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  • Sony Pictures Networks India acquires exclusive broadcast rights of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

    Sony Pictures Networks India acquires exclusive broadcast rights of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

    Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired the exclusive TV and digital rights for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The 22nd iteration of the multi-sporting event will take place between 28 July and 8 August, 2022. The deal provides SPN with exclusive rights to broadcast the games in India and the subcontinent, including countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives, and will also be available to livestream on its premium OTT platform, SonyLIV.

    The quadrennial event will witness participation from 72 nations and will feature 19 sports along with eight para-sports across 11 days of the event. Competitions will be facilitated across athletics, badminton, swimming, basketball, boxing, wrestling, hockey, judo, and others. The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will witness sports like basketball, 3×3, wheelchair basketball, 3×3, beach volleyball, and para table tennis. Additionally, to promote women’s cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Birmingham Organising Committee announced the inclusion of women’s cricket in the T20 format. The ICC has fully sanctioned the Birmingham 2022 competition.

    Over the past two decades, India has seen a steady growth in the medal tally at the Commonwealth Games, with the Indian contingent marking the 2010 Commonwealth Games as their most successful campaign with 101 medals. India’s next feat arrived when the nation secured the third position on the points table at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where they showcased their best-ever performance as a non-host nation with a 66-medal haul.

    Sony Pictures Networks India chief revenue officer, distribution & head – sports business Rajesh Kaul said, “The acquisition of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ media rights is a proud moment for us, as our nation will get to watch the country’s biggest sporting heroes reach new milestones of success on our network.  After the record-breaking Olympic Games, our journey will now move ahead with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and we are certain that our Indian contingent will win big. The 2022 edition of the games is of great significance to Indian viewers as women’s cricket makes its debut at the quadrennial event in the T20 format and will see India’s finest women cricketers representing team India. “

    Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships CEO David Leather added, “We are delighted that Sony Pictures Networks India will exclusively broadcast the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games across the country. India’s top athletes will be competing in Birmingham 2022, including the likes of Neeraj Chopra and Harmanpreet Kaur, so it is fantastic that Sony will be taking world-class sport into the homes of millions of people across the country.”

    “This partnership is particularly important because India is the largest and most populous country in the Commonwealth and a real leader across the Commonwealth Sport Movement. This deal represents a huge vote of confidence in Birmingham 2022 and the future direction of the Commonwealth Sport Movement, so we are pleased to be working together on this exciting venture,” he said.

    The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will be available on Sony SIX, Sony TEN1, Sony TEN2, Sony TEN3, and Sony TEN4 channels starting from 28 July, 2022 at 11:30 p.m.

  • Netflix’s to showcase its global fan event Tudum on 24 September

    Netflix’s to showcase its global fan event Tudum on 24 September

    Mumbai: OTT platform Netflix has announced that its global virtual event Tudum is back. The event that it said garnered over 25 million views from Netflix fans in 184 countries around the world last year is returning on 24 September 2022 with five global events in 24 hours. At 11 a.m IST (10:30 p.m PT 23 September), fans will be treated to a fun look at what’s ahead from India.

    On 24 September, Tudum will span four continents with five events, taking fans on a trip around the world. The day will have exclusive news, never-before-seen footage, trailers, and first looks, as well as interviews with Netflix’s biggest stars and creators. The free virtual event is a celebration of Netflix fandom and is dedicated to sharing the scoop on over 100 fan favourite shows, films and specials from across the globe.

    At 11:00 a.m KST (7:00 p.m. PT September 23), Tudum kicks off with a show out of Korea. At 10 a.m PT, fans will get exclusive news from shows and movies coming out of the US and Europe, as well as an additional event which previews the great entertainment coming from Latin America.

    Finally at 1 p.m. JST 25 September (9 p.m. PT September 24), stars from Japan will close out Tudum with a celebration of  Japanese entertainment.

    Tudum is a Netflix Global Fan Event that will be available across Netflix YouTube channels in a number of different languages. 

  • David Beckham’s documentary series coming soon, and Netflix to produce it

    David Beckham’s documentary series coming soon, and Netflix to produce it

    Mumbai: OTT platform Netflix is in the production of a documentary series about global football star David Beckham. The multi-part series will go beyond the shine of stardom to explore Beckham’s humble working-class beginnings in East London, and the drive & determination that led him to become one of the most recognisable and scrutinised athletes of all time.
     
    It will feature a mixture of never-before-seen personal archive footage from the last 40 years and interviews with David Beckham, his family and friends, and key figures who have been part of his journey both on and off the pitch.
     
    The project is helmed by Academy Award-winner Fisher Stevens (PALMER, And We Go Green, The Cove) who serves as director and executive producer, along with Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning producer John Battsek (One Day in September, Searching for Sugar Man, Winter on Fire).
     
    The production companies are Studio 99 in association with Ventureland.

  • Eros Now announces partnership with Fetch TV; expands in Australia

    Eros Now announces partnership with Fetch TV; expands in Australia

    Mumbai: South Asian OTT platform Eros Now owned by Eros Media World (a global entertainment company) on has announced that Eros Now has expanded its presence in Australia through a partnership with the leading Australian content aggregation platform Fetch TV. Fetch viewers will now have access to Eros Now’s rich content library across multiple languages & genres. 

    The collaboration is in line with Eros Now’s strategy to focus on growing direct-to-consumer relationships while strengthening and expanding key distribution partnerships.  This new distribution partnership with Fetch TV provides over 6,30,000 active Fetch subscribers with access to Eros Now’s rich content of over 12,000 Indian movies, originals, music, short-form content, and more across several languages and genres.

    Eros Now CEO Ali Hussein said, “Streaming platforms are gaining popularity worldwide and have emerged as a key driver for multilingual content across a wider audience segment. Fetch TV has been a leading aggregator of streaming services and other entertainment content in the Australian market for over 10 years. This collaboration will certainly help us enhance our horizons in terms of international audience and their preferences, and further strengthen our offering.”

    India enjoys a strong connection with Australia generated through its shared colonial history, growing Indian diaspora in the region, Bollywood, cricket, and tourism. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, with over two per cent increase, Indians comprise the third largest population base in Australia. Additionally, Australia is among the most popular destinations for Indian students. With a good mix of young, old, and native South Asian population base, demand for Indian content has surged across the continent.

    Commenting on the collaboration, Fetch TV chief content and commercial officer Sam Hall said, “We are witnessing a huge demand for streaming services amongst our customers and have observed a shift in demand for multilingual content from traditional linear channels to streaming. We are thrilled to collaborate with a South Asian streaming leader like Eros Now to offer existing and future Fetch subscribers’ access to popular and high-quality South Asian content.”

    Fetch combines free-to-air TV channels, catch-up, premium linear channels, streaming apps, and movies all in one place. It offers an intuitive user experience (UX) and universal voice search to make it easy for users to find and view content. First time users of Eros Now will have access to a one month free trial on Fetch, allowing them to enjoy Eros Now’s premium content such as “Ram Leela,” “Go Goa Gone,” “Padmavaat,” “Manmarziyan,” “Tanu Weds Manu Returns,” “Raanjhana” and more.

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  • Synamedia acquires live video streaming specialist Quortex to accelerate its SaaS offerings

    Synamedia acquires live video streaming specialist Quortex to accelerate its SaaS offerings

    Mumbai: An independent video software provider Synamedia on Tuesday announced the acquisition of the privately-held provider of a leading cloud video delivery platform Quortex, optimised for just-in-time processing of live video streaming.

    With this acquisition, Synamedia will enhance its cloud video network capabilities, complementing its vivid workflow as-a-service (WaaS) with a set of innovative solutions for OTT content processing, disaster recovery, long tail content processing for large service providers and live events.

    Using a patented,  pay-as-you-stream model, Quortex’s just-in-time technology provides exactly the resources required at any given time. If no one is watching a channel, it simply frees up those resources. This methodology provides time to market and considerable cost advantages over existing cloud approaches while ensuring that every deployed resource has a purpose. For example, for long tail content, Quortex’s technology reduces cloud costs up to 67 per cent.

    Quortex’s multi-tenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology builds video streams on-the-fly, based on the end users’ requirements and matched to viewers’ locations, devices and time zones. It adapts to unpredictable networks, infrastructure and audiences, and automatically scales cloud resources up and down, leveraging spot instances that take advantage of spare cloud capacity at a fraction of the typical cost, while maintaining the quality of experience. The service is designed for any live streaming provider including telcos, cable operators, direct-to-consumer (D2C) players, and broadcasters.

    As a founding member of Greening of Streaming, and as energy costs spiral and organisations commit to cutting CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, Quortex is well positioned to play an important role in sustainability strategies.

    Synamedia EVP and general manager of video network Julien Signes said, “By pioneering just-in-time video streaming processing and delivery, Quortex has broken new ground with live services that dynamically spring to life when processing a user request. This radical change in the economics of cloud processing will accelerate the migration of live video services to the cloud. We see enormous potential as we expand Quortex’s reach globally – for the fast-growing D2C (direct-to-consumer) live streaming market as well as our traditional service provider customer base who want to reduce infrastructure costs and meet their CO2 reduction commitments.”

    An independent analyst and advisor Ben Keen commented, “True innovation often derives from a dismantling of legacy approaches to a problem and Quortex has brought some timely fresh thinking to video streaming technology. Reversing the traditional ‘push’ architecture, the Quortex team has come up with a potentially more efficient scalable ‘pull’ process that uses bandwidth only when it is required. The addition of this true SaaS proposition to the portfolio should allow Synamedia to offer live streaming services to a far broader range of increasingly cost-sensitive and environmentally-aware customers.”

    Quortex CEO and founder Marc Baillavoine said, “With our breakthrough just-in-time approach, we have turned the live streaming model on its head, ditching the need to wastefully provision streaming resources just-in-case. We believe that with Synamedia’s global reach and complementary product lines, we can accelerate our mission to transform the agility and cost of streaming and slash its carbon footprint.”

    Quortex was founded in Rennes (France) in 2018 by a team of video industry experts with more than 100 patents. Customers include beIN Group Media, M6 and Red Bee Media. The company’s employees in France and the UK will be joining Synamedia.  

    Quortex has been supported since its inception by Elaia, Go Capital, Unexo and business angels. Its technology will be part of Synamedia’s video network portfolio, and the company will continue to operate under its own brand while taking advantage of Synamedia’s customer base, financial strength and global presence.

  • HBO Max to stop original content creation in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands & Turkey

    HBO Max to stop original content creation in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands & Turkey

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is putting a stop to original productions by its streaming service HBO Max in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey.

    In a statement, the company said, “As we continue to work on combining HBO Max and Discovery+ into one global streaming service showcasing the breadth of content across Warner Bros. Discovery, we are reviewing our current content proposition on the existing services.”

    “As part of this process, we have decided to remove a limited amount of original programming from HBO Max, as well as ceasing our original programming efforts for HBO Max in the Nordics and Central Europe. We have also ceased our nascent development activities in the newer territories of Netherlands and Turkey, which had commenced over the past year,” it stated.

    “Our commitment to these markets has not changed. We will continue to commission local content for Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear networks in these regions and we remain substantial acquirers of local third-party content for use on our streaming services,” the company statement added.

  • GUEST ARTICLE: Audience insights empower OTT businesses to gain competitive advantage

    GUEST ARTICLE: Audience insights empower OTT businesses to gain competitive advantage

    Mumbai: India is witnessing a monumental shift in the consumption of entertainment with the emergence of OTT platforms dominating traditional television and big screens. The heightened demand to access quality content conveniently, has led digital video content to rise in popularity. According to a recent report by CII and BCG, between 2019 to 2022, India noticed a growth of only two per cent in the adoption of TV services by households, but a 51 per cent rise in SVoD (subscription video on demand) services, in comparison. Additionally, given the exponential rise in internet access and the rapid developments in online video streaming platforms, India’s OTT streaming market is anticipated to become the sixth largest by 2024, as per the PwC report.

    This growth has resulted in tremendous opportunities for all OTT companies in the country, widening the business landscape for OTT players to grab adequate market share/outwit competition. To stay ahead of the curve, companies are increasingly looking for ways to deliver as per consumer’s appetite for entertainment and improve online video viewer growth.

    How can businesses identify their best content and uncover actionable audience behaviours across devices and geographies to track customer interest and engagement?

    Customer engagement is the primary driving force behind the SVoD ecosystem. SVoD providers in the space are largely emphasising on data to improve the end-user experience by providing recommendations based on customer preferences more effectively. However, companies need a more innovative way to bring their value to the market and set them apart from their competitors. By taking analytics to the next level, businesses can have a greater understanding of audience dynamics and customers’ lifetime value, build more successful personalisation, acquisition, and retention strategies from data.

    Another consideration is user experience. This is an important factor in getting viewers to subscribe to an OTT service. This, of course, is taking into account that the content is engaging, and the genre is of interest to the audience being targeted. The user friendliness of the app and its seamless flow needs to be taken into account while building an OTT service. If not, it can become a deterrent for consumers to subscribe, preventing audiences from seeing the curated content.

    Unlocking ‘Audience Insights’ to create ‘Measurable Results’

    Audience data is necessary to drive revenue and business value for OTT companies, particularly those operating with an SVoD model. By leveraging a robust intelligent video platform, businesses can collect and analyse data from multiple sources in a single, reliable, secure, and scalable platform to produce valuable insights. Bringing these data sources together enables business leaders to make data-driven decisions to optimise content, marketing, and product strategies. When video performance metrics are coupled with the audience insight data, the video works better for the business and for its revenue goals.

    With this approach, businesses can unlock new insights to achieve the much-needed edge in an increasingly saturated market. For example, in order to lower customer acquisition costs and churn rates, while maximising investment in content, companies should augment data metrics with content and subscriber insights to drive the following business strategies successfully:

    •  Focus on high lifetime value (LTV) customers – Net-new acquisition costs for OTT companies are high but audience insights can lower acquisition costs by identifying which marketing sources have the highest conversion rate and lowest cost per acquisition.
    •  Engage stalled trialists – Audience data can indicate which subscribers signed up for the service but have yet to stream a video. Such viewer insight can inform automated marketing emails to those viewers, prompting them to watch and engage.
    • Reduce churn of at-risk customers – Businesses can prevent churn by identifying which audience chorts are declining in their engagement and have a high likelihood of cancelling based on behavioural patterns in their viewer history.
    • Increase loyalty – Creating the most value for customers is critical to build loyalty. Businesses can leverage insights for targeted, personalised marketing campaigns to promote relevant  content based on viewer behaviour.
    • Optimise content investment – Content acquisition costs are a huge investment. Audience insights can help understand what content is driving the most subscribers and the most consumption. Businesses can further licence more similar content that bring additional value to its customers.
    • Promote the videos that will drive the most revenue – Using content performance intelligence can direct audiences to the content assets and maximise the revenue achieved through the acquisition of content.

    Winning in the era of transformation

    Marketers have taken advantage of lots of data points over the years: subscriptions, video views, customer payments, marketing touchpoints, video metadata, marketing channel investment. All of the metrics speak to critical business needs. However, in today’s fast-paced market, having the right data is no longer enough. Businesses need intelligence from that data. They need centralised solutions that not only house that data but translate it into measurable results. With an additional layer of machine learning on top of the data infrastructure, businesses can integrate diverse data sources together and apply advanced analytics to predict customer dynamics and fuel profitable growth.

    By aggregating the data, businesses can achieve a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the video performance tied to customer engagement. Aggregated intelligence is thus becoming a critical component for business success. This next evolution of audience and content insights are central to engage customers, monitise content, and prepare OTT businesses to make the most of the changing dynamics in the entertainment industry.

    The author is Brightcove managing director – sales, India & SAARC region Subhasish Gupta.

  • Applause Entertainment expands into Southern markets; unveils Chennai office

    Applause Entertainment expands into Southern markets; unveils Chennai office

    Mumbai: Aditya Birla Group’s venture Applause Entertainment on Tuesday announced its expansion in the southern market and set up a dedicated office in Chennai. Buoyed by the opportunities that regional OTT space presents, Applause will further develop its South content acquisition and creation strategy.  

    Sign of Life Productions director and producer Pramod Cheruvalath has joined as the south – content head to spearhead this ambitious plan along with Applause Entertainment producer Vighnesh Menon.

    Pramod had earlier produced Iru Dhuruvam (Tamil) along with Applause Entertainment for SonyLIV and will now be responsible to build Applause’s content slate in all four Southern markets to create a diversified slate of premium series and movies across languages. Previously, the content studio has also produced series like Humble Politician Nograj (Kannada), Vadham, and Kuruthi Kalam (Tamil), apart from producing the second season of Iru Dhuruvam.

    Commenting on this expansion, Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair said, “The global streamer has created a flat Earth and indeed, a global village. Content from every geography and in every language has the opportunity to reach audiences everywhere. After our successes in the Hindi/Hinglish category, we are really keen to work with the amazing talent in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada to tell rooted authentic stories for a domestic and international stage.  On-boarding Pramod to oversee the expansion is our first step in that direction. His extensive network, market knowledge and creative expertise will help build our unique hub & spoke business model in the key Southern markets”.

    Pramod Cheruvalath shared, “Ever since its inception, Applause Entertainment has backed and produced clutter-breaking content across genres. Regional content has unexplored potential and the ability to establish a strong connection with a local, national and international audience. Happy to take on this new role to work with Sameer and the team at Applause Entertainment to upscale the Applause Slate with genre breaking authentic and relatable South stories for a worldwide audience.”

  • i-Tap inks MoU with NextPlay

    i-Tap inks MoU with NextPlay

    Mumbai: Triple Com Media (iTap) Mumbai, has announced a strategic partnership with NextPlay Technologies. NextPlay’s in-game advertising (IGA) unit, HotPlay has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with iTap, Mumbai. It is an OTT entertainment and gaming platform in India that offers comedy shorts, mobisodes, films, serials, lifestyle features, gaming and esports content targeted to Indian smartphone audiences. 

    The MOU aims at a partnership that will target India’s fast growing online gaming audience and later also extend to international markets in fourth quarter of 2022 when iTap expands overseas. The collaboration includes integration of HotPlay’s In-Game Advertising (IGA) tech into iTap’s existing entertainment, gaming, and e-sports content. HotPlay’s hyper-casual game portfolio currently includes more than fifty exciting games and growing which will also be on boarded onto iTap’s existing library of casual and trivia games and quizzes. The joint effort is designed to create an ecosystem in-line with both organisation’s business objectives while entertaining India’s 400 million plus gaming audience. 

    Despite the pandemic and recent economic turmoil, the parties believe that India remains a bright spot for growth. The partnership aims to seize opportunities in the high growth markets of hyper-casual genre games, e-sports, and gaming tournaments. Both parties view hyper-casual gaming as an opportunity due to its easy-to-play nature that engages broad audience age groups. 

    NextPlay co-CEO Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut stated, “The company sees great opportunity in the Indian market, not only from the size of the market itself but also from the remarkable growth rate of its entertainment segment, particularly in the hyper-casual game space and overall gaming industry. We are optimistic about this strategic collaboration with iTAP’s fast-growing OTT platform and an opportunity to enter the Indian market. We believe in the recent completion of our goGame asset purchase, our hyper-casual game portfolio and our HotPlay.” 

    “The parties added that an IGA solution offers great synergistic value to a diversified entertainment platform like iTap. The integration of HotPlay games and IGA will better position iTAP’s entertainment ecosystem in India and augment revenue opportunities through iTAP’s rapidly growing user base.” he added. 

    Triple Com Media, iTap founder & CEO Kunal Dasgupta said, “HotPlay will help strengthen iTAP’s gaming profile and integrating IGA into iTap also creates promotional extensions such as in-game coupons, rewards, and contests. These synergies are expected to be very beneficial and relevant for marketers besides additional opportunities for iTap and HotPlay to explore collaboration in new, emerging areas like NFTs, digital fashion and virtual artefacts for the Metaverse.” 

    Dasgupta is a veteran in the Indian media and entertainment industry; prior to founding iTAP he was Sony Pictures Networks (India) CEO for 15 years.

  • Disney+ Hotstar, Endemol Shine India and Ram Madhvani Films to bring ‘Aarya’ season 3

    Disney+ Hotstar, Endemol Shine India and Ram Madhvani Films to bring ‘Aarya’ season 3

    MUMBAI: The Sherni is all set to sharpen her claws as OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar greenlights a new season of International Emmy-nominated Hotstar Specials’ Aarya. The series from filmmaker Ram Madhvani has officially entered its scripting stage. This show  follows the journey of a fierce mother to keep her family safe from the world of crime after entering the vicious network following her husband’s demise.

    The show’s lead actor Sushmita Sen said, “It is a new dawn for Aarya Sareen, and she is fierce. In Season 3, she is going places and starting her own story free from the obstacles of her past. Reprising the role of Aarya is like slipping into old jeans but for a brand-new journey. It feels great to be back with Ram Madhvani and the Disney+ Hotstar team, can’t wait to return the love and appreciation viewers have showered on Aarya.”

    Madhvani said, “Disney+ Hotstar has been an amazing partner in building Aarya through two seasons and we are delighted to associate with them once again for yet another season. The journey of developing a gripping storyline, thrill and family love has started and we are sure this will once again leave audiences wanting more! The stakes are only getting higher from here…! It’s great to be back with Sushmita Sen and co-producer Amita Madhvani and the full Ram Madhvani films team.”

    Disney Star HSM Entertainment Network head Gaurav Banerjee said, “Being nominated in the International Emmy Awards last year, Aarya is a crown jewel of Disney+ Hotstar. Since its first season, the show has truly been a game-changer, redefining Indian storytelling with women breaking stereotypes. We have received immense love and appreciation from viewers for the first two seasons, coupled with high anticipation on knowing what follows. We look forward to unfolding what happens next through the narrative of season 3! ”