Mumbai: RK Swamy Media Group has released its Media Pocketbook 2022, reflecting the changing media landscape post the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 13th edition of the pocketbook is a compilation of salient information on India’s ‘vast, complex, and evolving’ media landscape. “This pocketbook has been a ready reckoner for the marketing and media community for over a decade,” said the statement.
“It’s been our endeavour to update this latest edition to reflect the changing media landscape post-Covid,” said RK Swamy Media Group president Sandeep Sharma. “Content truly became king and digital media equaled television. OTT came into its own during this period and connected TV and mobile have changed the way people consume content, movies, and music.”
“Apart from conventional media, data has been included in the digital section on OTT, gaming, e-commerce, devices, app, updated and verified by our media experts with significant experience in their respective domains,” Sharma further said.
Mumbai: The multi-lingual national media network TV9 Network recently launched its prime offering, News9 Plus – India’s first video magazine OTT service. News9 Plus is a unique service platform that will operate at the intersection of impeccable journalism, world-class presentation, and next-in-class technology..
It will showcase narratives, news, and debates with in-depth analysis and production qualities. There will be unique storytelling techniques through the OTT platforms. After the foray of the network into the digital news domain, TV9 is constantly growing and expanding its horizons in different mediums. The platform is destined to be the go-to app for nuanced news-based content produced with the best in class audio-visual storytelling formats.
News9 Plus is the first pureplay subscription-driven, and on-demand news product. In a press statement, TV9 Network CEO Barun Das said the company is committed to bringing about a qualitative change in the news genre landscape.
“The best is yet to come,” Das affirmed, adding that, “News9 Plus is one such out-of-box idea that promises to radically change the art of story-telling in news media.”
TV9 Network group editor B V Rao said News9 Plus is an audacious attempt to take the news to the OTT space. “A generation brought up on watching the best of content on Netflix, etc, won’t settle for anything other than the best-produced news content. News9 Plus will cater to this Genflix – or the generation that lives on Netflix,” Rao added.
TV9 Bharatvarsh, which has just scripted history to become India’s top Hindi news channel, celebrated its third anniversary on Wednesday.
According to the data shared by the network provided to them by Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India, TV9 Bharatvarsh has emerged as the leading Hindi news channel in week 10 (5-11 April) in terms of market share. According to the data, TV9 Bharatvarsh leads the Hindi-speaking market (HSM) with 16.9 per cent market share for the target audience 15+ all adults.
“We are extremely pleased to receive a resounding thumbs up for our sterling performance. For us, any celebration is incomplete without the participation of all those who have seen us through our journey to the top. We salute the verdict of viewers with a promise that we shall always endeavor to serve them without fear or favor,” Das said in a statement.
Talking about the number one status achieved by TV9 Bharatvarsh, TV9 Bharatvarsh news director Hemant Sharma said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable. We owe our success to our viewers. We have a responsibility to ensure we continue to earn their trust.”
“It is a dream come true for me,” commented TV9 Bharatvarsh editor Sant Prasad Rai. “My team has given their 100% to end the legacy of 22 years and become the top Hindi news channel.”
TV9 Network promotes marquee leader news brands that include TV9 Kannada, TV9 Telugu, TV9 Marathi, TV9 Gujarati and TV9 Bharatvarsh. Its digital assets include TV9 Hindi, News9live, and Money9.
Mumbai: Entertainment news portal BollywoodLife.com organised the third edition of BollywoodLife Awards 2022 on 25 March. This digital-only awards ceremony was held to felicitate the content creators, actors, filmmakers, and entertainers in the digital space.
The two-hour virtual gala session was sponsored by a variety of brands including Samsung Galaxy A53 5g, Canara bank, PC Chandra Jewellers, Sensodyne, Meesho, Joyalukkas and Amazon Payments.
Some notable winners of this year’s BollywoodLife Awards are Kareena Kapoor Khan for ‘Social Media Queen’; Ranveer Singh and Allu Arjun for ‘Best Actor’; Rashmika Mandana and Rani Mukherjee for ‘Best Actress.’ Rohit Shetty and Sukumar were awarded ‘Best Director.’
Zee head for digital sales Shridhar Mishra was thrilled to see the response of audiences, participants, and sponsors. Speaking of the awards, he said, “we are thrilled with the great response the third season of the BollywoodLife Awards saw this year. Our intention was to felicitate and recognise creators and entertainers for the great content they create to entertain the audience.”
BollywoodLife.com Awards 2022 used online voting by the audience along with the discretion of the esteemed jury which included – Shantanu Maheshwari, actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee, celebrated actor Dibyendu Bhattacharya, “Naagin 6” actress Urvashi Dholakia, TV actor Aashiesh Sharma and others.
As a prelude to the award ceremony, the platform organised multiple masterclasses from popular celebrities like ‘83″ actor Tahir Raj Bhasin, “Aashram” star Bobby Deol, “Love Hostel” actress Sanya Malhotra, “Badhaai Do” actor Rajkummar Rao and more.
There were power-packed panel discussions with various creators, actors, esteemed members of the film, OTT, and television fraternity to discuss the impact of the OTT platforms and trends in the TV industry by actresses – Shivangi Khedkar; Madalsa Sharma; Ahana Kumra; Flora Saini; Sonnalli Seygall; Shubhavi Chowksi; Shafaq Naaz and also actors Tahir Raj Bhasin; Sunny Hinduja; Dibyendu Bhattacharya, and Shagun Pandey.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee) chief creative officer – special projects Shailja Kejriwal, and her brainchild Zindagi channel have had an equally unpredictable, yet exciting journey in the world of media and entertainment. As a visionary storyteller, Kejriwal, to her credit has critically acclaimed content brands and initiatives like Zindagi, Zee Theatre, Star Bestsellers, and an unconventional series of short films called “Zeal for Unity” on one hand, and the TRP-churning, K-series of Indian family dramas on the other.
Zindagi launched on television in 2014 with the Pakistani soap opera “Aunn Zara,” which ended in just 20 days, a rather ‘blasphemous’ occurrence in the pre-OTT days when TV serials ran into as many 2000+ episodes. With real characters who didn’t wear make-up to bed and finite storylines, the channel came in like a breath of fresh air. Becoming an instant hit, it went on to launch Pakistani stars like Fawad Khan, Sanam Saeed, and Mahira Khan with the popular dramas “Zindagi Gulzar Hai” and “Humsafar.”
However, post the 2016 Uri attack, Zindagi had to pull the plug on all Pakistani content. Eventually wrapping up on TV, it became a digital-only channel. Starting out on the Ozee app, and later as Zindagi Digital, the channel finally launched on Zee5 in 2020. In the same year, Zindagi began its Originals innings with Asim Abbasi–directed web series “Churails” (2020). It was followed by “Ek Jhoothi Love Story” – a romantic comedy directed by Mehreen Jabbar, the critically acclaimed series “Dhoop Ki Deewar” featuring Ahad Raza Mir and Sajal Aly, “Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam” – a desi noir anthology helmed by British Indian director Meenu Gaur, and most recently (11 March) Kashif Nisar’s “Mrs & Mr Shameem” – featuring Saba Qamar and Nauman Ijaz.
Kejriwal’s constant endeavour through all the challenges has been to keep brand Zindagi alive and thriving. In a freewheeling interaction with IndianTelevision.com, she talks about “Mrs & Mr Shameem,” Zindagi’s digital journey, programming for the South Asian audience and diaspora, creating content from out of Pakistan, and her content philosophy.
Content, cause and creativity
‘Short-run programming,’ ‘Hindustani content,’ ‘content for cause,’ ‘alternative mainstream,’ while the content on Zindagi has been classified as all of these and more, the idea behind the brand is simply to tell stories that have a purpose, and hence says Kejriwal, the brief is always ‘why is this story being told,’ and ‘how it will impact those watching it.’
“There has to be a social comment in our stories; something which provides a different point of view. I believe that in today’s times when everything around us is changing, storytellers have to explore new ways of telling stories, new ways of talking about love and relationships,” she tells.
Zindagi’s latest release “Mrs & Mr Shameem,” for instance, questions ‘who is the ideal man,’ ‘does he always have to be aggressive,’ ‘can he be like Shameem who is seen as effeminate?’ “What I also like about Shameem’s character is that he doesn’t feel like a victim of this perception of him being ‘less of a man.’ I loved the positivity in the show, and the fact that it is inclusive,” she adds.
Programming for the South Asian audience
Programming for the South Asian audience
Zindagi began in 2014 with a clear roadmap of ‘curate, create and collaborate.’ The channel’s TV days comprised the ‘curation’ phase wherein it got a lot of Pakistani content to see how people liked/consumed it, and the response, shares Kejriwal, was phenomenal.
“I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t tell me that at least one person in their family watched Zindagi,” she says, adding that, “We also kind of expected that because a) Our shows were fresh, finite and meaningful, and b) there was a lot of curiosity about Pakistan among Indians. While our shared history, language and geographies were an important reason behind it, primarily it was the fact that we’ve not had any visual reference of Pakistan since the 80’s, except the news media. On the other hand, Pakistanis have grown up watching us through our films.”
The phase Zindagi is in right now on Zee5 is phase two of ‘Creation.’ Moving a step ahead from launching Pakistani actors, the channel began involving writers and directors in creating content for its South Asian audience. That’s when the ‘Originals’ happened. The third phase of collaboration where it hopes to be in the coming years will invite talent from both sides of the border to work together.
Zindagi’s digital journey
According to Kejriwal, the biggest advantage OTT as a medium offers is the freedom to tell stories that could not have been told on television.
Sharing some snippets from what she calls “a fantastic journey on digital.” “It gave us the chance to work with a new wave of filmmakers like Asim Abbasi and Meenu Gaur. Even though Gaur is not into making Pakistani dramas, her work has a distinct South Asian approach that reciprocates with our TG. OTT provided us the platform to experiment and create content that is truly international in its making, and aimed different cohorts,” Kejriwal notes.
“So, while ‘Churails’ caters to the upmarket or niche and younger audience, ‘Dhoop Ki Deewar’ is meant for family viewing in tier 1 cities. ‘Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam’ is a metro-centric content piece. ‘Ek Jhoothi Love Story’ and ‘Mrs & Mr Shameem’ are suited for family viewing for audiences across tier 1 and 2 cities,” she further adds.
Kejriwal says that she is most excited about bringing back Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed with a new show and a completely new genre and concept of ‘magic realism’ – a first on Zindagi. “We could not have done this on TV where people are used to seeing them in a ‘Zindagi Gulzar Hai.’ That’s the fun of creating for OTT,” she states.
And there’s the math too! “We programme for the South Asian audience and South Asian diaspora. When we talk of OTT, we don’t talk of India alone, but the global market. There is a huge Pakistani diaspora that does not have a truly dedicated OTT platform of its own. Therefore, it becomes a low-hanging fruit for us. Our shows have a tremendous fan following among them,” she asserts.
Back to TV?
Kejriwal observes that even though OTT allows the freedom to experiment, the audience is becoming increasingly concerned about not getting lost in discovering content and surfing through it.
“Content discovery can be an overwhelming task, and I propose to make the discovery of Zindagi simpler. That’s where television comes in for me,” she notes. “This is not to take away from the medium, but while the independence OTT gives is amazing, the loyalty on TV is great. OTT has kind of consolidated our viewership across demographics. I hope that 2022 will also see me going back to my loyal audiences on TV.”
Mumbai: Eight months into launch, Zee5 Global has bolstered its presence in the US market, with a record rise in subscription revenue and engagement among the South Asian populace, the platform announced on Monday.
The streaming platform revealed the US is now the second-largest market for Zee5 after India and the largest contributor to the platform’s international subscription revenue and viewership. It has recorded a growth of 15 per cent month on month in its viewers and subscriptions on the back of a wide array of original shows catering to the South Asian communities. The US now drives over 40 per cent of its international subscriptions, it said in a statement.
While Hindi continues to be the driver, the platform has seen double-digit growth in other language content, including Bengali, Telugu, Punjabi, and Tamil across states. Telugu content for instance has seen strong traction, especially in Colorado, North Carolina, Missouri, and Texas. Bengali content on the other hand has done well in Kansas, Louisiana, Connecticut, and New York.
“I am very glad to see the strong response to Zee5 in the US, especially within such a short span of time,” said Zee Entertainment’s president digital businesses and platforms Amit Goenka. “The US is a high priority market for us and material to our International Strategy, and this early momentum inspires much confidence as we plan for the days ahead.”
Zee5 Global chief business officer Archana Anand said, “As the only standalone destination for South Asian content in the US, Zee5 Global has grown at an exponential rate in the last eight months and surpassed every milestone. By bringing in the biggest stories and stars from the region as well as ensuring new content every minute and as it releases in India, we will continue to delight our viewers here with the very latest content from back home in the language of their choice.”
The OTT platform is currently catering to key South Asian language-speaking communities, including those from Pakistan and Bangladesh with over 170,000 hours of content. It launched as many as 51 new Originals across languages in 2021 and plans to double its original content releases this year.
Mumbai: According to a recent study ‘Can OTT sports platforms shake up the broadcast landscape’ by data and analytics firm Ampere, the growing number of pure-play and generalist OTT services in the sports rights market is putting the traditional rights model under stress.
In Europe, the likes of DAZN and Amazon Prime Video are beginning to eat into the market share of traditional rights holders, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of sports spends annually. Globally, though, the figure stands at slightly below six per. In cases where OTT services increased the number of bidders for rights, the value of rights has increased. For instance, DAZN’s entrance to German UCL market grew the total value by 62 per cent for 2018-21 cycle. For 2021-24, OTT services have secured all rights to the UCL in Germany, with the new deals increasing the total value by 58 per cent. However this trend did not hold in cases where the overall number of bidders came down, where the impact was negative.
What this suggests is that pure OTT players have the potential to impact an upward growth in sports rights value together with traditional buyers, especially in cases where the value of rights has stagnated over the years. In the short term, until OTT platforms reach a comparable or higher level of subscription than pay-TV, they will keep adding value to the game.
The study outlined four broad ways in which OTT services are impacting the sports media landscape – targeting digital-first audiences, making premium sports more affordable, super-serving specific categories of sports fans, and creating a range of D2C opportunities like out-of-market selection, co-exclusivity, and exclusive D2C for rights holders.
Case in point: IPL stagnation in rights value is a far-cry for a cricket crazy nation as India. Take for instance, the next (2023-27) cycle of IPL rights that has an aggressive set of bidders in the fray, including the content behemoth Amazon Prime Video.
Reliance’s bid, which is likely aimed at more data revenue through Jio, than subscription and ad revenue through the media business under Viacom18, will make the ‘Amazon vs RIL vs Disney vs Sony pitch’ more interesting. The winner will be announced around end-March or early April.
While Star’s September 2017’s bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore or ~$2.3 billion (amounting to a 158 per cent increase over the previous deal worth $1.03 billion) for just half the number of years was jaw-dropping, equally noteworthy was Facebook’s individual bid of R. 3,900 crore for the digital rights alone. From less than five per cent in the overall pie of 2008 deal, digital had grown by 25 per cent (4.5 times) in 2017, being seen as a standalone package.
According to market buzz, IPL’s digital rights value will see similar growth of around 25-30 per cent for this cycle and understandably so. From 2017 to now, IPL has seen considerable value addition in terms of both OTT viewership as well as digital technology. The overall value is expected to soar up to of $ five billion. A senior BCCI official recently told news agency PTI, “With two new teams about to fetch anything between Rs 7000 to Rs 10,000 crore, IPL broadcast rights could more than double to reach $ five billion (~Rs 36,000 crore).”
The OTT value ad
Hotstar got on to a flying start with the first match of IPL 2015 registering 7.2 million views on the app; six times the viewership of the first match of IPL 2014 on starsports.com. In the seven years since it began streaming the IPL live, the league’s viewership has grown from around 40 million in 2015 to 300 million in 2019, increasing every year. While the viewership for the 2020 edition on Hotstar could not cross the previous year’s benchmark, it ranged between 5.7 million and 6.7 million throughout the next (2021) season.
What’s more significant about these numbers is that they were reached despite the matches being played behind a paywall. Going back to the Ampere study, sports OTT audiences currently make up 25 per cent of total sports audience, and there nearly 800 mn to convert. This is a significantly younger audience with 75 per cent aged between 18 and 44 years. Not only are they willing to pay more, but are also spending more time and are more engaged with both live and non-live programming on the OTT services. In addition to accessibility of content and flexibility of billing options, OTT services are more affordable and unbundled, offering higher control to viewers. They target fans of sports which struggle to find sufficient space on traditional broadcasting platforms.
Echoing a similar viewpoint, Grapes national business head – Rajeesh Rajagopalan says, “by virtue of being both precise and personal, OTT services have consolidated the scattered viewership for niche sports, or sports other than cricket in India. The badminton and kabbadi leagues that have come into existence today, is because OTT players started buying these rights.” Pointing out another positive contribution of sports streaming, he states, “OTT being way more innovative with advertising than TV, offers scope even for the smaller brands with medium or modest budgets, provided they have a clearly-defined objective.”
“The decline in TV viewership of niche sports due to NTO will add to the popularity of sports streaming, which has been on the rise since the onset of the pandemic. The growth is expected to come from tier 2 and 3 cities. It will be spearheaded by DTH platforms providing OTT as a part of their services,” adds Zenith VP Linu John.
Commenting on the OTT opportunity for brands in India Havas Media Group India head–digital services Rohan Chincholi remarks that from the consumers’ standpoint, India is a market with the lowest cost per GB (~Rs seven per GB) & from the advertisers’ standpoint, there is a massive 350 million+ OTT viewership in India. Of these, paid subscribers are to the tune of ~80 million+ and they subscribe to over two OTT platforms each.
“Hotstar is projecting to reach close to 100 per cent of OTT users in India this IPL which speaks volumes about viewers’ interest in streaming sports. However, these audiences are not loyal to one OTT service. Cricket has the potential to garner mass reach in a short span, which is where the platforms win via subscriptions and repeat usage,” observes Chincholi.
On the kind of advertising being explored this season he adds, “from an advertising perspective, bundled sponsorships, associations and standalone buys will be a function of clients’ budget. Ad rates will command a premium on all marquee streaming events. Cost per reach will be higher than any other video sharing/social platform but it’s also a function of audience targeting and data layering – transacting audience cut, connected TV audience.”
Building on the point WATConsult AVP media planning and strategy Shanu Jain shares that about 70 per cent deals are bundled under different sponsorships including presence on different IPL collaterals, Live prediction, pre & post shows brand integrations, special packages, while around 30 per cent of them are standalone on mid-roll video ads. They command 35-40 per cent premium than normal rates on GEC and other video streaming platforms like YouTube. “Majority of IPL viewership comes from the age bracket of 15-30 years, and Hotstar leads the way in innovative ad formats and inventories. A lot of new ad formats have been introduced to facilitate better recall and user engagement, beginning with pre-rolls every time you start the match to drive higher relevance, and integrating the brand communication at different intervals, to additional options like group chats, contests and regular CTW ads have helped brands look at efficiencies in-terms of audiences who’re watching and clicking on the ads,” notes Jain.
OTT services globally have only just started to move the dial in the sports rights market which continues to be dominated by legacy players. They have an increasingly significant part to play alongside TV buyers by helping sports appeal to young hard-to-reach demographic. The Ampere study indicates that while the OTT audiences’ higher willingness to pay may make them look more attractive, their size compared to traditional TV broadcasters must be taken into account to ascertain whether this actually equates to higher revenues or not.
Mumbai: Eros Now, an over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform owned by Eros STX Global Corp on Wednesday announced the extension of its partnership with Airtel. The alliance will bring Eros Now’s content library to Airtel Xstream Premium, a newly launched aggregation-oriented video streaming service by Airtel.
The partnership is in line with Eros Now’s strategy to focus on direct-to-consumer relationships while strengthening and expanding key distribution partnerships. As part of this collaboration, Eros Now will also be available across new bundled offerings to customers on Airtel Xstream Android set-top-boxes and Airtel Xstream Fiber.
“Airtel users will get access to Eros Now’s content of over 12,000 films, originals, music, and short-form content across languages and genres. All this will be accessible through a simplified search, customised recommendations and single access login on the Airtel Xstream Premium app on mobile and large screens (TV, tablet and PC),” said the statement.
“Video-on-demand has emerged as the key driver of data consumption on telecom networks making content and its delivery channel equally important and Airtel has been a market leader in video and 4G penetration,” said Eros Now CEO Ali Hussein. “This partnership allows for a symbiotic play wherein both entities can analyse the customer data and precisely target subscribers with the content of their choice. The collaboration also entitles Eros Now to be a part of Airtel’s preferred channel network and further strengthens our leading position in the Hindi-speaking markets.”
As per a Redseer report, Hindi and other Indian languages dominated the comprehensive streaming growth. Hindi language content accounted for more than 50 per cent of the overall streaming in April-July 2020. This also indicates that video experience is becoming increasingly important to Indian consumers, hence any operator who provides greater video experience has an edge. As per the latest OpenSignal’s Mobile Network India Report, Airtel won the best video experience category nationally for the fifth time in a row.
“We are witnessing a huge surge in video consumption amongst our customers. And this growth is not limited to big cities but is also coming from smaller cities and towns,” stated Airtel Digital CEO Adarsh Nair. “This strategic partnership with Eros Now enables us to provide the most sought-after content to consumers in the true heartland of India in their preferred language. It also allows us to enhance our offering and enrich our customer’s digital experience.”
Mumbai: Integrated digital platforms company NxtDigital, the media vertical of Hinduja Group announced its results for the nine month period ending 31 December 2021 and Q3 of FY22.
The company’s consolidated revenue for the nine months grew by 12.84 per cent to Rs 807.6 crore, up from Rs 715.71 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year. During the same period, the Earnings Before Interest Depreciation and Taxes (EBIDTA) on a consolidated basis was Rs 155.8 crore as against an EBIDTA of Rs 149.81 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year, at a growth of 4.01 per cent.
The company ended the third quarter with a 10.9 per cent year-on-year growth in EBIDTA at Rs 52.92 crore. It grew by 2.48 per cent over Q2 of this fiscal – after allowing for AGR payment of Rs three crore.
The company said that its subscription revenues both for digital video and data businesses continued to be completely prepaid thereby generating healthy cash flows.
NxtDigital also shared that it has paid its debt of Rs 260 crore in line with the objects of the “Rights Issue,” and completed land sale in January 2022 for a consideration of Rs 69.30 crore, reducing debt further by this amount. Debt-to-equity ratio now stands at 1.5, down from over four at the start of the fiscal. The board also reiterated in-principle approval for transfer of the media & entertainment business to Hinduja Global Solutions to fuel its next phase of growth; subject to regulatory and other approvals.
Vision For NxtDigital
The company also recorded progress on the acquisition of the digital and media businesses by Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) which is subject to all statutory or regulatory approvals and approval of the shareholders. The move aims to fuel the expansion plans of NDL in the digital space, as it looks to grow its digital portfolio across video, broadband, OTT and WIFI services. The company said that it has also appointed independent valuers to carry out the valuation exercise and will submit a detailed report including the share exchange ratio once ready.
Post the proposed acquisition, the company said it will review and assess proposals received, to define new business verticals for the future that will be moulded on the same lines, defining a robust roadmap for growth.
Key Business Drivers For Growth In Q3
The company said it took several digital initiatives to provide an end-to-end digital user experience for its customers – covering digital video, broadband and OTT services; the success of which is reflected in the growth of its subscriber base across its digital platforms.
It continued to push its broadband penetration into new markets, expanding its subscriber base, and also launched the first “combo” product that offers offers up to 700 digital television channels + up to 300,000 hours of OTT content from leading international, national and regional OTT platforms + broadband, with speeds up to 1,000 Mbps – all through a single product offering.
NxtDigital CEO and MD Vynsley Fernandes said, “Our Q3 strategy hinged on leveraging our unique technology, national footprint and our digital product portfolio to adapt to changing customer preferences vis-à-vis consumption of digital services. Whether our broadband push, our roll-out of NXTHUBs nationally or the launch of the first ‘combo’ product covering digital TV, OTT and broadband – our focus was on giving our customers a unique digital user experience.”
Growth Drivers In Q4
For Q4, it said the focus will remain on not just rolling out more NXTHUBs but also increasing the product capability that could extend shortly to WiFi and other e-services. “Broadband will remain a key driver for growth, as it continued to proliferate into NxtDigital markets offering currently digital television only. The ‘combo’ product offering nationally and operationalisation of its infrastructure sharing platform further drive growth as the media group continues on its path of digital transformation,” it stated on Saturday.
Mumbai: Further democratising the growing digital entertainment ecosystem in India, Bharti Airtel (Airtel), on Thursday announced the launch of its new video streaming aggregator service – Airtel Xstream Premium. The company is targeting 20 million subscriptions through the new offering.
Aggregating content from 15 Indian and global OTT platforms in one app, Airtel Xstream Premium will give customers access to Live channels and a catalogue of over 10,500 films and shows from SonyLIV, ErosNow, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, Shemaroo, Ultra, HungamaPlay, EPICon, Docubay, DivoTV, Klikk, Nammaflix, Dollywood, and Shorts TV. More OTT players will be onboarded going ahead, said the statement.
Airtel Xstream Premium offers its service with a single app, single subscription, single sign-in, unified content search and AI-driven personalised curation for each user. It can be accessed across mobile devices through the web, and on TV through the Xstream set-top-box. The service will be available exclusively to Airtel customers at Rs 149 per month.
“Airtel Xstream Premium is a game-changing innovation to democratise OTT content in India by solving the key challenges of content discovery, affordability and distribution,” said Airtel digital CEO Adarsh Nair. “As a unified digital platform, it’s a win-win proposition for customers and OTT players alike as we begin an exciting journey to make digital entertainment mainstream in India.”
SonyLIV’s growth and monetisation head Manish Aggarwal added, “Our partnership with Airtel Xstream will bring premium content – from originals, movies, sports and Sony India network content in all the leading languages, along with top shows from Hollywood to over 340 million Airtel customers. SonyLIV’s rich content library coupled with Airtel Xstream’s deep distribution reach and massive scale capabilities make it for a perfect partnership for both sides and we look forward to a long and successful association.”
“Hoichoi has always been committed to making its content available to a wider audience base. Airtel, being one of the most widely used network, with a similar aim of serving people from all corners of the country, makes this partnership a truly dynamic one. This will enable Hoichoi to penetrate deeper into the Tier – II and Tier – III cities by providing Airtel users with a Hoichoi subscription bundled with an attractive Airtel recharge pack,” remarked Hoichoi CEO Soumya Mukherjee.
“Eros Now is a mass-market consumer proposition with thousands of movies, original series, music videos, short-form content and more in multiple languages,” stated Eros Now CEO Ali Hussein. “This symbiotic partnership with Airtel Xstream will further accelerate Eros Now’s adoption in India and allow an even larger number of video users to access our popular and engaging content. I am confident that consumers will enjoy the experience of accessing the best of entertainment and internet on a single platform.”
Mumbai: Zapped Technologies has announced the launch of its app Pocket Cinema which offers a gaming platform that allows users to watch OTT content of their choice and play a simple skill based game around it to win rewards. The app is being touted as a novel concept in the world of gaming and entertainment, denoted by a new name #GOTT – a combination of gaming and OTT.
Pocket Cinema is a simple, skill based gaming platform targeted primarily at tier 2-3 cities where people aspire to earn money, online but they either don’t know how to, or do not possess the necessary skills for it. The app aims to make gaming technology inclusive and accessible, said the statement. Currently available on android phones, it will shortly be released for iOS, it added.
According to Pocket Cinema founder duo and co-CEOs Anshuman Singh and Anil Verma the options available online, by virtue of being either too complex or high-end and intimidating, alienate a major chunk of the population from tier 2-3 cities. “Pocket Cinema caters majorly to tier 2 and 3 town consumers, and offers a unique easy-to- play game coupled with entertainment. At present, the content is available in Hindi and Bhojpuri. Marathi, and Punjabi and South Indian Languages will follow soon,” they said.
