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Tag: OTT

  • Bigg Boss 15 to premiere on VOOT on 8 August, Salman Khan unveils promo

    Bigg Boss 15 to premiere on VOOT on 8 August, Salman Khan unveils promo

    Mumbai: The 15th season of Viacom18’s high prized entertainment property Bigg Boss is all set to launch on VOOT on 8 August, announced Bollywood actor and Bigg Boss host Salman Khan in the show’s latest promo released on Wednesday. The makers have pitched the promo of the special edition titled ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ as Khan’s special gift for his fans on Eid.

    In an industry-first move, Viacom18 had announced early this month, that it will launch the reality show Bigg Boss, first on VOOT for six weeks, before it’s telecast on Colors TV.

     

     

    The promo shows Khan bursting with joy as he declares and warns the audience to gear up for the “craziest, most sensational season ever”. The ‘janta’ factor this time will be Over the Top by giving the common man uncommon powers. It will give the audience a chance to enjoy direct and deeper engagement, connection, and indulgence in the comings and goings of the house. “Overall, the show promises a unique experience with a lot of drama, entertainment, and emotions,” Khan promises. “So, BIGG BOSS OTT Ke Mazze Loot, pehli baar starting only on VOOT.”

    Commenting on this all-new Bigg Boss OTT, Salman Khan said, “It’s great that this season of Bigg Boss will have a digital-first with Bigg Boss OTT, six weeks ahead of television. The platform will see unparalleled interactivity where the audience will not only get entertained but also participate, engage, give tasks and more – It’s truly for the people and by the people. My advice to all contestants is to be active, entertaining and conduct themselves well in the BB house.” 

  • Netflix’s growth slows down in 2021, adds just 1.5m subs in Q2

    Netflix’s growth slows down in 2021, adds just 1.5m subs in Q2

    New Delhi: After a meteoric rise in 2020, the US-based streaming giant Netflix’s subscriber growth in early 2021 has slowed down. According to the company’s latest financial results, the OTT platform has added just 1.5 million subscribers, compared to 10.1 million new sign-ins it reported during the same period last year.

    Netflix, thus ended the quarter with 209 million paid memberships.

    The APAC region represented about two-thirds of the global paid net adds in the quarter. However, its Q2 paid memberships in the US and Canada region were slightly down sequentially, as it lost 0.4 million paid memberships in the region. “We believe our large membership base in UCAN coupled with a seasonally smaller quarter for acquisition is the main reason for this dynamic”, said Netflix.

    In Q2, revenue increased 19 per cent year over year to $7.3 billion, while operating income rose 36 per cent year over year to $1.8 billion. Revenue growth was driven by an 11 per cent increase in average paid streaming memberships and 8 per cent growth in average revenue per membership (ARM).

    According to the company, Covid has created some lumpiness in the membership growth.

    “We finished the quarter with over 209m paid memberships, slightly ahead of our forecast. The pandemic has created unusual choppiness in our growth and distorts year-over-year comparisons as acquisition and engagement per member household spiked in the early months of Covid. In Q2’21, our engagement per member household was, as expected, down vs. those unprecedented levels but was still up 17 per cent compared with a more comparable Q2’19,” said Netflix on Wednesday.

    Netflix chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann said, “We had the kind of big pull forward in 2020 of subscriber adds. We also had to push in production of some of our kind of key returning titles and big tent-pole new releases until the latter part of the year. But overall, the business is performing well. Our churn is actually down relative to the more comparable two-year-ago period in 2019, Q2 of ’19 before Covid.”

    For Q3 ’21, the company forecast paid net additions of 3.5m vs. 2.2m in the prior-year period. “If we achieve our forecast, we will have added more than 54m paid net adds over the past 24 months or 27m on an annualised basis over that period, which is consistent with our pre-Covid annual rate of net additions. We forecast that ARM will grow roughly 5 per cent year over year on a FX neutral basis in Q3’21,” said Netflix.

    As the streaming war heats up, Netflix said it continues to target a 20 per cent operating margin for the full year 2021 vs. 18 per cent in 2020. “After our big global launch in January 2016, we committed to steadily growing our operating margin thereafter at an average rate of three percentage points per year over any few-year period. Some years we’ll be a little over (like in 2020), some years a little under (like in 2021). Assuming we achieve our margin target this year, we will have quintupled our operating margin in the last five years and are tracking ahead of this average annual three percentage point pace,” it stated on Wednesday.

    Netflix is also shifting focus to growing its live action and animated original film offering, with several impactful titles in Q2. Its non-English content investments are also growing both in scope and impact. “Our P&L content expense for this content category has more than doubled in the past two years,” it added.

    The company is also in the early stages of further expanding into games, building on its earlier efforts around interactivity (eg, Black Mirror Bandersnatch) and Stranger Things games.

    “We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV. Games will be included in members’ Netflix subscription at no additional cost similar to films and series. Initially, we’ll be primarily focused on games for mobile devices. We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” it added.

  • CNN announces streaming service CNN+, set to launch in early 2022

    CNN announces streaming service CNN+, set to launch in early 2022

    New Delhi: As news media companies look for ways to survive and thrive in a fiercely aggressive digital market, the latest TV network to enter the crowded market of streaming news is AT&T’s CNN. The US-based Cable News Service (CNN) has announced its new venture CNN Plus – a streaming platform which will exist alongside its existing linear TV networks.

    According to the announcement, the subscription-based streaming service will feature eight to twelve hours of live programming daily. The network has already begun developing dozens of programs and hiring the requisite employees as part of an urgent bid to keep up with changing consumer demands amid cord-cutting trends across the US.

    CNN+ is the start of a new era of the company, said WarnerMedia News and Sports chairman and CNN Worldwide president, Jeff Zucker on Monday. “CNN invented cable news in 1980, defined online news in 1995 and now is taking an important step in expanding what news can be by launching a direct-to-consumer streaming subscription service in 2022,” he said in a statement.

    Terming it as “the most important launch for CNN” since the launch of the network in June, 1980, chief digital officer Andrew Morse said CNN+ will be launched in the US in the first quarter of 2022 and roll out in other countries later.

    Apart from at least eight hours of live programming which the company says, will be different from “what CNN produces on TV”, the new service will have original series, and interactive programming, that will allow subscribers to engage directly with talent and experts about the issues that matter most to them.

    The company is yet to disclose how much it will cost consumers.

    With around 4,000 employees, CNN has one of the largest news operations in the world. It is hiring about 450 people for CNN+, from producers to engineers to marketers, said Morse on Monday. “The sizable number of job openings is a reflection of CNN parent WarnerMedia’s investment in the product on the heels of the HBO Max streaming service launch in 2020,” he added. 

  • ZEE5’s State of Siege: Temple Attack narrates the heroic tale of NSG commandos

    ZEE5’s State of Siege: Temple Attack narrates the heroic tale of NSG commandos

     New Delhi: Over a year after ZEE5 streamed its web series based on the 26/11 terrorist attack, the OTT platform has come up with the second edition of its State of Siege series. This time, the platform has narrated the heroic tale of the NSG Commandos, who led the counter-insurgency operation at Akshardham Temple in Gujarat in September 2002. The State of Siege- Temple Attack is streaming on ZEE5.

    The film’s producer Abhimanyu Singh and director Ken Ghosh, and ZEE5, head, Hindi Originals Nimisha Pandey got into a freewheeling conversation with Indiantelevision.com Group, founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari to talk about the making of the film. They were joined by film’s cast Gautam Rode and Vivek Dahiya along with Lt Col Sundeep Sen who worked as a consultant (military veteran) on the film. The virtual roundtable – ‘The making of the State of Siege: Temple Attack’ was presented by Contiloe Pictures.

    The film comes a year after the OTT platform launched State of Siege: 26/11, which was based on Sandip Unnithan’s book Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11. Unlike the first edition which was released in eight episodes, this time ZEE5 has launched the State of Siege as a digital film.

    “We launched the first web series in March 2020, just when the lockdown began and it remains one of the most-watched series on the platform,” said ZEE5, head, Hindi Originals Nimisha Pandey, “OTT has given us huge freedom, as we are no longer tied up with formats. In today’s time, stories decide which format they should be going into. In the case of Temple Attack, we decided to make a feature film because the story couldn’t have been stretched up to six-seven episodes.”

    Elaborating on the audience response, Pandey said the interest for the film has spiked since its launch on 9 July and performed reasonably well over the last weekend. “We had launched it in Hindi and dubbed it in Tamil and Telugu, and it is good to know that the film is doing well pan-India across all three languages,” said Pandey.

    “It was a story worth telling,” said producer Abhimanyu Singh, who initially conceptualised the film. “After reading into the subject and doing our research, we thought that nothing has been told from the commandos’ point of view. The more we delved into it, the more we realised how fantastic this story was.”

    The film was shot across different states including Himachal Pradesh, amid the challenges thrown by the pandemic. However, the most daunting part of the job was the post-production process, which had to be done remotely, said director Ken Ghosh. “It was challenging to do the post-production during the pandemic, and we had to coordinate on virtual calls. But we managed to pull it off. We have done a lot of research and brought in symbolism in certain scenes. We also tried to ensure that the action looks very real,” said Ghosh.

    Son of a Naval officer, Ghosh said he drew experiences from his childhood and was elated to take up the project. “I have always wanted to do a war-based movie,” he added.

    The film marks Bollywood actor Akshaye Khanna’s debut on the OTT. It also stars Abhimanyu Singh, Gautam Rode, Vivek Dahiya, Akshay Oberoi, Parvin Dabas, Samir Soni, Mir Sarwar, and Manjari Fadnis.

    “It was challenging initially, but we went with the director’s vision and Col Sen’s guidance throughout helped in getting the action scenes right,” said actor Gautam Rode, who plays Major Samar in the movie. “We have managed to keep it real, and tried to avoid any over-dramatization.”

    Vivek Dahiya who was also part of the SOS: 26/11, said, people were eager to know more about the Akshardham attack, which generated interest for the film. Dahiya plays an NSG commando who is new to the team but is sent to rescue hostages who are being held by terrorists at the temple. “I am glad I got the opportunity to be part of this role. The whole experience has wholly transformed me,” he said.

    Lt Colonel Sundeep Sen said he tried to ensure that nothing that’s shown in the movie comes across as derogatory to the Armed forces. “Very few people dare to tell such stories. There has to be sincerity in the effort, and I found that in the team,” he said.

    The film is currently streaming on ZEE5.

  • Animation Xpress’ KAM Summit 2021 begins

    Animation Xpress’ KAM Summit 2021 begins

    Mumbai: Kids, Animation & More (KAM) Summit and Ann Awards are back again with yet another insightful and exciting edition. The second edition of KAM Summit and Ann Awards 2021 began virtually on Thursday. 

    AnimationXpress launched the first edition of the KAM Summit and Ann Awards in 2019 at The Lalit, Mumbai which saw a participation of about 700 delegates and 45 speakers. The industry has gone through a lot of changes since then.

    One of the very few sectors that flourished tremendously during the lockdown period was Animation! A form of entertainment that is not reliant on production that presupposes physical gathering unlike live-action content and yet entertains children and adults alike. 

    The key theme of KAM Summit 2021 is ‘The Next Big Rise’. The three-day event will witness insightful sessions with industry leaders across studios, broadcasters, OTT platforms, creators as they discuss the options Indian animation has before itself and the direction it can take to propel it further. It will also focus on the medium’s expansion into myriad genres and platforms.

    The mission of the KAM Summit is to celebrate the stupendously growing animation industry and to bring together the animation industries – both in India and internationally – to pause and reflect on trends and developments in every aspect of the business and technology associated with it.

    With the animation industry’s creme de la creme on the advisory board, the summit is set to be a definitive virtual gathering and a vantage point for the entire animation industry.

    The advisory members include Toonz Media Group CEO P Jayakumar, Vaibhav Studios founder and director Vaibhav Kumaresh, Zebu Animation CEO Adi Shayan, Green Gold Animations CEO Rajiv Chilaka, FICCI AVGC chairman and Punnaryug Artvision founder Ashish Kulkarni, Technicolor country head Biren Ghose, Assemblage Entertainment founder and CEO AK Madhavan, Walt Disney Animation Studios character technical director-simulation supervisor Avneet Kaur, Autodesk India technical solutions manager Samit Shetty, Joan Vogelesang Consultants president and CEO Joan Vogelesang and Srinivas Sribhakta who is the CEO of VedAtma Animation Studios, director & CEO at ‎Arena Animation Malleswaram & Rajajinagar and secretary ABAI.

    KAM Summit is presented by Nick and is co-powered by Cosmos-Maya, Unreal-Engine, and Discovery Kids. ABAI and COE are the associate partners and the event is supported by GUBBARE and HUION. Digicon6 Asia is the festival partner and ASIFA India serves as the community partner.

    Viacom18 Hindi and Kids TV Network head Nina Elavia Jaipuria said, “The kids’ entertainment space is at a very exciting stage. With carefully curated IPs that are entertaining, engaging, and transport kids into a world of escape, it is no wonder that the category is on a growth trajectory. Since kids influence almost all major household purchase decisions and co-viewing of the genre, it is no wonder that kids’ channels remain attractive to advertisers. An event like KAM brings all the relevant stakeholders together- be it content creators, platform owners, or advertisers. It is collaborative forums such as this that will lead to greater storytelling and innovation in the sphere of kids’ entertainment.”

    Unreal Engine Epic Games evangelist Arvind Neelakantan also expressed his excitement for the virtual summit. “Unreal Engine is reimagining storytelling and revolutionizing production pipelines for episodic, feature-length, and short-form animations. We are excited to be at the summit to see how we can enable creators to transform their first idea into a final frame, all using Unreal,” he said.

    In its statement, Cosmos-Maya said, “The KAM Summit is an effort to take the Indian animation industry global and also celebrate our landmark achievements as an industry. As a leading industry player Cosmos-Maya is happy to be part of an industry-wide initiative like this and we expect it to be a great event. An opportunity to make any new professional collaborations would be the cherry on the cake.”

    YOTTA serves as the workstation and OTT service partner whereas Green Gold Animation is the summit partner. 

    In a statement, YOTTA Infrastructure said, “Technology has been powering content creators and digital platforms. At Yotta, we are democratizing technology by offering innovative solutions on a subscription model. This is the first time we are participating in the KAM Summit 2021, and looking forward to presenting our solutions for Creative content creators and OTT Players/Broadcasters.”

    Green Gold Animation stated, “Animation as a medium has been evolving to accommodate the changes or rather the growth in reach and access along with the technology of the industry. The digital platforms have opened up the world of content across the world. With storytelling itself no longer bound by regions and language, the animation is gaining acceptance across age groups with the myriad tales that appeal to human emotions and shared experiences that we all share during our lives. We look forward to sharing our bit of experience gained along our journey and be privy to the same from the various participants and speakers at KAM 2021.”

    ABAI president Biren Ghose who has been supporting the initiative also as an advisory board member shared, “ABAI is delighted to present the “go-to-market” strategy and the traction it has achieved for the Center Of Excellence that has provided high-end technology solutions; incubation and a subsidised set of infrastructure to the start-up community at Bengaluru. The finishing school is in the process of taking its talent development mission to high-tech areas in virtual production and game engine technologies and also to act as a hub for the virtualisation of the digital arts education programme. No industry association has been able to show multi-million-dollar support to the community like ABAI has done thanks to the Government of Karnataka and the KAVGC Policy.”

    Keeping the ongoing lockdowns and work from home stress in mind, this year’s KAM Summit will be held in two parts of the day; morning sessions will be from 10 am and evening sessions will be held from 5/6:00 pm.

    We are excited to bring to you this massive extravaganza and information-loaded KAM summit to make the animation industry propel to new heights.

    Click here for the complete KAM SUMMIT 2021 Agenda

    For additional information and for Summit Registration kindly visit the KAM SUMMIT 2021 

    Click here to know more about Ann Awards

  • SC to hear Centre’s plea on new IT Rules on 16 July

    SC to hear Centre’s plea on new IT Rules on 16 July

    New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the proceedings in connection with petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre’s new IT rules before various high courts.

    The Centre had approached the apex court on Tuesday seeking transfer of all pending pleas challenging its new IT rules to itself, and had also sought a stay on the proceedings in various courts. However, the bench said that it will not pass any order as of now, except tagging the transfer petition with the said special leave petition (SLPs).

    The Court will now hear the Centre’s plea on 16 July along with a pending matter related to the regulation of over-the-top (OTT) platforms. 

    Numerous petitions challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, are currently pending in various high courts across the country.

    The new rules notified on 25 February, came into effect on 26 May recommend a three-tier mechanism for the regulation of all online media. According to the new IT Rules, social media and streaming companies will be required to take down contentious content quicker, appoint grievance redressal officers and assist in investigations. The rules also seek to regulate the functioning of online media portals and publishers, over-the-top (OTT) platforms and social media intermediaries.

    Some of the pleas pending before the Delhi high court have sought striking down of specific part of the IT Rules on the ground that it allegedly violates Article 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, Article 14 of the Constitution by creating an unreasonable classification and by setting up a parallel adjudicatory mechanism to be overseen by the officials of the executive and is ultra vires the IT Act.

  • ALTBalaji launches monsoon special #ALTBINGEATHON campaign

    ALTBalaji launches monsoon special #ALTBINGEATHON campaign

    KOLKATA: ALTBalaji has introduced its latest monsoon campaign #ALTBINGEATHON to take a fun route to raise awareness around staying safe at home amidst the pandemic and lift spirits by binge-watching ALTBalaji’s entertaining content library.

    With 80 per cent of its audience aged below 35 years, ALTBalaji introduces this quirky campaign for the youth that encourages everyone to stay at home safely while giving them a wide variety of captivating content to explore and enjoy, the platform said in a statement.

    The OTT platform has also rolled out a social media campaign, reminding people to log into ALTBalaji and binge-watch their shows, amidst monsoons, with an engaging video.

    Speaking on the campaign, ALTBalaji’s marketing & revenue SVP Divya Dixit said, “Monsoon is the perfect weather to get into our cozy space and enjoy binge-watching our favourite shows while we relish the rains through the window. #ALTBINGEATHON is a reminder to our audience to go back and watch those shows they always wanted to. With 84+ Hindi original shows across all genres, we want our audiences to be spoiled for choice. We can only promise more and more entertaining content going forward.”

    With a strategy to focus on youth programming for the country, ALTBalaji’s offerings include premium, disruptive content and original series across genres. The company boasts of 4.7 million subscriptions during the year and currently has an active subscriber base of over 2.3 million.

  • Amazon Prime signs multiyear licensing deal with Comcast’s Universal

    Amazon Prime signs multiyear licensing deal with Comcast’s Universal

    New Delhi: Starting 2022, Universal Pictures’ new live action films will first debut on Comcast’s OTT platform Peacock after their theatrical releases, and then land exclusively on Amazon Prime Video four months later.

    The arrangement is part of a multiyear deal that Amazon has signed with Comcast’s Universal Pictures and Peacock, and applies to all live-action films including Jurassic World: Dominion that are scheduled to be released in theatres in 2022.

    The deal is part of the company’s plan to change the traditional home entertainment release pattern. Generally, new movies go to a cable channel or streaming service about six months or more after they debut in cinemas. These films remain with the outlet for an 18-month window, which is referred to as the ‘Pay-One Window’.

    Under the new arrangement, Universal will send its films to streaming quicker and will break up the 18-month period. So, new movies will go to Peacock four months after their theatrical debut, and four months later, these films will be available on Amazon Prime Video for ten months and then back to Peacock for four months, it said in a statement.

    “We’re thrilled to team up with Amazon to deliver our titles to its customers. This agreement further delivers on our distribution strategy to monetize our unparalleled movie library across multiple services, while offering customers the most choice, control and flexibility in how, when and where they watch films,” said UEFG, vice chairman and chief distribution officer, Peter Levinsohn in a statement.

    As the streaming war rages on, media companies are trying new strategies to bolster their streaming services and challenge the domination of streaming giant Netflix, which currently boasts of 208 million subscribers. 

  • Viacom18 takes a bold bet with Bigg Boss, to launch Season 15 first on Voot

    Viacom18 takes a bold bet with Bigg Boss, to launch Season 15 first on Voot

    KOLKATA: In an industry-first move, Viacom18 will launch its marquee entertainment property, Bigg Boss, first on Voot for six weeks. Titled Bigg Boss OTT, it will premiere in August 2021 with unprecedented access, engagement, and interactivity empowering viewers to immerse themselves in the journey of contestants in the Bigg Boss house. 

    In addition to the hour-long episode on Voot, viewers will get a chance to watch exclusive cuts, round-the-clock content drops, and a fully interactive 24*7 LIVE feed from the house. After the completion of the digital exclusive, the show will move seamlessly into Colors with the launch of Season 15 of Bigg Boss, said the channel on Friday.

    A high-priced entertainment property, Bigg Boss has stamped its pull even in the hyper-competitive digital entertainment space. With over 8.5 billion views, the show has dominated the digital space with a 92 percent share-of-voice. It has also garnered significant patronage of brands and advertisers who continue to engage with the property, season after season.

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures chief operating officer Gourav Rakshit said, “The launch of Bigg Boss OTT exclusively on Voot before TV is poised to be yet another game-changer in digital entertainment and a step forward in further cementing our position as the most loved consumer entertainment brand. This season is set to empower our audiences through unparalleled category-defining innovation through interactivity which we are sure will provide significance to our users, advertisers, and brands alike.”

    While the OTT exclusive starts in August, Bigg Boss will go live first on Voot, and after six weeks of exclusive streaming on digital, the show will launch in a fresh avatar in its 15th season on COLORS.

    Viacom18 Hindi Mass Entertainment chief content officer Manisha Sharma said, “The new digital exclusive format will take the show’s fandom to its next level through active engagement with viewers being able to play a part in the show’s progress. The beauty of this show lies in the versatility of format and the massive popularity it commands – both aspects helping us in customizing the show as two different content offerings for the two different platforms while maintaining its core ethos.”

  • Travelxp bets big on OTT content, launches new platform Travelxp RED

    Travelxp bets big on OTT content, launches new platform Travelxp RED

    New Delhi: The OTT boom has taken the world by storm over the last few years and India remains one of its fastest growing markets. The latest entrant is India’s global travel channel, Travelxp, which has now joined the race and announced its new streaming platform- Travelxp Watch.

    Travelxp is available on the App Store and the Google Play Store and is planning to add TV Apps by the end of this month. More than 250 original travel stories, of which 50 per cent are shot in 4K HDR, will be available in English, Hindi as well as in two regional Indian languages – Tamil and Bengali, it said on Wednesday.

    It will be streaming more than 150+ hours of original travel content and hopes to increase the library strength to 1000+ hours of content by the end of FY 2022.

    “We launched the world’s first 4K HDR Channel in 2016, and now the world’s first 4K HDR Travel OTT Platform, with Travelxp Watch. We are delighted to bring the power of 4K HDR to our Indian fanbase,” said Travelxp 4K| HD, founder CEO Prashant Chothani. “The project has been in the works for nearly two years now, we wanted to get it right with regards to the entire customer experience. In a period where travel is going to see a big resurgence, Travelxp is going to be at the heart of supporting the travel recovery with the power of content.”

    The entire product was built by an inhouse team through the entire Covid lockdown.

    “The passion of the team in creating a platform that resembles the simplicity and joy of travel has seen us shoot up to the Top 50 Apps in India for the Travel Category in less than a week since launch, and we have more than 30,000+ Monthly Active Users already,” said Tanay Chothani, who joined Travelxp two years ago to lead all Digital Projects, a major part of which constituted the OTT Platform.

    Chothani highlighted that the content driven commerce model is going to be a big part of Travelxp’s strategy going forward. “The power of video is unparalleled in driving demand and also giving viewers more decision making power. While we showcase the world in the beautiful 4K HDR quality we are known for, we are also going a step further and allowing our users to book and plan their travels, right from the same app,” he added.

    Travelxp’s OTT Platform is available at www.travelxp.com.