ITV

Tag: Side Hero

  • ErosNow targets subscriber base of 5 cr; fuels Eros International growth

    ErosNow targets subscriber base of 5 cr; fuels Eros International growth

    BENGALURU: Eros International Plc (Eros International) reported its strongest quarterly performance ever over two year for the three months ended 31 December 2018 (Q3 2019). The company in its investor release says that it closed Q3 2019 with a paying subscriber base of 15.9 million or 1.59 crore. The company says that it is targeting 50 million (5 crore) paying subscribers in the next three years.

    “Our digital & ancillary business generated $35.6 million in revenue, a growth of 31.4 percent over last quarter, and represented 46.4 percent of our total revenue this quarter – the largest proportion ever. Eros Now achieved 15.9 million paid subscribers this quarter, which represents growth of 218 percent year-over-year, and registered users grew to more than 142 million, (14.2 crore) a 78 percent increase versus the prior year period.

    Eros International is currently at an inflection point transforming itself into a holistic content and digital ecosystem. As we continue to undergo this shift we expect the skew of digital and ancilliary revenues to increase relative to our traditional theatrical and TV syndication businesses. The shift to digital will increase the visibility of our earnings as we move towards a more annuity-type business model – higher quality of earnings and more sustainable growth.” Eros International is listed in the New York Stock Exchange.

    To that extent the company says that it has built its digital catalogue on the Eros Now Platform to over 12,000 movies across 10 Indian languages and counting.

    The company is also looking at music to help ramp up revenues. The music ecosystem in India has been growing exponentially over the past few years. In India there are currently over 100 million (10 crore) digital audio streaming users, a number which is growing rapidly says Eros International. Music is integral to its films and its premium content offering to consumers claims Eros. Film music is often marketed and monetised separate from the underlying film, both before and after release. The company says that its deep music library comprises a key component to our unique ErosNow offering, being the only app combining both video and music entertainment. Eros International feels that its  music content also represents significant value in the form of intellectual property rights, the value of which is set to grow over time.

    Company speak

    Eros executive chairman and CEO Kishore Lulla commented, “We grew quarterly revenue 21.0 percent over last quarter and expanded our Adjusted EBITDA margin to 40.9 percent. Our foresight into creating a diversified slate, both linguistically and by budget, helped deliver strong television sales as well as theatrical and digital results. Our ErosNow OTT platform has continued to grow rapidly and reached 15.9 million paid monthly subscribers as of December 31, 2018, a 22.3 percent increase over last quarter. We have achieved our previously announced year-end target of 16 million paying subscribers in just nine months. This tremendous achievement in a relatively short period of time demonstrates that we are well on our way to achieving 50 million (5 crore) paying subscribers in the next three years. Our balance sheet remains conservative and we are well-capitalised, with net debt of $159.1 million, a decrease versus the second quarter of FY 2019."

    Let us look at the numbers reported by Eros International as mentioned in its earnings release.

    Eros reported gross revenue for three and nine months ended 31 December 2018, respectively are $86.6 million and $225.6 million compared to $67.5 million and $193.7 million for the three and nine months ended 31 December 2017, respectively. Gross revenue for the three and nine months ended 31 December 2018, respectively, have been adjusted towards significant financing component on account of adoption of new accounting pronouncements says Eros International.

    Eros reported revenue for three and nine months ended 31 December 2018 are $76.7 million and $200.4 million, respectively, compared to $65.2 million and $189.3 million for the three and nine months ended 31 December 2017, respectively.

    For the three months ended 31 December 2018, the aggregate revenues from digital and ancillary increased by 55.5 percent to $35.6 million from $22.9 million for the three months ended 31 December 2017 and in the nine months ended 31 December 2018, revenue increased by 41.0 percent to $89.4 million, compared to $63.4 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2017. The increase in revenue is primarily on account of contribution from catalogue revenues and digital business.

    Revenue from India increased by 27.4 percent to $28.4 million in the three months ended 31 December 2018, compared to $22.3 million in the three months ended 31 December 2018 and in the nine months ended 31 December 2018, revenue from India increased by 3.8 percent to $75.8 million, compared to $73.0 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2018. The variation is due to mix of films.

    Revenue from Europe increased by 141.2 percent to $12.3 million in the three months ended 31 December 2018, compared to $5.1 million in the three months ended 31 December 2017 and in the nine months ended 31 December 2018, revenue from Europe increased by 118.8 percent to $43.1 million, compared to $19.7 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2017. This was due to higher contribution from the monetisation of catalogue films.

    Revenue from North America increased by 700.0 percent to $0.8 million in the three months ended 31 December 2018, compared to $0.1 million in the three months ended 31 December 2017 and in the nine months ended 31 December 2018, revenue from North America increased by 114.3 percent to $1.5 million, compared to $0.7 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2017.

    Revenue from the rest of the world decreased by 6.6 percent to $35.2 million in the three months ended 31 December 2018, compared to $37.7 million in the three months ended 31 December 2017 and in the nine months ended 31 December 2018, revenue from rest of world decreased by 16.6 percent to $80.0 million, compared to $95.9 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2017. This was due to lower catalogue sales during the period.

    For the three months ended 31 December 2018, adjusted EBITDA increased by 21.2 percent to $31.4 million compared to $25.9 million in the three months ended 31 December 2017.

    The increase in adjusted EBITDA was on account strong catalogue sales which was partially offset by increases in amortisation, marketing, advertising and distribution costs for three months ended 31 December 2018.

    In the nine months ended 31 December 2018, adjusted EBITDA increased by 39.0 percent to $81.9 million, compared to $58.9 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2017.

    Releases reported by Eros in its earnings release

    In the three months ended December 31, 2018, the Eros film slate was comprised of 25 films, of which two were medium budget and 23 were low budget as compared to four films in the three months ended December 31, 2017, of which all were low budget films. In addition, Eros Now released three original series titled Smoke, Date Gone Wrong and Paisa Fek Tamasha Dekh during the three months ended December 31, 2018.

    In the three months ended December 31, 2018, the Company’s slate of 25 films comprised of six Hindi films, 17 regional films and two Tamil/Telugu as compared to the same period last year where its slate of four films comprised three Hindi films and one regional film.

    In the nine months ended December 31, 2018, the Eros film slate was comprised of 56 films of which seven were medium budget and 49 were low budget films as compared to 16 films in the nine months ended December 31, 2017, of which one film was high budget, three were medium budget and twelve were low budget. In addition, Eros Now released four original series titled Side Hero, Smoke, Date Gone Wrong and Paisa Fek Tamasha Dekh during the nine months ended December 31, 2018

    In the nine months ended December 31, 2018, the Company’s slate of 56 films comprised of 14 Hindi films, five Tamil/Telugu film and 37 regional films as compared to the same period last year where its slate of 16 films comprised of eight Hindi films, one Tamil/Telugu films and seven regional films.

  • Riding on the reach and success of Side Hero, Eros Now set to bring Season 2 of the comedy series

    Riding on the reach and success of Side Hero, Eros Now set to bring Season 2 of the comedy series

    MUMBAI: Eros Now, the cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform owned by Eros International Plc (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros”), a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment, recently released their first original series Side Hero directed by Rohan Sippy on September 24th. The eight-episode series received an overwhelming response from audiences prompting the OTT platform to announce the second season of Side Hero.

    Enjoying tremendous popularity with a rating of 8.6 on IMDB as well as the number one position on Top Hindi Movies and Shows section within a week of its release on IMDB over other recently released movies during the same period such as Sui Dhaaga, the self-deprecatory comedy based on the life of actor Kunaal Roy Kapur stood firm ground against competition. The trailer of the series itself, clocked more than 10 million online views within a period of a week, making it one of the most watched trailers of any Indian Original Series. Most of its assets prior to the series’ launch on Eros Now including the poster and trailer, saw the highest level of engagement as well as trended on social media.

    Interestingly, Side Hero lent to a greater contribution of viewership from larger screens with twice the amount viewership from premium subscription users as compared to basic users. The build up to the series tracked very well with viewers in 75 countries across the world sampling Side Hero episodes in the first week of launch itself. Further elaborating on the consumption pattern, Eros Now revealed the series enjoys 85% viewership in the age bracket of 18-24 (male & female) lending to an endemic viewership growth in the core target audience for the show.

    Recently, Eros Now was awarded the ‘Best Web-Series’ for Side Hero along with Kunaal Roy Kapur bagging the award for Best Actor at the Streaming Awards hosted by Digital Hash in October 2018, adding another feather to the success of Side Hero series.

    Talking about the success of the series, Ridhima Lulla, Chief Content Officer, Eros Group said, "It's overwhelming and humbling to receive such positive reactions to our very first original. This heartening response has encouraged us to consider following up the series with Season 2 as the show seems to have found its own fan base.  With series like Side Hero, we want to continue bringing interesting programming that the youth haven’t sampled before and we hope audiences remain appreciative of our content offering.”

    Director Rohan Sippy added, “We had a lot of fun creating Side Hero and partnering with Eros Now. Looking forward to unleashing Season 2 and take it to the next level, amplifying the crazy quotient. Fresh ideas have started brewing already”.

    Lead actor Kunaal Roy Kapur said, “I’m really thrilled with the response we have received for ‘Side Hero’ and excited that Eros Now has decided that we need another season of crazy stories from the belly of Bollywood. Can’t wait to start”.

    Side Hero Season 2 will reprise the same cast and will be directed by Rohan Sippy. Season 2 is slated for release in 2019. The series stars Kunaal Roy Kapur, Gauhar Khan, Arjun Kanungo and Gopal Dutt. All episodes are streaming and available for binge viewing for INR 49 and INR 99 per month on Eros Now.

  • Eros Now to launch original regional web series by early 2019

    Eros Now to launch original regional web series by early 2019

    MUMBAI: Eros Now, the digital arm of Eros International announced its foray into the original content space with its first series Side Hero, with all episodes available for binge-viewing from 24 September 2018. Directed by Rohan Sippy and produced by Ramesh Sippy entertainment productions, Side Hero stars Kunaal Roy Kapur as a fictionalised version of himself, trying to become a lead hero and prove that acting is not just a hobby.

    The web series consists of eight episodes with duration of 25-30 minutes. According to Eros Group chief content officer Ridhima Lulla, all the shows Eros Now intends to create are multi-seasonal. The OTT platform plans to roll out one to two originals a month. “We don’t want to restrict ourselves in the genres we want to create. This one is comedy, you will also see in drama, thriller, mythology or fantasy,” she added.

    The show’s quirky tagline ‘IskoKaunDekhega’ takes a dig at Kunaal Roy Kapur’s character showcasing Side Hero’s self-deprecating humour.

    Eros Digital chief operating officer Ali Hussein said, “The platform is planning to launch regional content in early 2019. All our short form content is free and long form content is behind the pay-wall. Currently, we are trying to figure out how to work with the advertisers not just in the short form but also in the long form space. We won’t be like a traditional AVOD brand. We are in conversation with top 10 brands in the country like Cadbury, Fevicol, Nivia, Myntra, Diageo and they have all reached out to us.”

    Lulla mentioned that there will be regional focus too as Eros doesn’t want to only look at Hindi content. “First few months we will focus on Hindi but in the next couple of months we will be kicking off a lot of regional content as well,” she said.

    The digital entertainment platform plans to strategically encompass marketing elements such as on-air promotions, creating social media buzz, on-ground association, outdoor campaigns, radio spots and various PR tools, making it an impactful campaign. Side Hero will be extensively promoted on major broadcast channels through a 15-day long campaign alongside aggressive promotions on leading radio stations in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Eros Now will also tactically use outdoor medium for promotions at 100+ sites in Mumbai.

    “We have got our partners like Google, Apple and many more doing something interesting for us. I think the surrounding noise of it is bigger than what Netflix and Amazon can potentially do because we are not necessarily dependent on a third party medium. Media value of our budget will be bigger than Amazon and Netflix because of our partnerships,” Hussein added.

    As of August 2018, Eros Now enjoys viewership from 100+ countries and is further strengthening its global presence. Eros Now will leverage its partnerships with leading international brands like Xiaomi Mi TV, Dialog Axiata and more to present its original content across Asia and beyond.

    “We are launching in at least 4-5 new countries in terms of specific alliance and partnerships in the next 3-4 months. We are already present to localise partners in key NRI markets around the world,” he concluded.