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Tag: SonyLiv

  • Get to know your roommates better; watch Pyar Ishq Rent on SonyLIV

    Get to know your roommates better; watch Pyar Ishq Rent on SonyLIV

    MUMBAI: Tanya, a young fashionista in Mumbai puts her room on rent for some extra money. From a snobbish NRI to a struggling photographer to a young techie to a new couple, this room eventually turns home to a host of unique individuals each trying to discover themselves in an unknown city. But does Tanya turn friends with her roommates? Or do problems begin here?

    SonyLIV in association with Junip Entertainment brings to you a refreshing story of twisted relationships in Pyar Ishq Rent starting 9th April.  Starring Simran Chaudhary, Paras Tomar and Anuj Sachdeva, Pyar Ishq Rent reflects on the relatable yet complicated equation of contrasting roommates who are forced to live under the same roof.

    Sharing your house with a weirdo is the worst nightmare ever and that’s what dawns upon Tanya everytime she meets her new guests. Just when she seems to settle to this chaos, Kyle enters as the new roommate and turns things around. As different as chalk and cheese, Kyle and Tanya start off on a rough patch and a series of crazy encounters follow through.

    If you have ever shared a home with someone or been with an annoying roommate. SonyLIV has got you covered with Pyar Ishq Rent.

    Catch this power-packed show starting 9th April exclusively on SonyLIV.

  • SonyLIV brings the craziest road trip of the year

    SonyLIV brings the craziest road trip of the year

    MUMBAI: The craziest road trip of the year is here! Sumeet Vyas, Maanvi Gagroo and Amol Parashar unveiled the trailer of Tripling season 2 today in Mumbai. From road trip to sibling love to crazy fights, the trailer of the show will get you nostalgic and excited all at once. After the massive success of season 1, the second season carries forward the stories of Chandan, Chanchal and Chitvan as they encounter funnier situations and explore new facets of their sibling relationship along the journey. 

    Directed by Sameer Saxena and written by Akarsh Khurana and Sumeet Vyas, the series also stars Kunal Roy Kapoor. The series trailer gives a sneak peek into the lives of the siblings grappling to manage their professional and personal encounters. Chandan who is an author now reunites with his politician sister Chanchal as Chitvan also joins in. Up against a legal tussle, all hell breaks loose when the trio embark on another road trip.

    All the episodes of the series will go live from 5th April on SonyLIV and TVFPlay.

  • SonyLiv brings a bunch of all new international shows across genres

    SonyLiv brings a bunch of all new international shows across genres

    MUMBAI: To live up to the promise of bringing the best of international shows, SonyLiv, India’s first premium video on demand (VOD) service, has brought an all new line-up of shows. With each passing month, SonyLiv adds fresh and entertaining content to its watch list. From romantic to thriller to drama, the platform provides the best of all to its audience to binge watch all day long. After pumping up its English and original content, SonyLiv once again brings bigger and entertaining shows.

    SonyLiv now introduces all new shows from the Lionsgate’s library. Anger Management, which is a story of a divorced former baseball player Charlie Goodson turning into an anger management therapist takes you on a roller coaster ride. Whereas with Insomnia, lets you be a part of an illegal game that is held once a year in an exclusive casino where only the rich and powerful play. And, that’s not al.  SonyLiv brings you the second season of ultimate thriller Mr. Mercedes and one of the most popular show, Snatch. Following the success of season 1, the second seasons of these shows are back on popular demand.

    Keeping up with the growing demand, of the millennials, SonyLiv brings a bunch of interesting Korean shows with Perfect Girl, a unique story of a couple, who writes letters but have barely spoken. Imagine what happens when they bump into each other? However, on the other hand, Ex Model, revolves around a girl, who is under the spotlight, but later lands herself buried under a pile of problems.

  • SonyLIV celebrates the season of love this valentine’s day

    SonyLIV celebrates the season of love this valentine’s day

    MUMBAI: ‘There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved’.

    Valentine’s Day is a serious affair for couples in love.  India’s first premium video on demand (VOD) service, SonyLIV, is all set to bring an exciting line up this Valentine’s Day. The OTT platform is giving a chance to its viewers to be engrossed in the season of love through movies, web originals, short films and romantic songs streaming live on the platform.

    Valentine’s Day is an excuse to binge watch your favourite movies with your loved ones making the entire experience worthwhile. SonyLIV is playing cupid by bringing non-stop romantic drama and captivating experiences for its viewers with movies like Aashiqui 2, Ram amongst others.  But why stop there, SonyLIV keeps you on the edge of your seat with some web originals that will make you binge watch romantic series like Lovebytes, Married Woman Diaries, The Good vibes, The Big Bong connection to name a few. SonyLIV even brings to its viewer’s short romantic films like Gulmohar, Guzaarish, Us & Them, Ansuni amongst others. How can a V’Day be complete without SonyLIV?

  • 2019 to see growth of fibre-connected smart TV: SonyLIV’s Uday Sodhi

    2019 to see growth of fibre-connected smart TV: SonyLIV’s Uday Sodhi

    MUMBAI: SonyLIV, one of the first movers in the Indian OTT market recently completed six years. It is undeniable that affordability of smartphones and fall in data pricing as well as the availability of 4G played catalysts to the growth of both the industry and SonyLIV. However, Sony Pictures Networks India digital business head Uday Sodhi thinks 2019 will be the year of smart TVs connected with fibre.

    “What’s going to happen in 2019 is very interesting from an infrastructure perspective. While on the one end we are still seeing a large part of consumption happening on mobile android platforms, my guess is a lot of this is going to move very quickly from mobile, WiFi networks to smart TVs connected with fibre. I think that’s the real swing we will see going forward,” Sodhi commented.

    He said that non-mobile categories are starting to pick up with Xiaomi being a disruptor in the category. He also added that there are about 30-40 million television sets which are all set to become smart TVs through devices like Fire TV Stick and Chromecast. Apart from these, Sodhi also mentioned the effort by MSOs to launch hybrid set-top boxes. Hence, these all factors will leave a multiplied effect on content consumption.

    “While we will see growth in consumers and that consumer’s growth will double in the next 3-4 years, the amount of consumption and time spent is probably going to grow faster than the consumer adoption,” he added.

    The video-on-demand platform has also unveiled a State of Digital Entertainment 2018 report on the occasion of its six year anniversary. According to the report, the platform has witnessed a rise of seven times in total time spent on the platform. The OTT player grew by three times in terms of MAUs (monthly active users) in 2018 compared to the previous year. The report also added that the platform recorded higher growth from non-metro areas.

    FIFA World Cup, India’s cricket tour of Australia and India’s cricket tour of England were the top three successful sports events of the year for the platform by attracting 70 million, 50 million and 30 million viewers respectively.

  • RuPay becomes title sponsor for Pro Volleyball League

    RuPay becomes title sponsor for Pro Volleyball League

    MUMBAI: RuPay, the flagship product of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), acquired the title sponsorship rights of India’s newest franchise-based sports league, the Pro Volleyball League, which is set to start on 2 February. 

    Conceived to fulfil the vision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of offering a domestic card payment system to all banks and financial institutions in India, RuPay will be the league’s title sponsor that takes off with six franchises from six different cities.

    An initiative of Baseline Ventures and Volleyball Federation of India, the league will now be called the RuPay Pro Volleyball League in its first season. Expressing his delight on this association, RuPay SVP – marketing Kunal Kalawatia said, “RuPay is the preferred card for 60 crore Indians and 1100+ banks issue a RuPay Card today. Like RuPay powering the digital payments initiative, we believe that Pro Volleyball league will bring this sport to the forefront and connect the nation with a common spirit. With RuPay Pro Volley Ball League we want to celebrate the power of a young & healthy India.”

    The inaugural edition of the league will begin with Kochi Blue Spikers taking on U Mumba Volley on 2 February at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Kochi.  The six teams that were announced in November 2018 will play each other in a round robin format in the first season that will have 18 matches. 

    Talking about the development, Baseline Ventures co-founder and MD Tuhin Mishra said, “We are delighted to have RuPay come on board as the title sponsor of the league. It is great to see that RuPay has invested in a sport that is fast-paced, exciting and perfectly matched for our young and dynamic nation.  The Pro Volleyball League aims to start a volleyball revolution to match the digital India revolution that RuPay is leading. And to help us in this endeavour, we couldn’t have found better partners than RuPay.”   

    Welcoming RuPay on board, former India international player and Volleyball Federation of India current Secretary General Ramavtar Singh Jakhar said, “We wholeheartedly welcome RuPay on board of PVL. It’s heartening to see such a prestigious brand which is also the pride of our Nation to support a truly grassroot mass sport such as Volleyball. We are sure it will be a great association.” 

    Ahmedabad Defenders is owned by Bonhomie Sports Event Mgmt. Ltd., Kerala's Calicut Heroes is owned by Beacon Sports while the Chennai Spartans is owned by Chennai Spartans Pvt. Ltd. U Mumba Volley is owned by U Sports, who also own a team in the Kabaddi league while Black Hawks Hyderabad is owned by Agile Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Thomas Muthoot owns the Kochi franchise called the Kochi Blue Spikers.

    All the matches starting from 2 February will be broadcasted live on Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 and will be streamed live on Sony LIV. 

  • Sony Pictures Networks’ sports cluster’s year in review, road ahead

    Sony Pictures Networks’ sports cluster’s year in review, road ahead

    MUMBAI: In the tough two-horse race of Indian sports broadcasting, Sony Pictures Networks has had a slight edge over Star India when it comes to football events, while the latter holds the sway in Indian cricket. Currently, the NP Singh-led network is in charge of premier football properties like La Liga, Serie A, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FA Cup and UEFA Super Cup. 

    SPN India has also invested in domestic leagues, firmly believing that such products are not only gaining prominence but are bound to witness a formidable growth in the future. One such success story is the Pro Wrestling League (PWL), which will return to SPN for its fourth edition. Besides this, the network will also broadcast the inaugural edition of the Pro Volleyball League that has gained considerable steam of late.

    Multi-sporting destination

    2018 was a successful year for the broadcaster in terms of multi-sporting properties, with big-ticket events like Commonwealth Games, FIFA World Cup, NBA and Asian Games helping it differentiate itself from others.

    “Multi-sports viewing is on the uptake and we will continue to provide our viewers diverse content across different sports categories along with innovative programming initiatives to increase our penetration in both urban and rural markets,” SPN India chief revenue officer and head – sports business Rajesh Kaul said.

    SPN has been the home of La Liga for the past four seasons in India. However, last year Facebook won the media rights for the top tier of Spanish football for the Indian subcontinent for three seasons starting 2018-19. The deal with the social media giant was the first of its kind for La Liga.

    While the 380 matches were to be available for free to people on Facebook in eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Facebook and SPN reached an agreement wherein the broadcaster earned the right to air over 100 games via its sports cluster.

    The deal will allow SPN to broadcast key clashes including the El Clasico and Madrid Derby across its sports channels as well as SonyLIV.

    Record-breaking show

    The headline act for SPN in 2018 was the FIFA World Cup. There was a humungous buzz around the tournament this time as it aired during primetime in India after almost two editions. The broadcaster had four language feeds for the showpiece event, which was telecast on Sony Ten 2 in English, Sony Ten 3 in Hindi and Bengali and Malayalam audio feeds on Sony ESPN.

    A total of 110.5 million viewers in India watched the quadrennial event, according to the broadcaster. The tournament had 64 live matches aired across Sony TEN 2, Sony TEN 3, Sony ESPN channels and their HD versions.

    The broadcaster, which had managed to attract more than 40 advertisers on television, is estimated to have pocketed close to Rs 200 crore in advertising revenue. The 2014 edition had fetched the network Rs 100 crore in ad revenue.

    70 million viewers across India tuned in to watch the World Cup on SPN’s OTT SonyLIV. The average time spent per viewer was 15-16 minutes per match.

    “Sports’ viewing as a trend is becoming participative and we saw an opportunity to launch interactive engagement for our viewers in both entertainment and sports. Second screen engagement and interactivity is moving to the forefront and we will continue with his trend as it gives viewers deeper insights and a more immersive experience. While TV is still the preferred choice for sports viewing, we have observed trends of a growing user base on digital platforms for sports viewing in 2018 and we see it strengthening its position further in 2019,” Kaul added.

    Cricket rights play

    When it comes to cricket, SPN currently holds the broadcast rights for eight boards – Cricket Australia, England and Wales Cricket Board, Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket, Cricket South Africa, Cricket West Indies, Cricket Ireland and Zimbabwe Cricket Board. 

    It had acquired exclusive media rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the Indian subcontinent for a period of five years from 2018 through 2022. This agreement with ECB gives SPN the rights to both televise and digitally broadcast within the Indian subcontinent, men’s and women’s international matches, including Test matches, T20 Internationals and ODIs, played in England.

    SPNI also acquired the media rights for T10 Cricket League for three years (2018-20) for the Indian sub-continent and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The broadcaster also had the rights for T10 Cricket League in 2017.

    The broadcaster currently has 10 channels in its sports bouquet after the network pulled the plug on Sony Ten Golf HD in the wake of TRAI’s new tariff order.

    The Prasar Bharati problem

    In October, MIB proposed to amend the Sports Act 2007 to offer ‘sports events of national importance’ on Prasar Bharati-owned free-to-air Doordarshan Network, an extended reach via private direct to home and cable TV Networks.

    The move to amend the Sports Act 2007 has been necessitated due to a Supreme Court verdict which held that the public broadcaster Doordarshan cannot air events of national importance on private distribution platforms.

    In the same month, MIB issued a notice for receiving feedback/comments from general public/stakeholders on the draft bill, 2018. The deadline for submitting the feedback was 15 January 2019, but there is no update on the date extension. The earlier deadline was 31 December 2018.

    This may result in a preference change of the consumer, thereby pushing them to unsubscribe private sports network channels. This will also give the distribution platforms an opportunity to negotiate harder with the sports broadcasters.

    A move of this nature could adversely impact the revenues of sports broadcasters, throwing the entire ecosystem into a tizzy.

    Challenges in 2019

    India’s historic win over Australia ensured that SPN kicked off 2019 to a rather glorious start. With the immensely popular Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni delivering match-winning knocks, SPN is likely to have posted big viewership numbers on its channels as well as OTT. However, the remainder of the year isn’t going to produce a lot of fireworks for the broadcaster especially when it comes to Indian cricket. Barring India’s tour to the West Indies, SPN does not have a lot to offer to Indian fans. Rival Star India, with the rights to the IPL and the World Cup, is bound to be the home of India’s cricket-crazy public in 2019.

  • SonyLIV records 596 million interactions for KBC Play Along

    SonyLIV records 596 million interactions for KBC Play Along

    MUMBAI: In yet another pioneering initiative, SonyLIV’s Play Along has garnered a landmark 596 million interactions for the 10th season of the reality show. The user engagement initiative has registered 8.2 million users with total time spent of over 47 million hours. Tapping almost 360 million smart-phone users, KBC Play Along was SonyLIV’s effort to bring the audience closer to its most favourite reality show, within the comfort of their homes.

    If the consumption patterns are to go by, Play Along got a thumbs up from the audience right from day one of the show hosted by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Given the proliferation of internet users amongst youth, almost 76.7% players who glued onto the feature were between 18-40 years, primarily the millennials. However, the momentum wasn’t confined to the urban netizens only. KBC Play Along saw phenomenal response across the country within the Hindi belt – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh accounting for 54.5% of the players.

    Much like FIFA 2018, SonyLIV continued to bust myths about digital engagement with Play Along which fetched as high as 69.8% participation from beyond 6 metros along with a remarkable rise in female viewership. KBC Play Along not only spiked SonyLIV subscriptions notches higher but also increased KBC led app downloads by 7.3 million.

  • Viacom18 to have 360-degree play for e-sports: Sidharth Kedia

    Viacom18 to have 360-degree play for e-sports: Sidharth Kedia

    MUMBAI: Esports is at an early stage of development in the country. It is expected to be the future of entertainment and holds an upcoming opportunity for brands and media to promote, reach digital natives and develop new content concepts.

    Viacom18 EVP & head corp strategy, M&A, data science and deputy chief commercial officer Sidharth Kedia said, “While e-sports is a youth phenomenon today, its growth pattern will reflect the trajectory it has followed in other parts of the world and we will see people starting to play e-sports at a much younger age group. Other OTT players just have e-sports content but we are doing a whole 360-degree play including live, TV and digital.”

    Nodwin Gaming MD Akshat Rathee said, “In about a five-year time, we will be close to the music industry and definitely bigger than all the other industries including comedy.”

    Kedia thinks that e-sports on television doesn’t exist. Though all OTT players including Hotstar, SonyLiv and Voot have delved into some kind of e-sports on digital, the industry cannot be defined because the numbers are too small. “We know the number of people that engage in e-sports. About 90 million people play PUBG in India and 30 million people play cricket game every month. These numbers will start translating into this phenomenon which will be on digital, TV and live,” he added.

    All youth focus brands and technology brands show interest in e-sports. Voot currently has some 100 hours of e-sports content out of which ESL has 40 hours of content.

    “We don’t have an end date to DreamHack since we just started. We believe no one in this country understands both kids and youth better than Viacom does and while television and digital are passive engagement platforms, e-sports is an active immersive engagement platform,” said Kedia.

    The state of sports industry over the next three to five years is estimated to grow by 5.3 per cent in Asia and 9.4 per cent in Middle East and Africa (ME&A) according to PwC Sports Survey 2018. Despite the growth in Asia and ME&A, globally the industry will witness a drop by 10.2 per cent. This is because the market conditions across the industry are stabilising as it transitions from traditional to digital media consumption, with sports leaders continuing to predict healthy growth in absolute terms.

    Viacom18 on television is experimenting and conceptualising with some interesting formats and that will not be just U Cypher that we saw on MTV. “We believe there are 150 million potential viewers of e-sports on digital and that number is only here to grow,” Kedia concluded.

  • CleverTap and SonyLIV partner to improve user experience with video push notifications

    CleverTap and SonyLIV partner to improve user experience with video push notifications

    MUMBAI: CleverTap, a leading mobile marketing platform, today announced that SonyLIV, one of India’s leading premium OTT platform is leveraging its technology to bring the power of rich media to its push notifications, making them a first mover in the OTT space. SonyLIV’s latest update will allow users to view video previews in push notifications, even on a locked screen. With deep linking that directs them to the appropriate content, SonyLIV aims to provide users with a seamless video viewing experience. The results have been exciting so far, with 3x higher click-through rates (CTR), increased session durations and higher than average view times.

    By leveraging CleverTap’s industry-first Psychographic Segmentation feature, SonyLIV is able to process millions of data points across its entire user base to determine predominant interests of the audience. SonyLIV establishes an effective match between the videos on the platform and each user’s preferences by determining the users’ propensity or affinity towards a specific category over others. Thus, each user receives contextual and relevant videos.

    With CleverTap, SonyLIV gains user-level insights based on past and real-time in-app behaviour. Using hyper-personalized, timely user engagement campaigns, SonyLIV is able to update users on the latest content added, inform them of live events, encourage paid subscriptions, and win back dormant users.

    Uday Sodhi, Head – Digital Business, Sony Pictures Network India, stated, “SonyLIV is a pioneer in the OTT space and was the first VOD platform to be launched in India. At SonyLIV, we have been pushing the boundaries in the OTT space. Being able to promote the most relevant content at the right time to the right user, through video, is something we are excited about. With the rise in the use of iPhones and the ability to use rich media, we can make push notifications more intuitive, and each campaign more compelling to the end user. This will help us effectively engage our users, and deliver the best possible customer experience.”

    Sunil Thomas, CEO of CleverTap, said, “As OTT changes media consumption patterns from prime time to anytime, context and relevance is critical. We’re excited to work with SonyLIV on their innovation roadmap to help them make content more accessible and relevant. With Psychographic Segmentation, some customers have seen conversions up to 5x higher versus sending non-contextual messages. With smart use of data-science and machine learning, we feel confident that SonyLIV can effectively create highly personalized, incredible experiences for customers.”