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  • MX Player launches MX Advantage

    MX Player launches MX Advantage

    Mumbai: MX Player has launched MX Advantage, a one-stop solution for brands across India to leverage the power of content across formats, languages, and genres, on Monday.

    MX Advantage is a platform for all of MX Player’s existing and new advertisers to launch ad offerings.

    This platform has been developed in order to directly make MX inventory available to small, medium, and large business owners, marketing managers, media agencies, SMEs, metros, and non-metro advertisers.

    MX Advantage will enable the digital advertising sector to advertise across all forms of entertainment through impact-driven campaigns, maximising ROI and assisting in the achievement of corporate goals.

    MX Player chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi said, “We are India’s first entertainment super app driven by high-tech innovations and offer content that appeals to our consumers. As technology continues to infiltrate every aspect of our lives, convenience is more important now than ever before for businesses of all sizes.We understand Bharat, which has led us to be the second-largest video platform in India with 236 million users, which helps advertisers reach a larger audience in today’s highly competitive market.”

    He further added, “MX Advantage is a one-stop solution for advertisers of all sizes and budgets, including our current partner advertisers. Our huge and diverse user base across demography, markets, interests and languages will help brands reach the audience that matters for their business.”

    The self-serve platform offers immersive ad formats across tabs like video, display, audio, and content solutions that will help in driving the brand’s awareness and engagement with important features like customisation and total campaign control.

    Additionally, brands can easily take advantage of MX Advantage’s additional services, which are all housed under one roof and include sponsorships, rich media ads, entertainment commerce, etc. There are several benefits as a part of the promotional launch period for verified advertisers who sign up on the platform.

    MX Player has also collaborated with DanAds, a technology platform, to make its engaging media and industry-leading advertising solutions available to SME businesses in India via MX Advantage.

    DanAds CEO and co-founder Istvan Beres said, “The launch of MX Advantage is hugely exciting. With a strong foothold in India and a growing global presence, MX Player is well-positioned to take full advantage of the benefits offered by self-serve advertising. Streaming TV is one of the hottest formats right now for sponsored content, and we look forward to offering an engaging and dynamic solution for MX Player’s portfolio of advertisers. Speed, ease-of-use, and flexible budgets are some of the most important factors for SME advertisers, and DanAds is proud to partner with MX Player to offer just that.”

  • “We help machines learn the content and AI understand the content”: TMW COO Ratnendra K. Pandey

    “We help machines learn the content and AI understand the content”: TMW COO Ratnendra K. Pandey

    Mumbai: Indian hyperlocal content and resource distribution platform TriVayu Media Works (TMW), which was founded on 29 March 2020, is going from strength to strength. The Noida-based company, which claims to be the country’s first hyperlocal content distribution company, today has more than 10 micro-offices and over 10,000 content partners in India. It was co-founded by Tanu Shree Rawat and Ratnendra K. Pandey. TMW said that it helps Indian companies target the hyperlocal market by creating super-niche content, marketing, and resource services.

    TMW has been providing a wide array of services which include resource management (end-to-end customer success services in 12 languages); content learning (content moderations, tagging, grading services in 12 languages); creative designs (2D, 3D, motion graphics, VFX); bulk content (India’s largest ecosystem to manually crawl content, write articles, create memes and photos).

    Presently, TMW has 15 full-time employees, 60 project-based (ad-hoc) employees, and 600+ contract-based partners.

    TMW says that its mission is to make the youth of India self-reliant with the simple tool of the internet and to create an effective ecosystem which recruits and trains more and more candidates. TMW has a network of over 10,000 people and has a unique micro-office-based model that it claims no other company currently offers.

    TMW added that it has catered to the needs of over 110 clients and reached out to over one billion users through its various social media platforms. The company is targeting Rs 50 crore in revenue in the new fiscal and expects 10X year-on-year growth. TMW is aiming to open two studios to support India’s rising live streaming content industry. One studio will be based in Noida while the other will operate out of Lucknow.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with Ratnendra K. Pandey to find out more about the company’s plans. His responsibility is to manage the lead operations and steer the strategy for all departments. As the Chief of Operations, he is keen to raise the brand as per the companies’ requirements and immediate goals.

    He started his career as a journalist at a time when very few realised the potential of internet content. Initially, he started working at the digital desk of Star News (now ABP News). He has also worked with many companies, including Terrevive, a Hong Kong-based tech company; CCM Benchmark, a Paris-based content company; and a couple of more clients.

    To kick-start TMW, Pandey invested rupees eight lakh in 2020 from his own savings to strengthen the operations, on-board the right talent, and boost the growth of TMW.

    In his free time, Pandey loves to travel and explore new destinations. From 2017 onwards, he has explored 50 cities across 10 countries in the world. Traveling re-energizes the lost soul and fosters a sense of unity and love among his family members.

    Edited excerpts:

    On the market gap that he saw when launching TriVayu Media Works in 2020

    Ratnendra: The story of TMW started five years ago. When I was working with UCBrowser, I saw that when I had to reach out to people in tier two and tier three cities, I had no agencies. Agencies were in the metros and it was unusual for them to reach out to tier two and three cities. If they wanted someone who could create a video and write articles, it was difficult to find.

    This was the market gap that existed. So, before starting TMW, I spent six months developing a community network. These people are very well-trained in creating and writing content in hyperlocal languages based in tier two and tier three cities. They can do multiple things in the content domain.

    On whether COVID-19 forced a course correction

    Ratnendra: When I started TMW, Covid-19 had not yet arrived. In January 2020, I visited multiple cities in UP and Rajasthan. I thought of training people in these cities. For me, it is a personal story, since I come from a small city. TMW gives them training. I did this before officially launching operations. Covid-19 came in March. It gave us the power to support brands that were struggling. Brands were not getting the support from agencies as, all of a sudden, everyone was working from home. We were working on developing in a community that worked from home.

    On the services that TMW offers, like resource management and content learning

    Ratnendra: When you talk about resource management, there are two major domains, one being content moderation, tagging, and placing. Fake news is a concern for brands. On Instagram reels, you see similar content on your timeline. The majority of content is tagged by a human. So if someone is driving a car in a short video, it will be defined to the machine by a human being. Every video is defined. Similarly, if there is a bad video on level one, it will be filtered by AI (artificial intelligence), but on level two, there will be human interference. It is human interference that is tagging the content. We help machines learn the content. We help AI understand the content.

    On the 10,000 content partners that TMW works with

    Ratnendra: We try to develop smaller communities in tier two and three cities. In Rajasthan, we have around 1,500–1,600 people working for us. They are college graduates or post-graduate students. There are communities in 13 cities. In some, we have 100 people, 200 people, or 1,000 people. We educate and on-board them for more and more work.

    On the work that TMW does with clients like ShareChat and MXPlayer

    Ratnendra: We have been providing them with content services. For MXPlayer, we provide content learning services. A show concluded recently. The show was streaming 24*7. There is the comment section open to everyone, so people may use abusive language while commenting. It is the platform’s responsibility to not allow such comments. We were helping them filter such comments, delete them, and take action against the users. It was moderation work for the platform. For Sharechat, we provide them with trending content services based on events.

    On TMW’s USP vis-a-vis competition

    Ratnendra: There is no company that gives all our offerings. Some companies provide 30 percent of what we do. We also have quickly available resources. We work on that side before a client approaches us. We can service a client in 48 hours. We organise smaller events to train employees on clients’ requirements. So a brand may come tomorrow and ask for 20 people.

    We are ready for it and we are quick in terms of providing resources. We are also strong on the hyperlocal side. So we can provide someone in Rajasthan with a local dialect. Haryanvi farmers speak Haryanvi—a dialect and not a language. We can provide a company with someone who speaks this dialect and can then create a promotional video. The aim is to make the communication process smooth.

    On the two studios that will be opened to leverage the streaming opportunity

    Ratnendra: Streaming is the next big thing that is happening in the country. We are opening one studio in Noida and another in Lucknow. It is about serving as many businesses as possible. Resource or content creators must not have to travel as much. The aim is to save clients money, time and make it more feasible for the creators. If this is successful, we will open more studios and penetrate deeper.

    On the key things that marketers need to keep in mind when they use Internet-based channels to generate maximum ROI

    Ratnendra: The most important part is choosing the correct medium, whether it is influencer marketing or another platform.If you have to target a farmer and promote a tractor, you should target a Youtube influencer to do the job, not someone on Instagram or Facebook. They have a specific way of narrating & more and more people watch them from the farming community in villages. This is why research is important.

    On trends seen in influencer marketing

    Ratnendra: The trend is going to be hyperlocal. It has always been there. When you travel by road in Europe, the language changes. When you go from one country to another, the language changes. If you take a highway from Chandigarh to Maharashtra, you will encounter six to seven languages. You have platforms that target a certain language.

    Similarly, on social media, you see content in different languages. You do not have to use Hindi to speak to a farmer in a tier two or three city. If a brand is targeting consumers in Uttarakhand, then why not create an app in the Kumauni language? Why must you use Hindi? That is the opportunity for TMW.

    On the role of regional in brand storytelling

    Ratnendra: This trend started four years ago. Increasingly, you are seeing billboards in local languages. Other media will soon adopt more local languages. There is also a joy in conversing in one’s mother tongue. If an advertiser or brand wants to communicate a message, why not do it in a language that the consumer is most comfortable with? It is important to adapt to things in the local lingo.

    On whether brands use social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter better

    Ratnendra: Brands explore them. They use them. It is just that initially there was only English, then Hindi came, and then came the local languages. In the future, more local languages will debut. Brands that aspire to become big will go the local language route in communication.

    On TMW launching a podcast

    Ratnendra: The podcast aims to connect the brands that work with us with more people from tier two to three cities. The podcast communicates through voice. We will make multiple cuts and distribute them through multiple platforms, like short video apps. A podcast is the only thing that can be cut and distributed in as many mediums as possible.

    Memes are also doing well, but they target only a specific kind of audience. But the podcast format has a future in the country. It is still in an early stage in the country, and in the future it will take a larger piece of the communication pie. We are seeing influencers in fields like finance using podcasts and doing pretty well.

    On how brands are using augmented reality, AI, and machine learning to enhance their campaigns

    Ratnendra: Access is a challenge for augmented reality. There is a section of Times Square where such advertisements can be seen, but there is no such platform in India. Technology has to become easier to access. Most of the country stays in tier two and tier three cities. Until they can access it easily, it will not become a trend. In video creation, you do not need to involve AI or ML; you only use them for content distribution. They do play a role in determining where the TG of a campaign resides.

    On trustworthiness being an issue when one talks about digital trust

    Ratnendra: This is where branding comes into the picture. You will struggle till people trust you, especially if you are a D2C brand. You have to convince them, or you will not be able to sell.

    On LinkedIn’s efforts at content creation

    Ratnendra: LinkedIn is a professional community focused majorly on corporate intellectuals. The platform has also started paying attention to the creators. So, as it is majorly targeting people in metro and tier 1 cities, it is not likely that we see a lot of content in languages other than English. Yes, they have recently started promoting Hindi. It is exciting! The content on LinkedIn generally floats in two directions—formal or more educational. I believe, as far as the video content is concerned, it is an early stage for them. It is a promising area, but the category is limited. Success stories are popular. Business and finance stories are popular. But if you talk about the massy content, it will not get that kind of traction on LinkedIn. In fact, users on LinkedIn clearly understand it. However, during the last few months, LinkedIn has also become video-friendly. But right now it will not appeal to tier two, tier three cities.

  • MX Player’s ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’ releases globally

    MX Player’s ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’ releases globally

    Mumbai: MX Player has released ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’ globally. With the first two seasons seeing a major rise in viewership, the recently launched season 3 has been released across 33 countries globally.

    While the first two seasons were greatly appreciated by audiences, the recently launched season, ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’, has also very quickly and successfully entered the 100 million viewership club within thirty two hours of its release in India.

    Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3 features an ensemble cast comprising Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Darshan Kumaar, Anupriya Goenka, Esha Gupta, Sachin Shroff, Adhyayan Suman, Tridha Choudhury, Vikram Kochhar, Anuritta K Jha, Rushad Rana, Tanmaay Ranjan, Preeti Sood, Rajeev Siddhartha and Jaya Seal Ghosh.

    Speaking about launching the show globally, MX Media chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi said, “We are expanding our viewership and penetrating newer markets internationally. After receiving such huge success in India for our No 1 homegrown series, Aashram, launching it simulcast across other countries gives our users all over the world the opportunity to watch the series at the same time that it’s launched in India. We believe that it is the power of good content that makes people connect with the story as season 3 of Aashram is also breaking all records of viewership that we achieved in its earlier seasons. We are humbled at the response from audiences and thank them with a promise of returning with many more such incredible stories.”

    MX Player in international markets has a subscription-based offering, MX One wherein viewers outside India can watch Aashram and other MX Original Series by subscribing to it.

    MX Player vice president and business head of gaming and international business said, “Our focus for the coming year is to diversify content offerings and reach our audience beyond the Indian market. International expansion was always on the charts, and this move to launch Aashram globally is our first step in that direction. The series has been a massive hit among the Indian audiences, and we hope this love will further multiply as our viewers worldwide will be able to experience this record-breaking show.”

    Commenting on the same, Producer and Director Prakash Jha said, “It’s exciting news for all of us. We are really looking forward to global audiences watching the show as wherever I visit around the globe, I’m always asked when we can see the next season. I’m grateful to the fantastic cast, my crew and Team MX Player for being excellent partners in creating this series.”

  • MX Player’s ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’ fastest growing show on Indian OTT; gets 100 mn views

    MX Player’s ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3’ fastest growing show on Indian OTT; gets 100 mn views

    Mumbai: MX Original series Ek Badnaam… Aashram 3, produced and directed by industry stalwart Prakash Jha, has been breaking records since its release. The series has been a huge success. The first two seasons of the show were hugely popular among viewers, which made it probably the most-watched television show on Indian OTT. However, the recent third season, Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3, has been equally successful in entering the 100 million viewership club within just 32 hours of its release, becoming the fastest-growing show on Indian OTT so far.

    With each passing season, the series appears to be setting new standards. Aashram’s first two seasons had a total viewership of around 160 million unique users. In addition, within six hours of the season three trailer’s release, the show was trending at number one on YouTube in India. Season three has received unprecedented love and appreciation from audiences. Since its release on 3 June 2022, the plot and characters have been the talk of the town.

    The series features an ensemble cast comprising Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Darshan Kumaar, Anupriya Goenka, Esha Gupta, Sachin Shroff, Adhyayan Suman, Tridha Choudhury, Vikram Kochhar, Anuritta K Jha, Rushad Rana, Tanmaay Ranjan, Preeti Sood, Rajeev Siddhartha and Jaya Seal Ghosh.

    Aashram is a show that highlights the life of a megalomaniac Baba Nirala. In this season, Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala has become fearless and his lust for power has been accentuated, making him unstoppable. He believes to be above all and thinks he’s God. The power of aashram is at its peak. This badnaam aashram continues to exploit women, and indulge in drugs and illegal activities to gain power and position in society. On the other hand, Pammi is having sleepless nights to seek revenge from Bhagwaan Nirala.

    Speaking of the success, MX Media chief content officer Gautam Talwar said, “At MX Player, our aim is to always offer path-breaking narratives. We encourage storytellers to showcase authentic stories that build strong resonance with our audiences, strengthening our promise of entertaining and keeping viewers engaged. ‘Ek Badnaam…Aashram 3‘, as a series, has scaled up our viewership and is testimony to that. Season two had 50 million in less than 17 hours and season three crossed 100 million in just 32 hours of the series launch. We will continue creating powerful engaging content and thank our audiences for their unwavering appreciation.”

    Producer and director Prakash Jha said, “We are incredibly proud of Aashram and all the seasons that we’ve released so far. The viewers have once again shown their love and we are humbled by their response. The entire cast and crew have worked tirelessly and we’re happy that we’ve had great support from MX Player and look forward to our future associations too. We thank our viewers for their unwavering support.”

  • MX Player signs five sponsors for Aashram 3

    MX Player signs five sponsors for Aashram 3

    Mumbai: MX Player has signed five sponsors for the third season of its most-watched web-series Aashram. The sponsors on board include Vimal Elaichi as ‘title sponsor’, Goldiee as ‘co-powered by’ sponsor, Kent Mineral RO, Royal Green and Crax have been onboarded as ‘special partners’.

    Aashram 3 is set to begin streaming on 3 June. As per the platform, the show was watched by 160 million unique users in its first season and the second season crossed 50 million views in 17 hours. The series has been consumed by more than 60 million users in the region of Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.

    “Aashram is one of our tentpole assets. It has created an immense impact on our users. As India’s largest digital video platform, we are incredibly humbled to see the response that Aashram has received since its launch, and now season three only promises to get bigger and better,” said MX Media chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi.

    “It’s immense popularity and record-breaking views is a significant opportunity for brands to reach out to new audiences across Metro and non-metro users which is unique only to MX Player. We are very pleased with the clients who have grabbed this opportunity to associate with Aashram to get maximum impact of their investments.”

    Produced and directed by Prakash Jha, the MX original series by stars an ensemble cast comprising Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Darshan Kumaar, Anupriya Goenka, Esha Gupta, Sachin Shroff, Adhyayan Suman, Tridha Choudhury, Vikram Kochhar, Anuritta K Jha, Rushad Rana, Tanmaay Ranjan, Preeti Sood, Rajeev Siddhartha and Jaya Seal Ghosh.

  • OTT has democratised storytelling and consumption: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar at Goafest’22

    OTT has democratised storytelling and consumption: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar at Goafest’22

    Mumbai: The OTT ecosystem in India has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, with new players coming into the fray every day and novel, edgy content being churned out. The way we look at online streaming is also changing with it emerging as an exciting prospect for an increasing number of marketers and advertisers keen to promote their brands and ads on these upcoming platforms.

    The day two of Goafest saw actors Vikrant Massey and Ali Fazal along with MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar taking centre stage to talk about the topic ‘OTT Superpower – Freedom and Nuances of Creativity.’ The panelists spoke about how OTT has changed consumer behaviour in regards to content and democratised content, in the session moderated by anchor and creative director Atika Farooqui.

    “While still a nascent industry in India, OTT has given a platform for creators and writers to explore their skills, and the exposure to international content made them pull their socks up,” said Vikrant Massey, adding that in the last two years of pandemic the platform presented a tremendous opportunity to explore newer avenues.

    Ali Fazal said that with the amount of diverse OTT content available today on the varied players, the competition is spiking, with each show at the risk of being just one button away from rejection. “The relatable and realistic content on these streaming platforms showed that writers are the real stars today. With films still trying to get out of formula-based structure, that’s where OTT gets a little freedom. By pushing the bar and breaking the rhythm. Tell stories as fearlessly as we can within the framework,” said Fazal.

    Upon being asked if there is a sense of competition among the two media, Fazal stated, “Cinema must not die. Film watching is community watching. Every person in the industry comes with the dream to be a part of movies and this dream always remains. Idea of OTT is just to be able to tell more stories, follow newer narratives.”

    On whether OTT can cater to family audiences like cinema and TV, Gautam Talwar said, “OTT content is for personal watching. 95 per cent of people watch on their personal phones. Only the elite or urban audiences perhaps will have access to chromecast and connected television sets supporting the platforms, adding that these are not necessarily the target audience of players such as MX always. Family viewing is far away for OTT or may never happen as there are less percentage of people who would want to sit with family and watch the online streaming content.”

    He further summed it up by saying, “India or Bharat is a time rich and money poor country and that is what we consider while targeting.”

    “Freedom cannot be absolute and like in other mediums, with Freedom comes responsibility,” the panelists agreed. “What OTT has managed to do is democratise storytelling. It’s a genre of storytelling that’s not been available to audiences ever.”

    The panelists also weighed in upon the changed prototype of the ‘likeable hero/heroine’ brought on by the OTTs. “Every content is essentially an extension of the world and times we are living in,” said Fazal. “We want people who are relatable and accessible on screen, characters whom viewers can relate with- not a demi-god to worship or characters in black and white.”

    On the concern that less than 10 per cent of the viewers on the Online streaming sites have subscribed for consumption, Talwar admitted it’s going to be a tough battle towards monetising the content, as Indians inherently don’t believe in paying for content.  That’s also the reason why piracy remains a big issue in the country.

    “The reach to mass India is one of the greatest advantages for OTT players like MX player,” said Talvar. “There is no appointment viewing, and most viewers on OTT watch as per individual convenience. The OTT ecosystem is a melting pot of all the three platforms of films, advertising and television with both short and long form content,” he added.

  • Dina D’Souza joins MX Player as senior vice president direct and OTT AVOD

    Dina D’Souza joins MX Player as senior vice president direct and OTT AVOD

    Mumbai: Times Internet owned MX Player has appointed Dina D’Souza as senior vice president of direct and OTT (AVOD) business, according to her LinkedIn profile.

    MX Player is one of the largest AVOD OTT platforms in the country with a base of 300 million monthly active users.

    “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as senior vice president at MX Player! I will be driving the Direct and the OTT AVOD business for the organisation, in this new role,” said D’souza in the post.

    D’Souza’s previous assignment was short video platform Trell as vice president and head of the monetisation. She was associated with Flipkart as director of the monetisation and before that was with advertising platform Pokkt as vice president of sales.

    She has over 22 years of experience in sales and marketing across organisations such as 9XM Media, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Bennett Coleman and Co.

    D’Souza has widespread experience across the media, internet and ad-tech industry and has worked in the revenue function across print, web, mobile, ad-tech and commerce products.

  • How viewer data analytics are shaping operators’ revenue and content strategies

    How viewer data analytics are shaping operators’ revenue and content strategies

    Mumbai: Indiantelevision.com, in partnership with Synamedia, organised a virtual webinar on ‘how analytics shaping operators’ revenues and content strategy?’ on 23 March. The panel discussion was joined by Altbalaji’s Divya Dixit, MX Player’s Viraj Jit Singh, Zee5’s Abhirup Datta, and Synamedia’s Amruta Shankar. Shankar, who is Synamedia’s director of data and analytics, has penned observations of the panelists and highlighted the crux of the discussion.

    During a recent IndianTelevision webinar, I was joined by leading Indian OTT streaming platforms, Altbalaji, MX Player and Zee5 to discuss their wealth of video data, and how it can be leveraged to address their pain points and achieve genuine business-boosting results.

    Bringing together all the digital clues that viewers leave behind when they watch video content across an ever-increasing number of screens is critical to ensuring data caters to the different needs of the organisation. It helps the content rights manager to understand what viewers want to watch, or the marketing director to realise when and how they want to watch content. The product manager can use data to ensure that the content is searchable and keeps viewers engaged.

    “Our entire business and growth are based on data,” said MX Player’s senior vice president and head of revenue Viraj Jit Singh.

    For streaming providers and operators, the content remains king, but data is the jewel in their crown. A source of priceless insights from across the video ecosystem, data can help to drive viewer engagement, reduce churn, slash operational costs and grow revenue.

    On-demand content is driving a lot of today’s consumption, and so to keep pace with changing viewing habits, “you have to be platform-agnostic,’’ remarked Altbalaji senior vice president of marketing, partnerships and revenue Divya Dixit. Whilst content ‘snacking’ on small screen devices is growing in prevalence, particularly through social platforms like TikTok, the lure of long-form content on the big screen in the living room continues to endure.

    ALSO READ | ‘Lock Upp’ is ALTBalaji’s ‘KBC moment’ as it forays into AVOD: Divya Dixit

    With data underpinning all the big decisions, including monetisation and advertising, all the panelists agreed that getting the tech stack right to cope with all the available data is vital. Equally important is ensuring the data is of sufficient quality to avoid a shifting base, where the numbers simply don’t add up from one month to another.

    Using data for business decisions certainly added up for Altbalaji and MX player’s latest joint venture, a new show called “Lock Upp,” which achieved over 100 million views in less than 20 days.

    Because MX Player is an AVOD platform, Singh emphasises the importance of understanding viewers “to get the right brands to advertise to the relevant audience, which obviously leads to higher efficiencies for advertisers but also better viewing for our subscribers.”

    Zee5 head of AVOD marketing Abhirup Datta agreed and said, “Leveraging data to showcase the right content to the consumer is very important….also using data about the viewing devices and what kind of content they end up watching.”

    Tackling pain points

    Datta shared how data can also help alleviate pain points including how to address ‘guest users’ on Zee5; juggling and balancing the risk of bringing new releases onto the platform at the expense of older consistently performing content; and ensuring an ad is served to the right cohort.

    For Dixit, her greatest headache is understanding why a consumer drops out at the subscription page or in the middle of sampling the first episode. She added, “the helping hand of somebody who can map out where the churn is coming from, and what needs to be done to rectify this, could obviously add a lot of value.”

    Listening to customers and optimising their experience

    For Singh, this is an ongoing process “we work very hard to listen to our consumers and try to over-deliver on their expectations.”

    Datta agreed that “a user’s experience is at the core of everything we do. It is our North star.”

    In business, the customer is always right, but more importantly, the customer’s data never lies. Scrutinising and validating that data objectively, and validating it using a trusted, independent third party has the power to deliver a treasure trove of valuable business insights.

    The last word goes to MX Player’s Singh, “listening to your consumer, understanding that data, and seeing how you can mix it all together and figure out a solution for them is the best metric you can work on today,” he said.

  • GSEAMS hits its stride with a foray into web series

    GSEAMS hits its stride with a foray into web series

    Global Sports Entertainment and Media Solutions (GSEAMS), chiefly involved in film production, started creating content for OTT players beginning with their first project “Samantar” streaming on MX Player from 13 March 2020. The company hit its stride ever since, with a successful run of series on various platforms including “Raktanchal” on MX Player and “Naxalbari” on Zee5. This year, they are yet again collaborating with MX Player on three projects, two of which are successive seasons of their hit franchises. A new web series is also in the pipeline for the OTT platform Voot.

    The company was founded in 2013 by Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar who quit their corporate roles to get into the content business. The duo saw an opportunity to create films for Marathi-speaking audiences, who at the time was only served by two major companies Zee and to some extent Viacom18. In a short span, they produced about 15 Marathi films with hits such as “Mogra Phulaalaa,” “Ranangan,” “Tula Kalnnaar Nahi,” “Bhikari,” “Vicky Velingkar,” “Bonus,” and “Bali” and produced more than 500 episodes of a popular TV show “Nakalat Sare Ghadale” for Marathi general entertainment channel Star Pravah.

    GSEAMS is now involved in the production of films, TV shows, and web series content for various media platforms. Their original Marathi films are available on Amazon Prime Video and the latest film “Bali” was released last year as an Amazon Prime Video Original.

    In his past tenure as a corporate executive, Baran was associated with Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd as West India business head for BIG 92.7 FM. He’s been in the media industry for over two decades, has produced numerous hit films and provides strategic direction at GSEAMS. Nishandar was also at Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd in the role of national head and has a background in marketing. During their tenure in the production business, they have produced three web series, 11 films and nine television shows, becoming prolific showrunners.

    GSEAMS directors Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar talk to IndianTelevision.com about their journey into content production and their foray into the OTT space.

    Edited Excerpts:

    On the inception of GSEAMS

    Arjun: Kartk and I started this company in 2013. We had been professionals working in different media companies. I was a business head and Kartk was head of marketing. GSEAMS started off as a company providing marketing solutions for films and managing talent but we quickly moved into production. Unlike other production houses that first get involved in TV production, we got into film production from the get go and started making Marathi movies. At that time, not many corporate companies were making Marathi films with only major producers being Zee and to some extent Viacom18. That’s when GSEAMS came into the picture.

    We have worked on about 15 Marathi films since 2013 and today half of the Marathi directors either work with us or with Zee. We’ve worked with Swapnil Joshi on many films that appear often on TV channels. We also began purchasing a lot of Marathi films and today we have a bank of 80 films that most of the Marathi channels are airing.

    In time, we realised that we need to move into the OTT space. Any project takes us about two years to develop and we got into the OTT space at the right time in 2019. We got in touch with MX Player and produced “Samantar,” which was a hit with 100 million views.

    Kartk: Now, we’re producing another three shows for MX Player. We’ve done one for Zee5 that is “Naxalbari” and we’re doing a show for Voot.

    Arjun: We started shooting for “Naxalbari” when the whole world was in lockdown. The shooting happened in Goa with 250 people and the cast included Rajeev Khandelwal, Tina Dutta, Shakti Anand, Satyadeep Mishra, Sreejita De. Our main lead Rajeev Khandelwal was staying in Goa at the time. We discovered the entire team from the director, DOP, and artists in Goa and were shooting there with Covid tests and checks. The show began streaming on Zee5 in July 2020.

    Arjun: We are partnering with Voot and Jio Studios for our next web series. The show is called “Rafuchakkar” and it has Maniesh Paul, Priya Bapat and it is directed by Ritam Shrivastava who’s also done “Raktanchal 1” and “Raktanchal 2” for MX Player. It is a story of a con man.

    Kartk: Amazon Prime Video is our partner for Marathi content and hence all the movies that we’ve produced are available on the streaming service. Our latest film “Bali” released in 2021 was a Prime Video Original.

    On the hits produced under GSEAMS banner

    Kartk: Our film “Fugay” released in 2017 starring two superstars of Marathi cinema Swapnil Joshi and Subodh Bhave was well received. We also released a film called “Tula Kalnaar Nahi” in the same year that did well. Another film of ours “Mogra Phulaalaa” released in 2018 cast Swapnil Joshi and Sai Deodhar in the lead and did extremely well with the theatre audience. We made a remake of a South film called “Pichaikkaran” into a Marathi film called “Bhikari” which was released in 2018. The production had a huge scale with ace choreographer Ganesh Acharya as the director.  Our recent release “Bonus” featuring Gashmeer Mahajani and Pooja Sawant in lead roles received 12 nominations from the Maharashtra Times Sanman Awards.

    On their content philosophy

    Arjun: We want to make films that appeal to everybody and have done that by continuously studying what the audience wants and understanding the art and science of production. There are few production houses like ours who are creating content because they know what the audience wants. We’ve had hits and misses like everybody else. But the people who survive in this industry are the ones who continuously work on one project after another. If you wait for something to become a hit then you’ll never become a big company.

    We also thought about ‘how do we do production in a much smarter way’ because the industry is very unorganised. If you go and shoot in Goa, Satara or in the North it’s not compatible for everybody. We are able to manage costs while comfortably completing the entire shooting process. We approach production with the mindset of a corporate company and every project that we do is a little better than the last one. That’s helped us survive over the last nine years. God has been kind.

    When the content is good people will come and watch it. Word of mouth is extremely important. That’s what Kartk and I are looking at ‘how do we create content that will have word of mouth?’

    On the expansion of GSEAMS

    Kartk: Around 2018, we created a writer’s room where we took on close to 10-12 writers. To date, we’ve also blocked around 20 book rights. “Samantar” was a great example for us which showed that a bestselling book will work out as a screenplay. Today, we have a large team of writers working across genres and languages, writing screenplays for production. We also began developing our own content by investing our own money before we approached any platform. We would never wait for the platforms to give us approval for content and that’s why we are managing to produce series back-to-back.

    On content that resonates with digital audience

    Arjun: As filmmakers, everything is 120 minutes long and larger than life stories are told where you shoot in different locations. Television is about telling stories that revolve around characters in a single location.  

    When we look at OTT, you see shows that have done well like “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Mehta Story” to “Samantar.” It is about taking the audience to a particular place or time period and getting it as real as possible. On digital, the audience wants to get immersed in the characters’ lives. In the case of “Samantar” to get it as real as possible we visited 42 different locations and shot in chawls and ‘thanas’ so when you watch the show you get transported to their reality. The basic difference is how real and interesting you make the setting.

    While our strength is in creating Marathi content, recently we’ve been making Hindi content like “Raktanchal” and “Naxalbari.” The setting for these stories is in Maharashtra and Goa so even though the language is Hindi we’re able to depict the cultural nuances.

    Kartk: Every OTT platform has its own audience base. For MX Player, their major markets were in Maharashtra and the Hindi heartland. We study a platform before we create a piece of content. We dive into the culture, say for example a Maharashtrian couple who are staying in a Lalbaugh chawl and how they function. In the end, it is about understanding the dynamics and how the audience relates to the content.

    Recently, a lot of shows based on books have been working in the OTT space. From “Sacred Games” to “Scam 1992,” “Rocket Boys” to “Samantar.” We’re also looking at the biopic space that is becoming popular with digital audiences.

    We’re going to keep creating content that is based in Maharashtra. The show “Raktanchal” was based in the Hindi heartland and did really well. But our core strength is in Maharashtra and we have a dedicated writer’s room that works writing Marathi stories.

    On creating more shows with OTT players

    Kartk: In the two years of Covid, we transitioned heavily towards producing content for OTT platforms and we have kept that process going on. In 2020, we produced two series, followed by three series in 2021 and six shows underway in 2022. Our web division is growing. Films are also coming back. Currently, we’re working with director Vishal Furia of “Chhori” fame who recently created the web series “Forensic” featuring Vikrant Massey and Radhika Apte for Zee5. He’s going to direct the Hindi remake of Prime Video Original film “Bali” in collaboration with a top Bollywood actor. This year we have two theatrical releases, six web series and a major biopic starring a top Bollywood actress.

    We also do a lot of work on TV but only in the form of finite series. We have a finite series in development for a TV channel. Our scope of expertise is in telling finite stories though we produced 500 episodes of a successful show on Star Pravah called “Nakalat Sare Ghadale” which was the Marathi remake of the show “Yeh Hai Mohabbatein.”

    On their business model

    Arjun: When we are producing films the Intellectual Property (IP) always belongs to us. We have put in the investment and are taking the risk. Then we sell the media rights for so many years to various channels or platforms. For our web series, the IP belongs to the platform. Initially, we took the risk and made content because we didn’t want to wait for funds to get started.

    Still, we are continuously buying book rights and investing in screenplays. You start investing in a project on the basis of your faith in the writers and the content. In the content business, out of ten things that you’re working on, only three may go to production. As a production house, you need to keep investing money and pitch to platforms because they expect ideas from you. So, there’s a lot of investment that goes in.

    On the growth of the company and future outlook

    Kartk: We’ve been growing steadily since 2013 at an EBIDTA of 30-35 per cent annually. The biggest growth for our company comes from the IPs that we create. We keep adding new films to our library including ones that we create and acquisitions. If a web series is successful, platforms commission us to do the second and third seasons. Hopefully, we will be able to get to a stage where we create bigger series that are our own IPs like to do with our films and syndicate them to OTT platforms. Developing IP that we own is our ultimate goal.

    Arjun: There are around 300-400 people working for us every year on various projects. Every project has about 250 people working on it. We want to keep creating good content for TV, OTT and theatres which entertain people and give them something to talk about.

  • ‘Lock Upp’ is ALTBalaji’s ‘KBC moment’ as it forays into AVOD: Divya Dixit

    ‘Lock Upp’ is ALTBalaji’s ‘KBC moment’ as it forays into AVOD: Divya Dixit

    Mumbai: With its maiden advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) project “Lock Upp” delivering a stellar performance, Balaji Telefilms’ video streaming service ALTBalaji is currently experiencing its “KBC moment,” as the platform’s SVP of marketing and revenue Divya Dixit tells IndianTelevision.com. Clocking 100 million views within 19 days, and crossing 200 million unique views in 32, it has become one of the most-watched OTT reality shows since launching on ALTBalaji and MX Player.

    “Lock Upp” marks a turning point in ALTBalaji’s journey, as the popular subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service opens up to the world of AVOD. The platform boasts 35 million subscribers, over 10 million MAUs, an engagement metric of 83 minutes per day, and a library of over 91 original shows. Up to 80 per cent of ALTBalaji’s audience is under 35 years of age.

    ALSO READ | Understanding ALTBalaji’s ‘under 35 viewers’ with Divya Dixit

    Having achieved these milestones, AVOD was a natural progression aimed at expanding the audience base, including via cross-sell and up-sell for ALTBalaji. Furthermore, “it adds a layer of advertising revenue over a successful SVOD business,” says Dixit.

    To this end, “Lock Upp” was designed to have an international appeal. Fronted by a controversial host Kangana Ranaut, and featuring equally controversial contestants, the show’s sets, costumes, tasks, and dares, were all planned to keep these objectives and audiences in mind. It will be exported globally from the next season.

    “After achieving tremendous success locally, the objective of creating a format that caters to the international audience is to expand our audience base as well as establish a homegrown exported-to-world IP, and have the freedom to implement new ideas,” states Dixit, adding that, “The strategy worked as the responses that we received have all been quite positive and exceeded the expectations.”

    The platform has registered equal male and female viewership in the 18-34 age group and a high Average Time Spent (ATS) for “Lock Upp.” International traffic on the app has also shot since it started streaming.

    Commenting on the idea behind launching AVOD with a captive reality show instead of other formats which ALTBalaji has seen success with, Dixit tells us that through AVOD the platform wants to ensure that its content also reaches the audiences that are currently still fence-sitters and buy-in OTT as a mainstream entertainment platform. “There had to be momentous propulsion and a valid reach thrust that would launch AVOD for us, and LockUpp with millions of views gave us that thrust,” she remarks.

    ALSO READ | ALTBalaji’s ‘Lock Upp’ garners 15 million views in 48 hours

    Going ahead, ALTBalaji will explore all different formats of entertainment through AVOD to have a prominent presence in the segment as well as to gain further reach. “Much like how we partnered with MX Player for ‘LockUpp,’ we are open to the ideas of other partnerships that will help us market our platform to the masses,” she asserts.

    The ALTBalaji IP “Lock Upp” was created in partnership with MX Player. Owned by MX Media, MX Player is an ad-supported OTT service with over one billion downloads and 280 million monthly active users globally. The reality show is its first attempt at unscripted content.

    “MX Player and ALTBalaji have always had a great business relationship, therefore we collaborated further on the show,” Dixit shares. “With the reach that MX Player enjoys, and with ALTBalaji emerging as a leader when it comes to unique content and marketing strategies, this is a win-win partnership for both platforms.”

    As ALTBalaji gears up for a long-term AVOD play, it has established separate, dedicated teams and plans for both its AVOD and SVOD offerings to ensure that they do not end up competing with each other. “We have had synergies with several platforms and our history shows that we have managed all those ventures very well and very efficiently. Be it SVOD or AVOD, our main focus has always been to provide world-class entertainment for our fans,” concludes Dixit.