals on the Eros Now platform during the course of this fiscal. Along with it the roll-out of fresh and strong original content, makes us confident that the pace of subscriber addition for Eros Now will further accelerate, going from 50 to 100 cities and almost doubling the subscriber base to 16 million by end of the Fiscal year.”

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by the company

    Total Expenditure (TE) during the period under review declined 32.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 146.45 crore as compared to Rs 217.81 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

    Films rights costs including amortisation costs in Q1 2019 declined 29.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 90.15 crore from Rs 128.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Employee Benefits Expense in Q1 2019 declined 14.5 per cent y-o-y to Rs 13.54 crore as compared to Rs 15.83 crore in Q1 2018. Other expenses (OE) in the Q1 2019 reduced 63.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 19.15 crore as compared to Rs 52.84 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Finance costs in Q1 2019 increased 5 per cent y-o-y to in Q1 2019  Rs 19.5 crore from Rs 18.58 crore.

  • Eros Now leverages content to create a new culture for viewers

    Eros Now leverages content to create a new culture for viewers

    MUMBAI: Amid a cluttered over-the-top (OTT) space in India, Eros Now always faced less challenge than other players to differentiate itself. With Eros International’s deep-rooted history in the film industry, the digital arm played with a specialised strategy since the beginning. While the subscription-based business model in the Indian OTT market is still nascent, the company has always prioritised SVOD model. However, riding the waves of change, the company is also updating content strategy, even working on something very interesting from its business model perspective.

    Recently, the leading OTT platform reached over 100 million registered users and 7.9 million paying subscribers worldwide with a 58 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth. Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Eros Digital COO Ali Hussein discussed the factors that fuelled the growth along with what will be the content strategy going forward.

    Talking about the significant surge in terms of paid subscribers, Hussein mentioned the combination of efforts including programming, marketing strategy, enhanced relations with telco partners and marketing alliance partners as key contributors to the customer uptake. The new movies added to the catalogue, as well as refurbishing content helped to develop a consistency from the programming perspective. Active marketing both at the digital level and brand level also played a key role.

    While the OTT platforms keep adding subscribers, high churn rates are challenging for subscription video businesses. “Essentially we learnt from data that there are two kinds of significant components. One is the larger users experience on the product side and second is in terms of being able to kind of refurbish content. So, I think the combination of two efforts from the consistency of programming leads to a larger subscriber affinity and two is, in terms of being able to ensure that we are able to create a user experience at the core,” he says.

    “Then there are certain other remarketing strategies we establish in terms of being able to cluster our audience better and ensuring that we get a month-on-month growth,” he added.

    Though, since its launch, the OTT platform has been hailed for its rich movie library and currently is also working on the movie catalogue, the company is not willing to entirely depend on it.

    However, despite originals being an important part of programming strategy, he does not believe in gambling all the money for it. The team is working on short-form content ideas also as a part of the overall content strategy.

    In late April, Eros Now premiered its first direct-to-digital film Meri Nimmo kicking off a new trend of distribution as well as adding a new dimension to its content strategy. Viewers have responded well to the film. Moreover, it has helped to attract new users to the platform.

    “From a qualitative point of view, it was a very good thing. Something that we will do going forward also in terms of looking at digital original film as a key part of content strategy,” he said.

    The success of the first initiative in the genre has helped the company to fix focus on such projects. Currently, it is looking at multiple projects that will be released direct on digital.

    Very recently, Eros Now launched a new brand campaign titled ‘Bolo kya dekhogey’. It claims that the quality of organic users coming on the platform has gone up drastically after the launch of the campaign. Usually, many players go to third-party digital agencies for marketing campaigns but Eros Now relied on in-house creativity.

    “We are also a production house first; we develop a lot of creative ideas. So, people who worked on the quality movies over the years should be able to come up with good creative ideas itself to market around products. Historically, we have been the one marketing our movies also,” Hussein explains.

    Since the beginning of this year, from appointing some new key executives including Hussein to launching new brand campaign, expanding content library, extensive marketing, the first half has been momentous for the streaming platform. The company is heading in a direction to reach about 12-15 million paid subscribers in next 12 months on the back of such focussed strategies. 

  • Eros Now to premiere direct-to-digital film ‘Meri Nimmo’

    Eros Now to premiere direct-to-digital film ‘Meri Nimmo’

    MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) platform Eros Now has announced its first direct-to-digital film Meri Nimmo in association with Colour Yellow Productions and Aanand L Rai. The film will have its worldwide premiere on 27 April 2018 on the platform. This association is the first of the many that Eros Now and Colour Yellow Digital are planning in 2018-19.

    “This launch is a mega step in the evolution of the film business in India. We are thrilled to extend our relationship with Aanandji, with whom we share a wonderful synergy, to the digital space as well. The launch of our first direct-to-digital film Meri Nimmo furthers our promise of offering very engaging original content ensuring a superior consumer experience. With this movie, we embark on a journey of providing filmmakers and viewers across the globe with fantastic programming that might not get a theatrical release and delivers better viewership and engagement on digital,” Eros International group chief content officer Ridhima Lulla said.

    Meri Nimmo was selected for 2016’s NFDC Film Bazaar and will enjoy a straight-to-digital release on Eros Now. The film revolves around an eight-year-old boy who thinks he is in love with a 24-year-old girl and what follows when the object of his affection decides to get married. The story depicts the young boy’s roller coaster ride of emotions set against the backdrop of his beloved Nimmo’s impending nuptials.

    “The trailer went live on Monday. We released the music of this on Tuesday and on Friday the film is releasing. It’s not like a six to eight week marketing campaign. It’s very different from the existing construct of how a film is mounted and released,” Eros Digital COO Ali Hussein said.

    On the marketing front, the company will promote the film offline too going beyond the confines of digital. The teasers are already being shared on the socials of Eros Now. Based on the audience reaction, the company may release the film in theatres as well.

    Ali said that the OTT platform would focus on long-term episodic content, original movies and short films. The platform wants to remain true to what it is rather than going into areas where it is yet to build expert.

    “Developing content for digital consumption on Eros Now was a natural progression after our association together on films for the big screen. The digital world excites as well as challenges me and at Colour Yellow Digital, we can’t wait to paint this blank canvas and present Indian content targeted towards audiences for this medium. Meri Nimmo is one such film that’s very Indian at heart and I’m sure it will strike the right chord with its beautiful storytelling and stand-out performances,” filmmaker and producer Rai said.

    Also read:

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    Eros Digital ropes in former Google exec Ali Hussein as COO