MUMBAI: ‘Narcos: Mexico’ stars Michael Peña and Diego Luna, and showrunner Eric Newman walked the red carpet at the Netflix-hosted special screening on 12 November, 2018, at the Taj Lands End, Bandra.
The event also saw several Bollywood celebrities, influencers and super-fans like Manav Kaul, Shruti Seth, Shakun Batra, Gaurav Kapur, Roshan Abbas, Masumeh Makhija and Karan Talwar, among others, join the 'Narcos: Mexico' fun.
MUMBAI: Netflix has a new market threat – the upcoming streaming service Disney+. Despite all the market speculation, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings seems calm and relaxed. Hastings has said in an interaction with ET Now that he is excited about Disney’ launch and even praised it saying that the service looks good. He also mentioned that the service is thriving already in a highly competitive space amid HBO, YouTube, Hotstar, Amazon and linear TV.
In terms of the Indian market, where the company is looking for the next 100 million subscribers, Hastings thinks they have been very successful in three years. After a free trial of one month, Netflix charges Rs 500 per month, which Hastings thinks is totally worthy for the high quality content the service offers as people in India pay Rs 200-250 ticket for one movie. He admits that there are free services like YouTube and cheaper options like Hotstar and Amazon but the Netflix boss is confident about his content.
While Hastings does not deny the fact that with the current pricing it’s tough to penetrate mass audience, he thinks it is good enough for the first 100 million. For the first segment of target audience, Netflix is really focused on the fragment that watches English entertainment. Later on, the company will explore Hindi and other regional languages after getting into that market properly. He also said Netflix will have more pricing options in future but not for the next couple of years.
“You know, we are the only one in the world with Sacred Games, House of Cards, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. So, all our content is exclusive and if we can build excitement around our content which is a unique proposition, then we will have great success. When you subscribe to Netflix, it’s not the only thing you do, you may use YouTube, Hotstar, other entertainment apps, so it’s one of the things that makes you happy,” Hastings commented.
After Netflix’s Q3 results, there were reports that Netflix may slightly tilt its strategy when it comes to original movie release. There may be a number of Netflix originals which will have limited theatre screening. While asked about that, Hastings said it already releases movies in film festivals and the OTT is only an extension of that.
As many investors are betting hard on Netflix, the CEO was asked about the reason. Taking the example of India where online content is exploding after Jio’s entry, he said that it is happening everywhere else in the world. People are using more internet thanks to low cost data which is really propelling the growth of services like Netflix.
MUMBAI: The Narcos: Mexico team – Actors Michael Peña and Diego Luna along with showrunner Eric Newman – met actor Alia Bhatt and director Shakun Batra for a first of its kind panel discussion ahead of the release of the latest season of the series.
In a fascinating and candid interaction, the talent discussed the future of the series, the premise of the new season with the drug cartel location moving to Mexico, what went into putting together the series and bringing the characters to life. Alia and Shakun then discussed all the exciting experiences that the talent had during their visit to India. Alia ran a fun rapid fire round with showrunner Eric Newman where she asked him about his favorite scene ever from the series! The show launches on the 16th of November on Netflix. And as Alia and Shakun said, “Nos vamos a volver locos si tenemos que esperar mas!” (We are going to go crazy if we have to wait any longer)
MUMBAI: Michael Peña and Diego Luna, starring in the Netflix Original series ‘Narcos: Mexico’, along with showrunner Eric Newman, landed in Mumbai on Saturday night and have been busy exploring the maximum city!
They have had a busy time with exploring the local food pallet of the city which included coconut water in the by lanes of Matunga, meals at The Bombay Canteen and Trishna, exploring the rich Mumbai cultural explosion through the streets in the Kala Ghoda, Fort and Colaba. They visited the iconic Taj Mahal Palace to marvel at the magnanimous Gateway of India, while enjoying a piping hot glass of the famous Mumbai cutting chai.
To welcome the stars in Mumbai, Netflix hosted them at Olive Bar and Kitchen in Bandra for an intimate Sunday evening attended by several Indian film makers including Zoya Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Vishal Bharadwaj, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Abhishek Chaubey, Anvita Dutt, Raja Menon, Anand Tiwari, Leena Yadav and Reema Kagti, and the team from Sacred Games – Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane, directors Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan and writer Varun Grover.
MUMBAI: Denying market buzz about Netflix’s plan to introduce cheaper subscription plans in India, the streaming video giant’s CEO Reed Hastings said that an executive’s comments suggesting otherwise had been “misunderstood.”
Hastings in an interview with Reuters noted that the OTT platform had three price tiers in India: Rs 500 ($6.90) for a basic plan, Rs 650 ($9.00) for a standard plan and Rs 800 ($11) for premium. Compared to the amount Netflix charges in the US, these prices are only modestly lower.
“We see the typical mix across these three plans (in India) that we see in many other countries like the US, which would indicate that we don’t have a pricing issue. Because if it was, everyone would be on the lower price plan,” he said.
After posting Q3 result in October, chief product officer Greg Peters said in an earnings call, “We’ll experiment with other pricing models, not only for India, but around the world that will allow us to broaden access by providing a pricing tier that sits below our current lowest tier.” This comment was widely perceived as an indication of the company’s plan to introduce lower pricing.
“It got misunderstood as a decision that we are going to have lower prices in India, which is not something we are particularly contemplating,” Hastings said against this backdrop.
However, Netflix boss did not deny that it’s not easy to penetrate a billion household with this subscription rate in Indian economy. Rather focusing on English-language, English-entertainment households will help to have a higher income. According to him, the high-end focus is “a practical, realistic” place to start and eventually targeting a broader audience.
Hastings said Netflix could still thrive although Netflix has competitors in India including YouTube, Hotstar, Amazon who offer cheaper options for the audience. As YouTube is free, and Amazon is cheaper and cable is extremely inexpensive, that creates a consumer expectation. But Netflix boss added that the cost of Netflix in India was “like going to the movie theatre 2-3 tickets a month, but you get to watch a lot more.”
While Netflix currently has more than 130 million subscribers worldwide, Hastings has said the India market could deliver the next 100 million subscribers.
MUMBAI: Netflix concluded its inaugural content event in Asia, “See What’s Next: Asia” with a celebration of the company’s rapidly growing diverse content slate in India. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos joined performers and creators from India to announce eight original films and a new original series. The showcase also included updates on four Indian original series that were previously announced.
“We celebrate India today with an incredible line-up of original films and series that are right now filming across India. This line-up cuts across genres from horror to fantasy and in locations from Leh to Mumbai. The breadth of stories with its local settings and complex characters is incredible and we can’t wait for people to discover and fall in love with them,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix.
The “Celebrating India” session at the event saw media and influencers from 11 countries across Asia witness the breadth and depth of Netflix Indian Originals. The updates on four original series include:
· A trailer for Rajma Chawal, a humorous family drama set in Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, which is set to release globally on Netflix on November 30, 2018. Rishi Kapoor, Amyra Dastur, Aparshakti Khurana and Anirudh Tanwar act in the film, directed by Leena Yadav. [Link to trailer here]
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/rajmachawal in your coverage.
· A teaser trailer for Selection Day, a series based on Aravind Adiga's book of the same name. Produced by Anil Kapoor Film Company and Seven Stories Ltd, Selection Day is a coming-of-age drama about two brothers who are raised by their strict, obsessive father to be star cricket players. [Link to trailer here]
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/selectionday in your coverage.
· The cast of upcoming series Baahubali: Before the Beginning, with Mrunal Thakur as Sivagami, Rahul Bose as Skandadasa, Atul Kulkarni, Vaquar Shaikh, Jameel Khan, Siddharth Arora and Anup Soni.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/baahubali in your coverage.
· The cast of Leila, a dystopian fiction series produced by Deepa Mehta, including Huma Qureshi in the title role and Siddharth Suryanarayan.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/leila in your coverage.
Netflix rounded off these updates with the announcement of a new original series:
Typewriter is about a haunted house and a haunted book that stir the imagination of a group of young, wannabe ghost hunters, and a dog, determined to capture the ghost that plagues the notorious home in their neighbourhood in Goa. When a new family and their captivating daughter move into the haunted home, the crew finds it difficult to balance the demands of school and chores with the renewed urgency to capture the neighbourhood ghost before it is too late.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/typewriter in your coverage.
Underlining its investment in original films in India, Netflix unveiled eight new original Indian films spanning genres and involving the best of established and new Indian talent:
Chopsticks is about an under-confident but talented girl, sidestepped at every stage of her life, who seeks out an enigmatic con to help recover her stolen car from a goat-loving, crazy Mumbai gangster. In the process, she finds her confidence and place in the sun. Along with Mithila Palkar who won hearts in Netflix series Little Things 02, Abhay Deol and Vijay Raaz will act in the film. Chopsticks is produced by Ashvini Yardi of Vineyard Productions and directed by Sachin Yardi.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/chopsticks in your coverage.
Bulbul, produced by Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Sharma’s Clean Slate Films, is a period piece set in a vibrant atmosphere amidst age-old beliefs and superstitions. Satya and his brother’s child bride, Bulbul, were inseparable until he was sent to England for his education. On his return, he finds Bulbul has been abandoned by his brother and now lives a solitary existence as the enigmatic lady-of-the-palace, dedicating herself to the welfare of the people. But their ancestral village is plagued by mysterious deaths and stories of a haunting by a woman who lives in the trees. Satya must find the truth behind the lore and save his village from the evil “chudail with the inverted feet”.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/bulbul in your coverage.
Upstarts is a bromance about three college graduates from small-town India, captivated by the startup mania sweeping the country. As they enter the rollercoaster startup ecosystem of big dreams, big money and bigger sharks, they are faced with a big choice – their dreams, or their friendship. Directed by Udai Singh Pawar, Upstarts is produced by Raja Menon, Janani Ravichandran and Jawahar Sharma of Bandra West Productions. This film is supported by real-life heroes from the startup world in Bengaluru.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/upstarts in your coverage.
Cobalt Blue, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, is the story of a brother and sister who fall in love with the same man, and how a traditional Marathi family is shattered by the ensuing events. This story brings out the pain and the beauty of forbidden love, and is written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/cobaltblue in your coverage.
15th August, produced by Madhuri Dixit, is set in a Mumbai chawl, and follows the course of a single day as its residents prepare for the flag-hoisting ceremony. This Marathi film is about the struggles of middle-class India and in a soaring climax, it is about how love sets us free.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/15august in your coverage.
Music Teacher, directed by Sarthak Dasgupta, is a story about an emotionally troubled music teacher, essayed by Manav Kaul, who gets a chance to come to terms with his bitterness with an estranged student, now a renowned celebrity singer of Bollywood. The music teacher vows to get back everything he lost in the past risking all his achievements in the present day.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/musicteacher in your coverage.
Hotel Mumbai tells the astonishing true story of the victims and survivors of the devastating attacks on Mumbai in 2008. The film directed by Anthony Maras stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Jason Isaacs. This film is available on Netflix in the SAARC region only.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/hotelmumbai in your coverage.
Firebrand, directed by Aruna Raje and produced by Priyanka Chopra, Firebrand is a Marathi Film that follows a successful lawyer, a sexual assault victim played by Usha Jadhav, as she tackles difficult family cases while also dealing with intimacy issues in her own marriage. Girish Kulkarni essays the role of her husband Madhav Patkar, an architect by profession. Sachin Khedekar and Rajeshwari Sachdev play a couple in the movie which is high on drama.
We kindly ask that you link www.netflix.com/firebrand in your coverage.
MALTA: The international leg of the International Radio Festival 2018 (IRF 2018) kicked off in a grand style in the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2018 – Valletta, the capital city of the island nation of Malta, yesterday evening (31 October 2018). The Maltese Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi opened IRF 2018 officially for international participants. Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) CEO Gavin Gulia was the other notable VIP from Malta present. About 150 Radio professionals from across the world and Malta and Italy along with 30 registrations participated in the event. Among the radio professionals was the winner of the Sound of India contest RJ Devaki.
“There will be 100 million listeners of IRF 2018,” said IRF founder and festival director Darryl von Daniken while inviting Mizzi to open IRF 2018.
“This is really a celebration of wonderful channels coming together here and broadcasting from Malta,” said Mizzi after thanking all the IRF participants for coming to Malta. “I’m delighted to welcome you all to the city of Valletta, the city of culture. Malta has been changing over the last few years. We’re welcoming nearly 2 million tourists every year and another 800,000 come by cruise liners. We’ve changed from becoming to resort to a city destination. We pride ourselves in having good cuisine, lovely beautiful shows, good parties and good music. Malta is a cosmopolitan place which welcomes business, tourists and welcomes people to come and work here.”
Speaking with www.indiantelevision.com senior editor Tarachand Wanvari, Mizzi said, “Malta has developed its tourism industry since independence in1964. Now we must have a diversified economy. We have changed from being a resort destination to more of a leisure destination. People come here for 5-6 days, where they can enjoy history, culture and also have fun. We’re trying to create festivals for people of all ages. So we have young festivals like Isle of MTV, but we also have initiative for older generations where festivals such as this (IRF) will bring people together and radio stations from all over the world to discuss a non-controversial topic like radio and music and have fun. We want to be a place where people meet, feel at home, more as a cosmopolitan nation, becoming a cosmopolitan city and we want to act as a gateway to the Mediterranean.”
Speaking about benefits for the media and entertainment industry, Mizzi explained, “Malta has amazing facilities. We have the film studio with the largest water tanks in the world where large movies have been filmed and amazing outdoor areas and 200 days of sunshine. That is the reason why films like Gladiator and Troy have been filmed here. More recently, we are also attracting Bollywood Movies. Also, the tax incentives and cash rebate system incentivise productions to be done in Malta. We have a 26 per cent cash rebate. As of next January, that cash rebate is going to increase to 40 per cent which will make it the most competitive cash rebate for producers from around the world.”
“We encourage producers to make more content in Malta. The supply chain is amazing, props are available. If they want costumes, equipment for making films, they are available here. We would also encourage companies to set up their own productions companies for individual movies in Malta.”
Mizzi confirmed that the cash incentives would also apply to television companies for television shows. “They will get the same incentives and cash benefits as films. We support television series, especially now, with the advent of Netflix and online content. We support that,” he said.
During an impromptu on-air in India mini interview with Devaki, Mizzi’s message to India was, “Come to Malta, you will feel welcome here. It’s an amazing place that has also Indian culture. There’s an Indian community here. At the same time, I am also encouraging people from here to visit the beautiful Mumbai, Delhi, to visit Rajasthan and Udaipur and all the wonderful places around India.”
The minister said that sequences of two Indian movies – Bharat and Thugs of India were shot in Malta. Besides having met Bollywood star Salman Khan (with and without his shirt on) during his production of Bharat, the minister informed that Bollywood diva Vidya Balan would be visiting his country soon. The first edition of the Malta India awards that would alternate between Malta and Mumbai in India would happen in Malta in December this year Mizzi informed further.
MUMBAI: It’s not unusual for streaming giant Netflix to create market buzz with newly launched originals. But since the beginning of this year, the platform has stimulated excitement by reviving a dying genre – romantic comedy which was once an integral part of Hollywood’s yearly box-office strategy went through slow death after mid 2000s. Set it Up, Kissing Booth stirred the wheel in first half of 2018 and the Netflix original rom coms followed by these two indicated the platform’s less-hyped treasure. Now, after Q3 earnings, it has validated the notion. At least one of its “Summer of Love” rom-com has been watched by more than 80 million of its subscribers from around the world over the past few months.
From the late 1990s to mid 2000s, rom coms had been worth a fortune for producers. Few of the popular ones even cracked and topped $100 million at box office. Unfortunately, the fall began around 2012-13 and the movies from this genre gradually disappeared from top box office performers. The audience stopped watching and major studios stopped making mid-budget movies.
With the emergence of streaming platforms, the traditional way of watching movies has also changed. Thanks to the change, the genre has found a new home outside of the theatre. As part of its “Summer of Love” original movies, Netflix released Set It Up, The Kissing Booth, Like Father, Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. While the first one has ignited the reputation of Netflix as the “saviour of the genre”, the platform has singled out the last one of its “most viewed original films ever with strong repeat viewing”.
Considerably, in most of the rom-coms from the platform there are no star casts and mostly fresh faces. As most of the once popular rom-com stars got too reluctant to work for the genre, it also became harder for studios to pull the audience to theatres. But, this problem does not trouble the streaming giant owing to its loyal subscribers who don’t yearn for a star-studded cast.
Although the streaming giant is blamed for increasing the production cost in Hollywood, the rom-com movies can be made at comparatively moderate budgets. The inexpensive, easy to produce movies will also help to increase its movie library which has been often described as dull compared to other streaming platforms. Among the craziness of spectacle action, sequels, sci-fis, this is an easy stint to provide viewers to enjoy something different.
Rom-coms are also perfectly suited for “Netflix and chill” in the comfort of home with minimum engagement, short time span to finish a story. However, from all the plot lines of major hits of this genre, it seems to target young audience for whom OTT platforms are the primary source of entertainment.
“As part of our Summer of Love and building on the success of Set It Up and The Kissing Booth, we released original films Like Father (starring Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer in a daughter-father dramedy), Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (starring Stranger Things’ Barb, Shannon Purser) and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which is one of our most viewed original films ever with strong repeat viewing. More than 80 million accounts have watched one or more of the Summer of Love films globally and we are already in production for the next set of original rom-coms for our members,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders after Q3 earnings.
Though Netflix does not share exact viewership numbers ever, a Netflix executive from the company said they were able to see that people around the world had been watching a lot of rom-coms in their catalogue according to a media report. Hence as people enjoyed the genre and there were very few players, the streaming giant utilised the chance properly. Moreover, with the 80 million statistics, Netflix has proved global audience still love to watch classic romances.
At a time when Netflix is targeting the Indian market widely, its movie catalogue has two Indian romantic films. After releasing Love Per Square Foot, the original rom-com, they added Kuch Bheege Alfaz produced by Yoodle Films later in the library. Both the films worked well and created high social media buzz. The “Summer of Love” was not only about few months, it is very clear that Netflix has committed to its new found treasure for the long term.
MUMBAI: American media services provider, Netflix, is planning to raise an additional $2 billion through bond offering. Netflix will borrow the amount in order to pay for the exclusive series and movies that its management credits for helping its video streaming service.
With the 2013 release of House of Cards, the company expanded into original programming and since then the company has been spending more money than its business generates.
According to AP, Netflix is expected to burn through $3 billion this year. The additional $2 billion will be raised through bond offering which will be lopped onto its existing debt of $11.8 billion. That also includes another $1.9 billion debt offering that Netflix completed earlier this year.
Since September 2013, Netflix has witnessed a growth of nearly 100 million subscribers. 7 million subscribers joined Netflix in the past quarter. By the end of this year, the company foresees to add another 9.4 million subscribers.
Netflix has been the clear favourite of investors as they have been betting on the company to win. The world’s leading subscription service company’s stock is worth seven times more than it was five years ago, giving the company a current market value of $146 billion.
MUMBAI: The world’s largest over-the-top (OTT) player, Netflix, makes up 15 per cent of the total downstream volume of traffic across the entire internet, according to The Global Internet Phenomena reports by Sandvine released in October 2018. The reports customer base represents over 150 T1 and T2 global network operators and the solutions touch over 2.1 billion internet subscribers worldwide which does not include significant data from either China or India.
This edition combines fixed and mobile data into a single comprehensive view of internet traffic across all network types.
Video is still dominant with almost 58 per cent of overall downstream traffic, despite operators more aggressively managing video traffic. The reports from previous years highlighted that Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and BitTorrent were the biggest historical traffic sources. All of the applications are still big players, but the internet landscape has significantly diversified; regional variations are showing up throughout this report. A conservative estimate of the data shows that over 50 per cent of the traffic on the internet is encrypted and the adoption of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 has grown (showing a shift to a more secure protocol than Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
The global application category traffic share have video streaming, web and gaming on top application type on the internet. As web and video traffic dominate, Netflix is the top video site in the world.
Sandvine CEO Lyn Cantor said, “The foundation of our business model is being ‘the best’ telco network data analytics company with use cases that help our customers understand, optimise and manage subscriber quality of experience (QoE).”
Amazon Prime service has been a huge market success according to the report, and Prime Video has been increasing its footprint not only in the US, but is now available in 200 countries worldwide and is increasing its share of global traffic.
YouTube is at the third position when it comes to global application traffic share and still the dominant video streaming application consumed on mobile. Netflix takes the lead due to sheer volume in fixed networks as well as higher resolution videos being the norm. YouTube benefits from being the most commonly “embedded video on other sites, including Facebook.
Sandvine VP marketing Cam Cullen said, “With the attention of both consumers and network operators focused on network quality, it is more important than ever for operators to understand how their bandwidth is being consumed.”