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Tag: MX Player

  • ALTBalaji & MX Player’s show ‘Lock Upp’ reaches 100 mn views since its release

    ALTBalaji & MX Player’s show ‘Lock Upp’ reaches 100 mn views since its release

    Mumbai: The unique captive reality show ‘Lock Upp’ by ALTBalaji & MX Player has successfully managed to garner 100 million views within 19 days of its release.

    The show is currently streaming on ALTBalaji and is hosted by actress Kangana Ranaut. To create an exclusive user experience, MX Player & ALTBalaji has introduced two new features: Super Voting/for Loyal and Super Fans and Khabris on the apps. 

    Other features that will soon be introduced on the app are the audience suggestion poll and contestant chat. Additionally, MX Player & ALTBalaji will unveil the highly engaging ‘appeal box’ for a wholesome interactive experience.

    ALTBalaji & MX Games are innovating and providing audiences with a chance to predict and win. Speaking on the new features, MX Media’s CEO Karan Bedi said, “At MX, we are always attempting to entertain our audiences with exciting and unique concepts. Our user-first approach in offering such content has made MX Player India’s largest entertainment platform. Our latest hit reality series, Lock Upp has something for every user.” 

    “We have introduced dynamic interactivity so that they get a chance to get involved with the contestants and increases the likelihood of building a long-term connection with them. To ensure our proposition succeeds, we believe in giving people more of what they love to build compelling connections,” Bedi added.

    “A user who predicts elimination before it starts builds an emotional investment in the outcome and creates their unique personal journey with their favourite contestants on the show. We have lots more in store to create an entertaining real-time engagement for our users,” he said.

    “AT ALTBalaji, the focus is always on introducing content that appeals to the mass audiences. With Lock Upp, an ALTBalaji Production, we have created multiple milestones with massive audience engagement topping the lists across all platforms. Extra-ordinary audience interactivity is a USP that ALTBalaji is looking to innovate even further. On the same lines, we are happy to introduce the concept of super fans where the ‘aam aadmi of India’ will have super-power to decide the fate of the contestant in the show and we will also give a super fan a chance to become a Khabri and intermingle with the contestants. To connect the audiences directly to the show, there is much more in store for everyone to stay engaged,” Czarina Ekta R Kapoor shares. 

    For example, the accurate winning prediction, team captain prediction or an elimination prediction will help users regularly earn points and prizes. This interactivity feature increases the chances of audience involvement in the show and helps them stay connected to their favourite contestants. The results will be announced on the show. 

  • ‘Lock Upp’ garners 15 million views in 48 hours

    ‘Lock Upp’ garners 15 million views in 48 hours

    Mumbai: MX Player and Altbalaji’s new reality show “Lock Upp” has garnered 15 million views within 48 hours of its launch, according to the streaming platform. “This made it the first digital reality show to achieve such a massive opening in its launch week,” said the statement. 

    The show which released on 27 February features Kangana Ranaut as the host and brings together 13 controversial celebrities in a jail for 72 days. 

    The celebrities include Nisha Rawal, Munawar Faruqui, Poonam Pandey, Kaaranvir Bohra, Swami Chakrapani, Siddharth Sharma, Anjali Arora, Babita Phogat, Shivam Sharma, Sara Khan, Payal Rohatgi, Tehseen Poonawalla and Saisha Shinde.

    “While television has run its course on the over hashed sentiment of unity amid differences of opinions, ‘Lock Upp’ is a reality format that is quite the opposite — it pits celebrities and influencers who are known for very strong views on various issues in a hostile environment that has bare minimum amenities. The show has attracted a huge following even amongst international viewers because of its distinct look and feel,” said the statement.

  • BBC Studios inks content deal with MX Player

    BBC Studios inks content deal with MX Player

    Mumbai: BBC Studios has announced a new content deal with MX Player on Thursday. As a part of this alliance, BBC’s award-winning British dramas will be available on MX Player catering to audiences in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan. 

    Popular titles such as “The Watch” and “Critical” will be available on the platform to strengthen its content portfolio, said the statement.

    “BBC Studios has a track record of attracting viewers with a discerning eye for premium content through its powerful storytelling that has the ability to resonate with a global audience,” said BBC Studios’ VP for distribution South Asia Stanley Fernandes. “We are glad to embark on this partnership with MX Player and together, I am confident we will bring our bold British content to more audiences within India and beyond.”

    “Our vision has always been to entertain India, the way India wants,” said MX Player SVP and head – content acquisitions and alliances Mansi Shrivastav. “Adding International shows to our library, dubbed in local Indian languages is our attempt at democratising content for our large and diverse audience base. We’re delighted to partner with BBC Studios that will see their compelling British narratives being added to our rich catalogue of shows and we look forward to expanding this slate further in the near future.”

  • We are second only to YouTube: MX Media’s Karan Bedi

    We are second only to YouTube: MX Media’s Karan Bedi

    Mumbai: Times Internet backed MX Media is expecting to triple its revenue for its advertising video on demand (AVOD) business in the year 2022, according to its CEO Karan Bedi. “We have more than tripled our revenue last year and expect to triple again next year,” he said while speaking about its OTT business.

    In 2021,  MX Media’s OTT platform MX Player successfully scaled to more than one billion downloads and 280 million monthly active users globally. As its user base expands, the platform is effectively monetising its audience base by expanding its video offering. From a client perspective, MX Player is a part of all media plans and comes only second to YouTube in the consideration set for digital video advertising, remarked Bedi.

    Moreover, the company’s brand funded content business was spun off into a separate unit MX Studios. Bedi said, “The core focus of MX Studios is to provide brands another outlet to connect to their consumer. Branded content is something we’ve started to grow as a business and are bullish about it for the next few years. In terms of branded content, we’re second only to YouTube. Since, there’s only us and YouTube who have scale when it comes to AVOD in India, we’re very much a part of every client’s marketing plan.” 

    In February, MX Media sold its short video platform MX Takatak to Indian social media company Sharechat (Mohalla Tech) in a deal estimated at $700 million. Notably, MX Takatak was launched only in July 2020. Now, the company will focus on its long format video offerings including on-demand video and its game streaming offering MX Games.

    On the content front, the platform recently announced the launch of a reality series called ‘Lock Up’ in partnership with Balaji Telefilms. The show, which premiered on the platform on 27 February, is the streaming service’s first foray into unscripted content.

    “We are a data led organisation and were starting to see that our audience was ready for more. We have various partners who have done shows for MX Player and we have a lot of faith in Balaji (Telefilms) and Ekta (Kapoor) as someone who’s reinvented this business many times,” said Bedi.

    The OTT platform offers exclusive content in the form of MX Originals and has launched popular series such as “Campus Diaries,” “Bhaukaal 2” and “Raktanchal 2” this year. Despite being an AVOD platform, several MX Originals span across multiple seasons and garner more than 100 million views on the platform. It recently launched MX VDesi to house its international content acquired from Turkey, Latin America, Korea and Middle East and dubbed in Hindi.

    MX Player has not shied away from direct monetisation, with the launch of its MX Gold feature which allows subscribers to watch videos without any ads whatsoever. “MX Gold is not monetising access to content but rather it allows you to watch content ad free,” explained Bedi.

    “MX Player overall has multiple layers of monetisation. As we go forward, we think there is an opportunity to add on newer monetisation models as we continue to expand our user base. That can be NFTs or other blockchain based currencies. We have said from day one that we are a super entertainment aggregator. Our shows are an important vehicle for taking some of these opportunities and scaling them,” concluded Bedi.

  • All set to create franchises for multiple seasons in 2022: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar

    All set to create franchises for multiple seasons in 2022: MX Player’s Gautam Talwar

    Mumbai: MX Player has had a strong start to 2022 with two of its shows “Campus Diaries” and “Bhaukaal 2” crossing 100 million views metric in a short period of time. The platform is all set to release its third MX Original for the year “Raktanchal 2” and expects the show to perform equally well, with a third season already under production.

    “2021 was a fantastic year for us as we got many back-to-back hits,” says MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar. “The next big thing for the OTT is to create franchises for multiple seasons and we’re going to create some serious franchises this year.”

    Talwar reveals that MX Originals including “Ek Thi Begum,” “Indori Ishq,” “Matsya Kaand,” “Raktanchal” and “Aashram” all have crossed the 100 million views mark and most are in development for multiple seasons. “Aashram” and “Raktanchal” are in development for a third season.

    “The exciting part was how quickly its new shows ‘Campus Diaries’ and ‘Matsya Kaand’ crossed the 100 million mark,” says Talwar. “The time it took for these shows to reach 100 million views was uncomprehendingly fast. ‘Campus Diaries’ achieved those numbers in less than three weeks while ‘Matsya Kaand’ got there in less than four.”

    The platform has found success in the regional OTT piece that several video-on-demand platforms have found difficult to crack. Two of its regional shows “Queen” in Tamil and “Samantar” in Marathi have also achieved 100 million views.

    “‘Queen’ and ‘Samantar’ have crossed those milestones but by attracting audiences in multiple languages, say in Marathi plus Hindi or Tamil plus Hindi. We’re doubling down on these two languages – Tamil and Marathi – since we’ve seen some success and you’ll see a couple of good Marathi shows coming out this year,” says Talwar. The platform has also dubbed “Matsya Kaand” in Punjabi.

    On using the 100 million views metric to evaluate its shows, Talwar says, “In the case of YouTube if the videos garner four million views, then people call it a big hit. But, our shows are much longer so we don’t count 30 seconds of watch time as a view. If YouTube is the biggest video platform available to consumers, then we’re probably the second to have that kind of reach and distribution. Of course, a big advantage for us is distribution and low barrier for entry but if you don’t put out the right piece of content then it won’t work well.”

    According to Talwar, the consumers have also given a thumbs up to the content on the platform. “Nobody will give me the go-ahead to make a second season for a show if season one has not worked well. The fact that we’ve commissioned multiple new seasons of most of our shows (Samantar, Ek Thi Begum, Matsya Kaand, Campus Diaries, Bhaukaal, Raktanchal, Aashram) means that the consumer is coming back to watch it,” he adds.

    Like most OTT platforms MX Player is increasing its content investments for 2022 and is filling the production pipeline of shows until 2024. “There’s no doubt in our mind that the consumer chases good shows and the increasing competition means that we’re definitely doubling down on our investments,” he sums up.

  • MX Player records 4.35 billion minutes of gaming in 2021

    MX Player records 4.35 billion minutes of gaming in 2021

    Mumbai: Users spent a total of 4.35 billion minutes gaming on MX Player in 2021, the media company reported, with an average watch time of 56 minutes per day.

    The online gaming industry has seen an upward trend since 2020 on the back of a mobile first phenomenon driven by the lockdown. MX Player launched games on its platform in February 2020 and hosts over 100 hyper casual games that can be played for free.

    MX Player shared that 3.7 billion gameplays were recorded on its platform in the year 2021 with the highest being 16.1 million in a single day. There are more than 8000 game sessions that are completed on the platform every minute.

    Genres

    Casual, Arcade, Survival, Strategy and Action constituted nearly 71 per cent of the total gameplays on the platform. Among these, “Bubble Blast” was India’s most favourite game with over 336 million gameplays. In “MX City Cricket Battle,” more than 80,000 sixes were hit every hour out of the total number of runs scored by the users. Similarly, more than 57,000 missiles were launched every hour during “Boom Knight” game.

    Cities

    As per the report, Bihar topped the list in terms of gameplays and engagement and non-metro user engagement was 20 per cent higher than the metro user’s engagement. Patna, Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Mumbai were among the top 10 cities that contributed to 66 per cent of the gameplays on the platform.

    Audience

    Nearly 96 per cent playing users were below the age of 35, with 74.3 per cent of them being millennials. And 94 per cent gameplays were from users below the age of 35, with 69.4 per cent of them being millennials. The male to female ratio was 80:20.

  • MX Player, ALTBalaji rope in Kangana Ranaut for new reality show ‘Lock Upp’

    MX Player, ALTBalaji rope in Kangana Ranaut for new reality show ‘Lock Upp’

    Mumbai: MX Player and ALTBalaji have partnered to launch a reality show ‘Lock Upp: Badass Jail, Atyaachari Khel’ with Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut as the host of the show. The show premieres on 27 February.

    Produced by Endemol Shine, the show features 16 celebrities who are put together lock- up for months and stripped of their amenities. The announcement was made at a press conference on Thursday by Ekta R. Kapoor along with MX Media CEO Karan Bedi and actor Kangana Ranaut. Also present were ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan, MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi, and MX Player SVP and head – acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.

    The show will be live-streamed 24X7 on both ALTBalaji and MX Player. ALTBalaji will also introduce a fantasy metaverse game based on the reality show. “I am thrilled and excited to be foraying into OTT with such a unique and brilliant concept,” said Kangana Ranaut. “I want to thank Ekta for always being by my side, she has always been someone I admire and respect a lot. I am glad that she is there with me for my OTT debut as well.”

    “Lock Upp is being launched on a massive scale and has all the elements that make for an entertaining reality show,” said Ekta R. Kapoor. “The concept of the show is brilliant, and I am sure that it will captivate the viewers and set a new standard for reality shows.”

    “MX has always been a market disruptor – our user-first approach to create product and content experiences that appeal to our huge audiences’ segments has made us India’s largest entertainment platform today,” said MX Media CEO Karan Bedi. “Lock Upp is yet another step in disrupting the Indian entertainment ecosystem as it is designed as a digital-first non-fiction offering that will release on a scale that is unprecedented for India.”

    “ALTBalaji is proud to be the first in the world to launch a metaverse game that is based on a reality show,” said ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan. “Gaming enthusiasts around the world can explore this fantastic world that we are creating with elements of blockchain and NFTs.”

    “At the heart of MX Player’s success lies the ‘global Indian’ consumer and we have constantly been working towards creating content as per consumer preferences, especially given the large user base of over 300 million globally spanning across the US, UK, Middle East Southeast Asia and more that we cater to on our platform,” said MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi.

    “MX Player’s content design focuses on building a bouquet of engaging and entertaining offerings for our diverse audience and the biggest pillar of our content creation philosophy is our partnership with content creators and aggregators,” said MX Player SVP and head – content acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.

  • Sci-fi series ‘Detective Boomrah’ streams on MX Player

    Sci-fi series ‘Detective Boomrah’ streams on MX Player

    Mumbai: Produced by Saints Art, the new sci-fi series ‘Detective Boomrah’ is now streaming on MX Player. The release marks the OTT debut of the character of Detective Boomrah which is already popular in the audible and radio formats.

    In the first season comprising three episodes, Detective Boomrah and his partner Sam visit Ropam Haveli in Rajasthan to investigate the case of a man who appeared mysteriously in a locked room and then jumped from the roof to vanish midair.

    The web series presents the audience with a fictional detective character who confronts the paranormal. Apart from being a rare genre, it also has unique references to the rich Indian cultural heritage that is expected to strike a chord with the audience.

    The series has been directed by Sudhanshu Rai, who also plays Detective Boomrah, and produced by Saints Art. The cast includes Raghav Jhingran, Manisha Sharma, Shobhit Sujay, Abhishek Sonpaliya, Priyanka Sarkar and Garima Rai.

    Rai had earlier directed ‘Chaipatti’, a horror comedy already streaming on MX Player.

  • Digital series ‘Matsya Kaand’ crosses 100 million views on MX Player

    Digital series ‘Matsya Kaand’ crosses 100 million views on MX Player

    Mumbai: Digital series “Matsya Kaand” has crossed 100 million views on MX Player within 30 days of its release, the OTT platform said on Wednesday.

    Produced by Banijay Asia, the series stars Ravii Dubey, Ravi Kishan, Piyush Mishra, Zoya Afroz, Madhur Mittal, Rajesh Sharma and Naved Aslam amongst others and is directed by Ajay Bhuyan. The series has been well received with a 9.4 out of 10 rating on IMDb.

    “We are amidst a content revolution where we are witnessing refreshing, experimental content taking the front seat with the audience all over the world,” said Banijay Asia founder and CEO Deepak Dhar. “At Banijay Asia, we thrive on presenting narratives that resonate with the cultural milieu and we look forward to following the same route with accelerated zeal and efforts in our forthcoming presentations.”

    “We are thrilled to have witnessed such a fantastic response from audiences for Matsya Kaand,” said MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar. “While the show crossed a 100 million views mark within a month, we are still seeing new viewers joining the Matsya Club each day.”

    “Matsya Kaand has truly changed the trajectory of my career. It challenged me as an actor and made me physically mentally and spiritually align with this craft like never before,” said actor Ravii Dubey. “Receiving positive reviews of the show re-affirmed that all the hard work we’ve put in as a team has paid off.”

  • MX Player appoints Suresh Menon as content and creative head, MX Studios

    MX Player appoints Suresh Menon as content and creative head, MX Studios

    Mumbai: MX Player has appointed Suresh Menon as content and creative head of MX Studios.

    Menon is an actor-comedian who has worked in the Indian film industry and featured in more than 50 films in his career and over 100 TV shows. Previously, he was the co-founder and managing director of the digital media company One Network Entertainment. He is also well-known for his 12-year stint at 93.5 RED FM as a radio jockey.

    “I have been a part of the media and entertainment fraternity for close to two decades and I have had a vast experience in scripting, ideating and storytelling across formats like theatre, television, films, and web series. I am excited to bring these strengths to my new role as the content and creative head for MX Studios,” said Suresh Menon.

    Menon’s notable appearances include his roles in the films “Houseful,” “Dasvidaniya,” “Phir Hera Pheri,” “Dil Toh Pagal Hai,” “Partner,” and “Bheja Fry 2.” He has also appeared as a judge on the game show “Hello Kaun? Pehchaan Kaun” along with Chunky Pandey.

    “We are delighted to announce the launch of MX Studios that will curate and produce scripted narratives in an entertaining fashion & we are excited to have Suresh Menon on board,” stated MX Media chief operating officer Nikhil Gandhi. “Having demonstrated a history of working across different entertainment media as well as running his own content production business, we believe he is the perfect addition to the team at MX Studios.”