ITV

Tag: OTT

  • Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sunil Lulla steps down

    Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sunil Lulla steps down

    MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms group CEO Sunil Lulla has stepped down from his post last week. Industry sources confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com. Lulla was appointed as group CEO last year. Indiantelevision.com reached out to Balaji but they didn’t respond till the time of publication. 

    His experience spans over three decades of experience across media, entertainment and the broadcast industries. He served as chairman and managing director at advertising agency Grey Group India. He also led the rollout of MTV in India and launched the television network for Bennett Coleman & Co, The Times Television Network.

    Moreover, Lulla has been one of the early internet explorers with indya.com in 2000. He also played key role on many boards and forums of the broadcast industry helping to shape policies, set industry standards and best practices.

  • Pocket Aces raises $14.7 mn fresh funds

    Pocket Aces raises $14.7 mn fresh funds

    MUMBAI: Digital studio Pocket Aces has raised $14.7 million from Sequoia Capital, DSP Group, 3one4 Capital along with other prominent investors.

    The Mumbai-based firm plans to use the fresh capital to invest in content, technology and talent. It has also plans to expand social distribution by starting three new content channels in the next 12 months. It is targeting a run-rate of 1 billion monthly video views on original content by 2020 while now its shows garner 500 million views per month.

    “With massive penetration of mobile internet and a large consumer base hungry for local content, we believe there has never been a better time to build a large content business here," said Ashwin Suresh, Anirudh Pandita and Aditi Shrivastava in a joint statement.

    Currently, Pocket Aces operates three socially distributed content channels: FilterCopy (short videos), Dice Media (long-form videos) and Gobble (food and lifestyle videos). It uses local advertising to monetize and currently works with brands. Moreover, the company launched its Loco app last year which has over 15 million registered users.

  • ALTbalaji & ZEE5 announce content alliance to grow the subscription video on demand business

    ALTbalaji & ZEE5 announce content alliance to grow the subscription video on demand business

    National: With an aim to leverage each other’s strengths in the OTT domain, ZEE5 and ALTBalajihave collaborated to co-create original content which will only be available on both platforms. 

    The content sharing arrangement,  includes co-creation of 60+ Original content series (in Hindi) which will be available exclusively to SVOD subscribers of both platforms. This association is a collaborative process of co-understanding consumer insights and co-marketing to serve the viewer better and resulting in improved monetisation for both. 

    ZEE5 and ALTBalaji have established their content strength globally, and the synergy will result in two of the largest homegrown video streaming platforms coming together to expand their subscription base and grow the binge-watching culture globally.

    Mr. Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL said, “I truly cherish the bond between Balaji and ZEE, which has been nurtured and built over the last two decades. Together, we have created some path breaking content masterpieces which have truly entertained our esteemed audiences. I am most certain that this association will enable both the brands to re-create the magic, this time in the digital space.”

    As per the association, ALTBalaji will maintain an exclusive partnership with ZEE5, in order to enhance its offering to the market, with a focused and strategic approach.

    Commenting on this development Mrs. Shobha Kapoor, Managing Director, Balaji Telefilms said, “This collaboration strengthens the 25 yearold fruitful relationship between Zee Group and Balaji Telefilms, from Television content, to Movie Monetisation and now to Digital Video Streaming. It plays to each partner’s individual strength and the consumer is the ultimate winner. This partnership will result in Balaji Telefilms being profitable as an entity, thereby giving us an opportunity to scale up our business ambitions, creating value for all our stakeholders.”

    In two years of commercial launch, ALTBalaji has one of the largest libraries of Hindi original and exclusive shows. It remains one of India’s favourite online destinations for truly engaging content. Shows such as  The Test Case, Apharan, Home, Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain, and Bose: Dead or Alive have won many accolades and has an ever-growing audience base that watches Indian shows across the globe.

    Ms. Ekta Kapoor, Joint MD,  Balaji Telefilms added, “As part of this partnership ZEE5 subscribers will get seamless access to ALTBalaji’s clutter breaking originals in addition to ZEE5 existing content. This partnership enables  ALTBalaji to continue to  scale up rapidly its content creation ambitions and focus on building the largest library of original exclusive shows in India. We hope that ALTBalaji and ZEE5 will set benchmarks in unique storytelling.”

    Mr. TarunKatial, CEO, ZEE5 Indiaadded, “In the first year of going live, we, at ZEE5, have focussed on building a strong repository of content and this is evident in the 100,000+ hours of content that we have on the platform. Overtime, we have seen a steady increase in viewership of regional originalcontent and this partnershipwill be a great opportunity for our viewers to enjoy the best of both worlds – the one created by ALTBalaji and us.We believe, this will be a game-changer for both – the industry as well as the audiences. We are glad to initiate this trend where content creators can partner to bring the best immersive experience for the viewers.Thiscollaboration promises immense growth potential for both partners.”

    In 2019 itself, ZEE5 has rolled out around 25 original shows across genres, and the platform is committed to launching 72+shows by March 2020. It has crossed 50 million gross downloads since launch on the Play Store and had 76.4million monthly active users globally in June 2019.
     

  • ZEEL’s Punit Goenka says ZEE5 to see peak investment in FY 20

    ZEEL’s Punit Goenka says ZEE5 to see peak investment in FY 20

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (ZEEL) digital venture touched 76.4 million monthly active users (MAU) in the first quarter of FY20 making the media conglomerate more bullish on its new bet. While the over-the-top (OTT) platform is coming up with a number of original shows in different languages, ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka said this year will see the highest investment in ZEE5.

    “This year will be the peak investment in ZEE5. I am not guiding for any specific number for ZEE5,” Goenka said in an earnings call after Q1 results. He also noted that the company’s margins guidance is factoring in the losses on account of ZEE5, or any other investment that they may have. Content costs, which are already rising, will be impacted due to the ramp-up in ZEE5.

    Goenka also re-emphasised his confidence in the company’s ability to monetise ZEE5. Though revenue is in accordance with its plans and targets, it isn’t enough to have a significant impact on the top-line.

    The streaming service had a global daily active user (DAU) base of 6.6 million in June. It also witnessed a hike in user engagement as users spent an average of 33 minutes per day on the platform in contrast to 31 minutes per day in the last quarter.

    “So, a part of the earlier quarter, the number I gave were only India numbers. Now that international has launched that also contributes to the MAUs. Yes, we did see an increase in India as well. But it got further strengthened with the international numbers,” Goenka commented on MAU growth.

    Although there has been a sharp increase in ZEE5’s MAU in every quarter after its launch, Goenka said the company is not satisfied with the DAU-MAU ratio yet. While it ranges between 8 or 9 per cent, the industry standard is 25 per cent. He expects ZEE5 to touch this mark in six quarters’ time.

    The current trend being OTT tying up with telcos, ZEE5 is yet to take a step in that direction. Out of the three large telcos, while it is yet to strike a deal with one, about 50 per cent partnership has been established with another. But, Goenka denied giving any particular completion timeframe for it.

    On competitor Netflix’s newly-launched mobile-only plan, Goenka said, “It’s too early to comment as to how mobile-only will impact, because, in the end, that is just a pricing strategy that they have done. It does not really tell me too much about the content strategy. And therefore, as you will appreciate, for any OTT platform or content-driven business, the basic need is content. Until that does not change, life would not change significantly.”

    A recent PTI report stated that ZEE5 is planning to test mobile-only packs too.

  • ZEE5 MAU touches 76.4 mn in Q1 of FY 20

    ZEE5 MAU touches 76.4 mn in Q1 of FY 20

    MUMBAI: Media conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s (ZEEL) digital arm ZEE5 continues its growth in user base reaching 76.4 million monthly active users (MAU). ZEEL in its first quarter financial result of FY 20 revealed the MAU of the streaming platform as of June 2019 while it had 61.5 million MAUs in the quarter ended March 2019.

    The streaming service had a global daily active user base of 6.6 million in June. It has also witnessed a hike in user engagement as users spent an average of 33 minutes per day on the platform in contrast to 31 minutes per day in the last quarter.

    During the quarter, ZEE5 launched 18 Original shows and movies including seven in regional languages. The company said that many of the shows helped ZEE5 to grow its paid subscriber base. The streaming service also entered into new partnerships with Hathway and ACT Fibernet in the quarter to offer bundled package to consumers. Moreover, ZEE5 also tied up with players in the online ecosystem like Myntra, Qwikcilver, Netmeds and Gaana.com.

    “ZEE5 continues its strong run and is working towards achieving its aim of becoming India's # 1 digital entertainment platform. In the international markets, it has seen an encouraging response in the initial phase. I am confident that with its strong content line-up and partnerships with leading players in the digital eco-system, value proposition of the platform and engagement with the consumers will continue to improve," ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka commented in the earnings release.

    Along with the expansion in the domestic market, ZEEL is looking at an international expansion of its digital business as well. Following the launch in priority APAC markets, ZEE5 commenced marketing activities in the neighbouring countries to leverage its language and content affinity. To tap into the existing demand for Indian content in several markets, it also soft-launched dubbed content in five international languages. Moreover, the roll-out in APAC will be followed by MENA, Europe, Canada and Caribbean markets.

  • Paying OTT subs to reach 30-35 mn by 2021, only 2x growth in ad revenue

    Paying OTT subs to reach 30-35 mn by 2021, only 2x growth in ad revenue

    MUMBAI: Digital media is set to overtake filmed entertainment in India this year in terms of revenue. While TV will retain its pole position as the largest segment, digital will also overtake print by 2021 to reach $5.1 billion, according to a report from FICCI and EY report on ‘How a billion screens can turn India into a media and entertainment powerhouse’.

    In this overwhelming growth of digital media, telecom operators will be the future MSOs. As per the report, while 60 per cent of total consumption today is through telco bundles, it is estimated to grow to over 75 per cent by 2021 and cater to over 375 million subscribers. Smartphone penetration is just 36 per cent in 2018, leaving massive room for growth. 30 per cent of phone time is dedicated to entertainment.

    “While watch time could grow 3 to 3.5x over the next five years, resulting in a massive inventory growth, advertising revenues will grow only around 2x. CPMs will correspondingly fall during the period for non-premium inventory,” the report added.

    Along with growth in advertising revenues, subscription revenue is also projected to grow. The report predicts 30-35 million paying OTT video subscribers and 6-7 million paying audio subscribers by 2021.

    “Digital segment will benefit from the growing popularity of e-sports, AR/VR technologies, online gaming and fantasy sports, all of which are “Generation Z” products,” it added. “With its massive base of internet users, India’s digital media market is attractive to global streaming platforms looking to capitalise on the country’s fast-growing digital consumption. This is especially true as competitively priced 4G services become more widely available.”

    The report went on to mention that despite the growth in digital media consumption, piracy threat is
    “likely to restrict full monetisation of content as well as large-scale acceptance of SVoD in India”. It mentioned, “Indian market is highly price-sensitive and is driven majorly by advertising revenues. Several sectors such as print, digital, television and radio derive major share of their revenues from advertising.”

    The report highlighted that consolidation will be needed for platform profitability as contest costs will remain high as each platform produces or acquires content to meet its needs. It also added that post the new tariff order regime, OTT platforms are sure to benefit due to increased parity between television and OTT content choice and costs.

  • SVoD-Pay TV combined households increasing

    SVoD-Pay TV combined households increasing

    MUMBAI: With the advent of subscription-based video-on-demand services (SVoD), Pay-TV households are declining globally. But numbers of SVoD only households along with SVoD-Pay-TV combined households are increasing, according to a report from Ampere Analysis.

    As per the report, a combination of pay-TV, premium channel and SVoD is the most common among television service subscribers, followed by pay-TV and SVoD and SVoD-only.

    While the proportion of Pay-TV-only households are down four points, proportion of households combining pay-TV, premium channel and SVoD services has increased four points in the last 12 months. Although SVoD and pay-TV is the most common service combination among internet users, the proportions range between 55 per cent in Turkey to 14 per cent in Japan.

    “While there are markets such as Australia, Italy and Japan where SVoD-only is becoming the norm, this data reinforces pay-TV’s position in the market, and its continued importance to consumers in the viewing mix,” Ampere Analysis consumer research lead Minal Modha said.

  • Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on global opportunity, subscriber addition and competition

    MUMBAI: With Disney all set to enter the direct-to-consumer business with its streaming app, Netflix missing its subscriber addition forecast globally along with losing subscribers in the domestic market is likely to be trouble. Although stocks of the FANG company stumbled as an aftermath of the Q2 result, Netflix is confident of getting back on track in the next quarter. Talking to investors in an earnings call after the Q2 result, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also showed confidence in global subscriber additions, upcoming competition and the positive impact of streaming war.

    Here are the edited excerpts:

    Global opportunity:

    Well, we do wonder, in the fullness of time, can we be as big as YouTube? YouTube is 7x larger than us roughly in viewing hours, and a phenomenal service. Of course, it's free. So the real question is can we produce enough content that people are willing to pay for? If you look at benchmarks, it's about 700 million households that pay for television outside of China, so that would be kind of the equivalent of the US, 100 million, so that's one established market.

    Now, do we have enough content in each of those countries? Most of that is local content that gets consumed. But the internet is capable of some very large customer bases, as you, I'm sure, know well. So we'll just take it year-by-year and try to have our net adds continue to grow. We still think our net adds this year will be larger than last year. We'll keep pushing on that. And what we want to do is just grow the net adds every year and then the future takes care of itself.

    Streaming War:

    It's never been a better world for talent. They get to bid themselves off between us, Disney, Amazon, etc. So there's a real battle for who will pay for content around the world, but it's not a zero-sum competition. I think everybody gets that people will subscribe to multiple shows. Add wage — most Netflix employees are HBO subscribers. We love the content they do and that spurs us to want to be even better. So it's a great competition that helps grow the industry. And the advantage of having something catchy like streaming wars is it draws more attention. And because of that, people, consumers shift more quickly from linear TV to the streaming TV.

    Product partnerships for Stranger Things:

    Well, we're monetising it today in more membership growth. The focus is to get more people excited about Stranger Things. So they join Netflix. They tell their friends about it. So this year, we'll add about $5 billion of incremental subscription revenue, which is almost all of the gross margin, and that's faster than any entertainment company has grown in the history of the world. So what we want to do is keep that engine going, keep that subscriber engine going and not get distracted with alternative revenue sources which just don't add up when you're growing $5 billion a year. So the core focus is to create all these merchandising opportunities, tie-ins, touch points so that you feel the Stranger Things energy so that more people join. So together, as we do monetise all that, it's just we're monetising it through our giant engine rather than through little sidecar vehicles.

  • Netflix confirms Q3 roll-out of lower-priced mobile-screen plan for India

    Netflix confirms Q3 roll-out of lower-priced mobile-screen plan for India

    MUMBAI: Finally taking note of the price-sensitive Indian market, streaming giant Netflix has decided to roll out a lower-priced mobile screen plan in India. The streaming giant sees the new plan, which will launch in Q3, as an effective measure to expand its subscriber base in India. Earlier, the streamer had highlighted the need to lower prices for greater accessibility and more subscribers after its Q1 results.

    “After several months of testing, we’ve decided to roll out a lower-priced mobile-screen plan in India to complement our existing plans. We believe this plan, which will launch in Q3, will be an effective way to introduce a larger number of people in India to Netflix and to further expand our business in a market where Pay TV ARPU is low (below $5). We will continue to learn more after launch of this plan,” the company said in its letter to shareholders.

    It was reported a few months ago that the streaming giant was experimenting with a mobile only monthly plan priced at Rs 250 and weekly plan priced at Rs 65. It was reported that the mobile-only plans would allow users to access the platform on mobile phone and tablet but only on one screen at a time. However, the company has not revealed any price point yet.

    The move comes at a time when the Indian over-the-top (OTT) scene is witnessing a fierce battle among both international and home grown players to gain a stronger foothold in the market. All the OTT platforms are taking several steps including special subscription packages, telco bundling and sachets to attract more subscribers. Despite significant investment in high-quality content like Scared Games, Netflix has not yet been able to be break into the top-three OTT platforms list in India.

    While Hotstar is still leading the race, international rival Amazon Prime Video is also way ahead of Netflix. Moreover, Indian consumers are heavily inclined to consume content on small screens given the affordability of smart phones and cheaper mobile broadband data.

    “We're quite certain that we should do something to find a price tier that's lower than the existing lowest price tier to broaden that accessibility. We think that they'll be important to adding members in India. We'll see what the right mix of features is, because there is a bit of a magic to try and get the right set of features at the right price point in a way that the consumer can relate to, right, it has to be sort of natural and intuitive to the consumer that this is what they're getting. So we've got more work to go do there, but it's something we're highly focused on,” Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said in an earnings call after the Q1 result. Peters also said mobile-only plans can be a great example to get subscriber economy right.

    Explaining the relevance of the move, Peters said in an earnings call after Q2 results that there is an opportunity to broaden the access to the service, especially at a time when the company is expanding content offering. He also added that they are seeing a growth in engagement. 

    "So that's the primary motivator for that move, so we can broaden the audience that can love that content, enjoy that content that Ted's team is making. And that's great because like when we launched Sacred Games season 2, when you have a bigger audience for it, that means we can create more social buzz and more excitement about that show. So we're doing that. We're also working on the partnerships we have in the market because we think there are specific opportunities to improve accessibility via those partnerships as well," he added.

    While the streaming giant has very recently announced five new originals for India, it is particularly excited about Baahubali. At a time when Netflix is increasing its focus on original films, this will be the first move into a really large scale Indian original film. 

    "It's based on a film that was hugely popularly a year ago and this is a series prequel, sequel model that way things going to be incredibly popular in India and we've been seeing steady, nice steady increases and engagement with our Indian viewers that we think we can keep billing on. Growth in that country is a marathon. So we're, in it for the long haul and we're seeing nice steady progress," Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos commented. 

  • Hotstar dominates OTT reach statistics

    Hotstar dominates OTT reach statistics

    MUMBAI: Star India-led Hotstar is the chart leader of the Indian OTT market. According to a report by Data Intelligence & Management Platform KalaGato, Hotstar has the highest 'Reach by Install' of 45.88 per cent as of March 2019.

    As per the report, Hotstar leads the reach followed by newest entrant Times Internet-led  MX Player with 41.4 per cent 'Reach by Install'. Moreover, the former also leads the chart in terms of market share by install with 23.8 per cent.

    “Combined with quality content, Hotstar’s investment in cricket streaming rights has helped it garner tremendous market share,” KalaGato chief business officer Aman Kumar said. “MX Player was originally a popular video player app that Times Internet bought in early 2018 and turned into an online streaming platform. This allowed it to enter the market with a large download base that had already installed the app,” he added.

    Hotstar, which till last year relied on sports, catch-up content and films, decided to take a leap into content early this year with a new vertical called “Hotstar Specials” to offer premium shows. While it already has a strong foothold in the advertising-led business model, Hotstar Specials has been launched to scale up subscription revenue.

    Source: Data from KalaGato

    Reliance Jio’s OTT service app Jio TV has increased its reach by install gradually since last year and is now at 34.08 per cent. Both international players Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have increased their reach significantly. While the former stood with 17.06 per cent , the latter stood with 10.37 per cent. Netflix has already announced five new original series on Tuesday. Its international rival Amazon Prime Video has recently unveiled the trailer of its popular series Comicstaan along with premiering a number of titles both in Hindi and regional languages. 

    According to a report by global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), India’s video streaming industry is all set to grow at a CAGR of 21.82 per cent to reach Rs 11,977 crore by 2023. It added that the OTT video industry will record the highest growth rate among all segments and drive evolution over the next four years in the overall media and entertainment industry.