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Tag: SonyLiv

  • SonyLiv to work with independent artistes, says Uday Sodhi

    MUMBAI: Are you an independent musician? Well, SonyLIV is here to offer you an outlet to build your audience base.

    The digital army of Sony Pictures Network India, SonyLIV has opened its gates to independent artists as they explore music in the digital space. The brand that recently launched the ‘Aadat Che Tu’ music video to accompany its Gujarati rom-com web series, ‘Kacho Papad, Pako Papad’ is looking at connecting with the audience musically.

    “Music is something that the Indians love to consume, even when you are making a web series. ‘Aadat Che Tu’ is a song that captures the essence of the show – ‘Kacho Papad, Pako Papad’. Creating songs around web series is an attempt to complete the experience. We cannot imagine a movie without songs and its music that has worked for our shows,” says Sony Pictures Networks India EVP & head – digital business Uday Sodhi.

    For detailed story, read here:

    SonyLIV opens its gates to independent musicians

  • SonyLiv ties up with Web Talkies, claims to have become India’s largest original VoD co

    MUMBAI: In a major move which potentially redefines the country’s digital entertainment landscape, SonyLIV has announced its strategic partnership with Web Talkies. Under the association, seven original web series from Web Talkies, including popular shows like CM CM Hota Hai and Maid in India (Season 1 & 2), will now be available on SonyLIV’s web and mobile platforms.

    A paradigm-changing development for the industry, this association follows close on heels of SonyLIV’s recent partnerships with several leading original content creators across India. Web Talkies is a unique platform for personal entertainment which creates, acquires and delivers highly-relatable and engaging content for Indian viewers. Its original web series, like Current 440 Volts, Gang of Big Boys, Border Border, Samadhanki Samasya and Mushaira Unplugged, have received an impressive response from viewers, thanks to their quirky takes, witty dialogues, and humour.

    With its extensive library of diverse and high-quality original content offerings, SonyLIV – the digital platform of Sony Pictures Networks India has become a comprehensive melting pot of India-based digital entertainment. The platform also recently tied-up with Pocket Aces to add high-quality short-form comedy and food-related videos to its vast content library.

    Comments Uday Sodhi, EVP and Head – Digital Business, SonyLIV: “Having pioneered and popularised the concept of original entertainment in India, we wanted to go a step further and curate the best of original content from across the country on our platform. Our partnership with Web Talkies is yet another step in that direction to offer high-quality entertainment to our esteemed viewers. Through our strategic partnerships as well as our own offerings, we have created the biggest repository of premium original content in the country. Complete entertainment offerings across genres of content is our intent and this partnership is a progression in that direction.”

    Virendra Shahaney- Chairman and Managing Director, Web Talkies: “Our partnership with SonyLIV gives our content a great platform and we are sure that this milestone will be crucial in making Web Talkies content the most watched digital content in India.”

  • SonyLiv leverages Clevertap to gain greater understanding, segment, engage & track users

    MUMBAI: Analytics and engagement technology provider CleverTap has announced that Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPN) has selected the company’s platform for real-time behavioral data and user insights for its SonyLIV video on demand (VOD) service. A pioneer of over-the-top (OTT), SPN will leverage CleverTap to gain greater understanding of their users while improving their ability to segment, engage and track them throughout the user lifecycle.

    CleverTap, with offices in San Francisco, New York, LA, Mumbai and Bangalore, provides a comprehensive behavioral analytics and user engagement suite that enables brands to identify, target, measure and monetise users across mobile and web. SonyLIV provides multi-screen engagement to users on all devices.

    CleverTap’s unique combination of analytics and engagement tools is achieving rapid adoption around the world for its ability to offer developers and marketers like SonyLIV a powerful solution for designing and implementing timely, personalized and impactful growth strategies. The platform’s capabilities for real-time analytics and segmentation along with multi-channel messaging, A/B testing and personalization support the application of data-based insights to drive stronger and more valuable long-term customer relationships.

    “The proliferation of mobile and web apps in the digital world leads to confusion, and it’s getting increasingly difficult for developers to rise above the noise. A few years ago, just building an app was enough to capture user attention. Now it’s only the first step,” said CleverTap CEO Sunil Thomas. “Today, developers need in-depth understanding of their users along with relevant and actionable insights to even begin achieving their business objectives. In other words, the better you understand your customer, the better you can serve them.”

    “Having analytics and engagement within the same platform is critical to our customer acquisition and retention strategy,” stated SonyLIV EVP and Head of Digital Business Uday Sodhi. “CleverTap’s advanced segmentation engine allows us to track, analyze and target the right customers in real-time and send timely, contextual messages using their powerful Live User Segments feature. The platform’s powerful campaign management tool has also enabled us to lift engagement, and its robust technology offers us complete confidence that CleverTap can scale with us as we achieve exponential user growth.”

    CleverTap is able to support such massive use cases because of the technology innovations and engineering enhancements that go into the platform everyday. It’s scalable, secure architecture quickly processes millions of data points in a fraction of a second and gives businesses access to real-time user insights that help influence their app engagement strategy.

  • Brightcove expands into India, counts Republic, SonyLiv, Dekkho & Hero among clients

    MUMBAI: Brightcove Inc., a leading provider of cloud services for video, is expanding its global market leadership into India with key customer wins and the launch of a new office in Mumbai, India. With several of the country’s top-tier media companies as customers, Brightcove is demonstrating that it is the go-to partner for a wide range of broadcasters, publishers and OTT services as they seek to launch and monetise their online video experiences.

    Brightcove’s key customer wins in India include:

    Sony Liv, an Indian general entertainment VOD service that is owned by Sony Pictures Networks India.
    The Viral Fever, one of India’s leading online content creators that recently launched their OTT entertainment channel, TVFPlay.

    Dekkho, a streaming video service specializing in delivering premium content from India’s top content creators.

    Hero Talkies, a SVOD OTT service that specializes in streaming Tamil movie content across 80 countries.

    Republic World TV, a newly launched Indian English-language news television channel streaming news across satellite, cable and online.

    According to research from Media Partners Asia (MPA), the market potential of online video in India is massive. Online video advertising is expected to surpass US$1 billion in net revenue in India by 2021, according to MPA analysts. Despite having the lowest broadband penetration among APAC’s 14 biggest economies, broadband penetration is on the rise and expected to reach 622 million mobile broadband subscriptions by 2021, according to the MPA study. India’s OTT video market is already the fourth-biggest in the region, behind China, Japan and Australia.

    “With 462 million active Internet users1, India is a sizable market for online video and OTT – and it’s growing. Data shows that only 35 percent of the Indian population is using the internet,” Brightcove Asia vice president Tomer Azenkot said. “This growth represents a tremendous opportunity for Brightcove which, even prior to its office opening, powers video for some of the top-tier Indian media companies. By adding a talented team on the ground, it will only elevate the way that we serve our customer base and shape the future of video experiences moving forward.”

    Founded in 2004, Brightcove has been revolutionizing online video experiences for over a decade. Media companies, publishers and brands worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video across the web, mobile and connected devices. Brightcove is headquartered in Boston, with its Asia Pacific offices in Singapore, South Korea, Sydney, Tokyo and now Mumbai.

  • The shape of Indian OTT universe circa 2021 according to Rethink Tech Research

    MUMBAI: This should put OTT players on alert and gladden the hearts of linear TV distribution and programming executives. The latest numbers about how India’s video guzzlers are going to consume VoD services by the UK-based industry tracker Rethink Technology Research reveal that India will have about 14.6 million VoD subscribers by 2021. Indiantelevision.com estimates are that, comparatively, Indian DTH will account for about 75 million active subscribers and cable TV more than 100 million by then.

    Clearly, VoD will have made a marginal dent in eroding linear TV distribution platforms stranglehold on Indian viewers thanks to the lower sticker prices for cable TV and DTH, which will possibly continue to be in play even in 2021. Cord-cutting, which is becoming increasingly common in many markets, may not really make its way to Indian shores.

    Yes, the data suggests that India will be the second largest market in Asia Pacific after China which will account for 60 per cent of the Asia Pacific’s $10 billion subscription revenues and 200 million subs, by 2021. (The corresponding figures for 2016 are at $6.5 billion and 100 million respectively.)

    “Asia Pacific is made up of a multitude of contrasting individual markets, making it fragmented and complex with broadband penetration above 50%, in some regions and below 10% in others,” said a statement from Rethink Technology Research.
    There will be a hard pitched battle for subscription shares between the 30 odd OTT players in the game in India. By then probably many more OTT providers will have stomped into the terrain. And hence one wonders how many of them will be profitable.

    Both, Netflix and Amazon Prime, are just about beginning to plonk down top dollars – like India has not seen before – on original shows which should hop on to their India – and later global – offering by next year. Hotstar and Viacom18’s Voot have also been investing heavily to acquire customers. Estimates are that the two have pumped in around Rs 4000 million and Rs 1400 million, respectively, since launch. Others such as Viu, NextGTV, Spuul, ErosNow, Hooq, SonyLiv, YuppTV and Alt Balaji too are in a customer acquisition phase, having just got onto the runway.

    The good news, according to Rethink, is that pure play SVoD services in APAC (expected revenues by 2021: $6.29 billion) will dominate operator-supplied services.

    As far as APAC is concerned, the research house predicts that Indonesia and Japan will be third and fourth, with each increasing to 9.96 million and 8.1 million by 2021, respectively.

  • SonyLiv adds another language to its catalogue, launches first Gujarati rom-com web series

    MUMBAI: Younger by a few years or older by a wide age gap? Arranged by the family, the saccharine sweet romance or the clandestine hush-hush affair?

    The dilemmas of an average, middle-class joint Gujarati family define the flavour of India’s first ever Gujarati rom-com web series ‘Kacho Papad Pako Papad’ on SonyLIV.

    With this show SonyLiv, the digital platform of Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) marks yet another spectacular addition to its regional content catalogue since it introduced the Marathi web series Yolo, earlier this year. By giving viewers a chance to enjoy high quality, relatable entertainment created specifically for them, SonyLiv once again delivers on its brand promise – ‘We Liv to Entertain.’

    A rollicking affair that promises to have you in bouts of laughter, this Gujarati web series has the perfect combination of content and actors that ensures you are glued to your screens. Starring acclaimed actors Rupa Divatia, Pratap Sachdeo, and Bhakti Rathod, ‘Kacho Papad Pako Papad’ revolves around the sprightly misadventures of the Maniyar family.

    The family has an uncanny ability to make any ordinary issue look like an extra-ordinary challenge. It all begins when their son Vipul brings home a girl who is older than him, to be introduced to the family. However, trouble ensues when a girl who is several years younger, professes her love for their son and her intent to marry him.

    Sony Pictures Networks EVP and head – digital business Uday Sodhi said: “Regional content consumption is growing rapidly and with access to faster internet speeds, this growth will only amplify. To cater to this emerging demand, we at SonyLiv decided to launch India’s first-ever rom-com Gujarati web-series ‘Kacho Papad Pako Papad’. The show underlines our brand promise of providing the best in entertainment to our viewers, with engaging and relatable content tailor-made to suit their entertainment and language preferences. We hope our viewers enjoy the series, one of the many firsts in our business.”

    Starting 19 May, 2017, the exciting Gujarati web-series will be available on SonyLiv’s web and mobile platforms. Spread across a 12 week duration, with each episode spanning 6–8 minutes, a new episode will release every Friday. SonyLIV users also have the option to subscribe to the entire web series, if they want to binge watch the show.

    Link to the web-series: http://bit.ly/2pUTgV9

  • Arre’s ‘Virtual Girlfriend’ wins five awards at LA Web Festival

    MUMBAI: Arré’s first web series A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend wins five awards at the recently held LA Web Festival for Best Series, Best Editing, Best Direction, Best Actress and Best Overall Premise within the Drama Category, from among a selected shortlist of 35 webseries across the world. The series was also nominated for Best Sound Design, Visual Effects, Outstanding Score, Cinematography, Supporting Actor, Best Actor and Writing.

    The LA Web Festival is one of the oldest, largest and most influential web series festivals globally and has screened nearly 1400 web series since 2010. It has been referred to as the ‘Sundance of Web Series Festivals’ by Los Angeles Magazine.

    This is the third set of international awards for A.I.SHA after winning Best Overall Web Series and Best Suspense/Thriller at the South Florida Web Festival held in Miami and for Exceptional Merit at the WRPN.TV Global Webisode competition.

    Arré’s Official Chukyagiri was also named an Official Honoree in the Film and Video Long Form or Series Category at the 21st Annual Webby Awards 2017.

    A.I.SHA, Artificial Intelligence Simulated Humanoid Assistant (A.I.SHA) is India’s first AI-based digital series. The story pivots around the widely debated and chilling premise of what happens when artificial intelligence develops feelings and consciousness? Sam, the show’s protagonist, creates A.I.SHA, without realising the consequences, and thus begins a series of events that rapidly spirals out of control. Catch the full series here.

    Season 2 of A.I.SHA is currently live on Arré (at www.arre.co.in, Arré’s YouTube Channel, Facebook Page) and on Arré’s partner platforms – Yupp TV, SonyLIV, Vodafone Play and Jio Cinema.

    The series is directed by Sahir Raza, written by Raghu Ram and Harman Singha and produced for Arré by Monozygotic. The show has partnered with Gillette Flexball, Palo Alto Networks, a next-generation security company, Nissin Cup Noodlesand Dell.

    Arré brings to India’s new-gen digital audiences a range of contextual storytelling and entertainment using video, audio, graphic-art and text.

  • Sony to shift Animax channel to SonyLiv

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Network India’s first kids channel Animax will go off air soon. The network, which launched the channel in 2004, had been targeting the 13-35 age-group, and niche anime lovers.

    The channel was operated and broadcast from Singapore by Animax Asia and distributed by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) India. It is also the only channel to simulcast anime in India and Japan.

    The network will close the channel but the content will be available on its OTT platform SonyLiv.

    Sony Pictures Network India CEO N P Singh said, “Animax has been around for a long period of time. Anime is popular with a very small segment of the audience. We will take away Animax, and instead will give them the opportunity to view Anime on SonyLiv.”

    The network has announced the launch of its much-awaited kid’s entertainment channel, Sony Yay! that will go live on 18 April 2017. Promising to be the ‘Destination for Unlimited Happiness’ for kids, the channel has roped in the young cinestar, Tiger Shroff, who has become a phenomenon with kids across the country, as its brand ambassador.

  • ‘Common standard’ good to measure ‘unbundled’ viewership & ads cost-effectiveness: EKAM

    MUMBAI: BARC India has announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service. 

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device. EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARCIndia will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product. 

    EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this,BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    www.indiantelevision.com spoke to a cross-section of the industry on the new scale. Sony Pictures Networks India EVP and Head – Digital Business Uday Sodhi, and Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai both find the proposed new system interesting. 

    Speaking on the announcement, Sodhi said, “While digital advertising spends in India have witnessed exponential growth over the past couple of years, measuring the cost-effectiveness of video advertisements across TV and digital properties has been one of the biggest pain points for brands in India. The launch of EKAM by BARC India comes as a very welcome development in such a scenario. Not only will it allow advertisers to analyze quantifiable differences in video ad impressions, but will also allow them to see unique and de-duplicated reach and frequency across multiple platforms to accurately ascertain the ROI. It will enable fairer pricing for both advertisers and publishers, and will allow for incremental ad revenues for platforms which provide the maximum consumer reach and impressions. Looking forward to the market launch of the EKAM suite of products and the disruption it will bring in the digital ad industry.”

    On the launch of the BARC digital measurement tool, Zee Entertainment Z5 Business head of digital – India Archana Anand said:

    “This is a very positive development, not just for the OTT segment but for the media industry at large. Given the pace at which the digital entertainment industry is growing, it is becoming more and more critical to have a standardized tool for measurement. A common currency for digital measurement  will allow OTT players to benchmark their performance better across standardized metrics and catalyse overall growth of the industry. This will also help broadcasters get a holistic and more integrated analysis of their viewership across broadcast and digital media, enabling them to feel a greater sense of ownership rather than feeling that they are losing out to digital.“

    Viacom18 digital venture’s COO Gaurav Gandhi: said While digital video services are all fully measurable, there is no common industry measurement nor is there common standard for things like viewability.

    Having a common industry measurement will help all industry stakeholders. It will be a big boost to the fast growing digital video business to realize fair values for audience delivered and help the agencies to plan across TV and digital video better (as well as across various digital video services) – as they will now be able to implement true cross media plans. It will also give more confidence to the advertisers that their audience deliveries are backed by a common industry validated source.”

    Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai replied to indiantelevision.com queries:

    Was it eagerly awaited? How do you see it?

    Tanay Desai: BARC ‘s Ekam measurement system was eagerly awaited given the lack of transparency in Indian digital media. Today, advertisers on mainstream platforms are often unaware about their exact spends, resulting into 60% inaccuracy in reporting at times. The common denominator for measurement will be challenging to implement — in terms of defining what makes a view, along with specialised metrics for mobile and web for demographic measurement.

    Which are the other methods you have been using?

    Tanay Desai: In-house analytics along with trusted and verified third party vendors to track activity on video, channel and page level. Metrics include engagement, source of session, demographic and geographic data. Dekkho allows advertisers to associate with individual videos, channels and pages of content unlike a fully automated/programmatic allocation system. This ensures brand safety and correct targeting while optimising use of media spends for brands aiming for specific audiences.

    How would it give a fillip to the ecosystem?

    Tanay Desai: OTTs that belong to production houses often sell inventory on a bundled basis. i.e. – TV + digital. This results into little transparency regarding actual views on digital. With the new system in place, digital viewership measurement will be isolated from TV be it a production house backed OTT or an independent aggregator. On the other hand, OTT players themselves will command higher CPMs through superior audience targeting. Media agencies and buyers will have relative knowledge i.e. – compare one OTT’s offering with its peers while spending on behalf of clients.

  • Arre appoints Viacom18’s Jaideep Singh as director

    MUMBAI: Entertainment business veteran and former Viacom18 Integrated Network Solutions head, Jaideep Singh has been roped in by Arré as a director on its management team. Singh will guide the platform’s monetisation drive/strategy, launch Arré’s music vertical and contribute his experience towards expanding other content verticals as well. He will be working closely with founders B. Saikumar, Ajay Chacko and RayC as Arré expands its content footprint as India’s fastest growing original content brand on digital.

    Saikumar said “We are delighted to have Jaideep join us at Arré to lead our business efforts as we expand and strengthen our content and platform. Jaideep brings invaluable experience and skills with respect to IP creation and monetisation, to further our growth objective, as we enter into an exciting year 2 of Arré.”

    Arré has built a distinct voice by its unique take on culture and society using stories, doodles and audio besides video. It is one of the country’s fastest growing digital brands on social media besides being widely distributed across a range of domestic and international platforms like SonyLIV, YuppTV, Vodafone Play, Ola Prime Play, TF1 Xtra (OTT Network in France) etc. in addition to its own website and apps on IOS and Android.

    Singh added, “Developing sustained business models in the entertainment sector has always been my passion. The explosive growth that Arré has witnessed as a brand is a story in itself and I am very excited to be part of this journey. My current ventures, Volocity Media and Ignition Creative will also help in creating some state-of-the-art engagement interfaces at Arré.”

    He is currently partnered with two US based companies as a part of his entrepreneurial venture. He is the chairman of Ignition Creative (APAC and Middle East Board), an integrated marketing agency and the managing director, APAC and Middle East, for Volocity Media, a technology innovation group working in the field of developing digital products and platforms for building social communities.

    Singh holds to his credit 20 years of diverse experience across marketing, media and entertainment. He has worked with notable companies, including, JK Tyres, Confederation of India Industries and Radio Mirchi. His last stint was a stellar 10-year position at Viacom18 India, where, as senior vice president and business head of Integrated Network Solutions, he launched a host of domestic and global impact IPs, secured strategic media partnerships with brands, government sectors and engaged with entertainment and media divisions across the globe. He established the INS and Live Viacom18 divisions of Viacom18, which boast of national and regional properties like the global EDM festival Vh1 Supersonic, MTV Xtreme, MTV Bollyland, the Indie artist festival EMERGE, the comedy festival Chuckle Festival, and SPIRO, which dominated the subcontinent with 300+ events and produced hundreds of hours of content.