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  • The Content Hub 2020: Creators emphasise on importance of content quality over formats

    The Content Hub 2020: Creators emphasise on importance of content quality over formats

    MUMBAI: It was an exciting morning session on the first day of the Indiantelevision.com’s fourth edition of The Content Hub 2020, hosting discussions across a wide array of content-creation topics. Some of the most successful and powerful names from the content industry shared secret recipes and insightful and incisive analyses of churning out engaging stories.  The conversations revolved around every genre of content like long-form episodic, short-format videos and digital-original movies.

    The Korean connection!

    The session started with an investment banker-turned-film maker from South Korea who has now expanded his creative horizon to India. In conversation with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari, Kross Pictures co-founder Thomas Kim stated how he started his career as an investment banker and then working in Walt Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean inspired him to become a filmmaker.

    ”I was working on a project where I realised that movies can be made with any kind of story. This thought stuck with me and I decided to become a filmmaker. So, I quit Disney and started my company in 2003. I am mostly active in Korea and China in making films and TV series based on famous IPs, mostly in comics and novels. In 2015 I had the pleasure to come out to India and worked on a film project called ‘Teen’ with Amitabh Bachchan. This was my first experience in Bollywood. Today I have offices in Seoul, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Hyderabad," Kim stated.

    Kim believes that not all stories are able to resonate in foreign countries, except some. He is currently working on the adaptation of the Bollywood film Kahaani and finds Indian films exciting and emotional. However, he feels there is a lack of disciplined storytelling in India. That's what Kross Pictures can bring to India.

    ZEE5’s content strategy relies on consumer understanding

    ZEE5 programming head Aparna Acharekar said that the core values of ZEE5 are based on three Cs – compelling content, convenience and the consumer-viewing experience.

    Acharekar said that the content must eventually give value for their money while increasing the viewing experience.

    “Relatable content that is real and resonates with the audience is going to work,” Acharekar says. She believes that convenience is the basic reason we see the shift of audience towards over-the-top platforms.

    The golden age of content

    Sooni Taraporevala, an Indian screenwriter, photographer and filmmaker best known for her work in Mississippi Masala, spoke on The Golden Age of Content at the Content Hub 2020. Taraporevala also shared her experience on the making of Salam Bombay and how a rejection from National Geographic changed her fate.

    Sooni Taraporevala believes it’s a golden age of content for writers and others as suddenly they are in demand. Yeh Ballet, currently on Netflix, proved to be a game-changer for her. A Harvard University student, Taraporevala came to movies both by chance and destiny. Her biggest lesson, ‘never hate the naysayers and never give up,’ made her successful and relevant in the industry.

    Uncovering opportunities to create great content

    The first panel discussion discussed uncovering opportunities to create great content. The panel was moderated by Bulldog Media and Entertainment co-founder and producer Akash Sharma. The panelists included: Zee Studios VP & head Ashima Avasthi, SonyLiv original content head Saugata Mukherjee, and Contiloe Pictures CEO Abhimanyu Singh.

    The panel discussed the drivers of content boom, how creating great content differs between TV and digital and content strategies adopted by production houses.

    Avasthi said:  "As technology grows and boundaries demolish, content boom has to happen. In our country it's fabulous to see how we have gone from television to every person watching content on mobile."

    According to Singh, the number of screens has increased as well as the number of audiences, and therefore, there is more requirement for content today.

    The panelists also said that there are opportunities in creating any kind of content as audiences are open to experience different genres. They also believe that the focus should be on telling the story and not on what the audience wants.

    We are hungry for people who have not been discovered yet: Netflix Aashish Singh

    Netflix, the streaming colossal that revolutionised the way of consuming content, is now trying to make inroads in India, said Netflix India original film director Aashish Singh, during an interaction with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari. Along with long-format episodic content, the streaming giant promises a slate of 15 new original films by the end of 2020.

    Singh revealed the platform’s intent to work with new talent while not overlooking content quality.

    Singh reemphasised that good stories can come from anywhere and can be watched everywhere.

    Talking about new talents, he said the platform is working with ten new directors, nine writers, eight women directors and writers this year. “We are hungry for people who have not been discovered yet," he said. He made it clear that Netflix does not want to keep working with the same faces repeatedly.

    Once a film gets the nod, Netflix will have a positive involvement, helping the filmmakers throughout the project across segments including pre-production, post-production, VFX and finance, he said.

    TikTok has a comprehensive set of community guidelines: Nikhil Gandhi

    TikTok has taken the Indian social media universe by storm. Although TikTok India head Nikhil Gandhi did not reveal the exact numbers, he said that the platform has witnessed massive growth in the last two years in terms of the user base in India.

    He mentioned that the platform lends a lot of support for anyone with talent, which is unlikely on other platforms and provides huge discoverability too.

    He also added that short-form content is being enabled with the growth in vertical video format, which, according to him, was pioneered by TikTok.

    While there are a number of controversies around TikTok videos, Gandhi noted that it has a comprehensive set of community guidelines which it keeps updating every year. “We do a lot of social campaigns for creators to make them conscious about posting responsibly and be sensitive to issues relating to India,” he said.

  • SonyLIV to enter Originals race, get fresh look by next year

    SonyLIV to enter Originals race, get fresh look by next year

    MUMBAI: The over-the-top media game is just heating up and Sony Pictures Networks is all set to revamp its digital platform SonyLIV by next year. It will roll out a few new originals in another six-eight months in both Hindi and regional languages.

    SonyLIV is an ad-based video-on-demand platform in the OTT space and majorly runs the content that is being broadcasted on its network television channels across genres.

    SonyLIV’s head – original content Saugata Mukherjee, during an exclusive chat with indiantelevision.com, says: “By next year or so, there is a plan to re-launch SonyLIV. Our focus is to bring some of the real variety on the platform and to get to work with really interesting filmmakers and storytellers.”

    He adds: “We have on board some filmmakers and some of our originals are already in production. And hopefully, we shall have enough slate to talk about by the end of this year.”

    The OTT space has received an overwhelming response from the individual audience for the extraordinary and out-of-the-box content that is being produced and shown on the digital platforms. US-based Netflix and Amazon being leaders in the market, dominate the space.

    Mukherjee, highlighting the content strategy of the platform, says: “We are going to invest a lot on Hindi original content and step two would be to invest in Southern language content such as Tamil and Telugu. However, right now the focus is on the Hindi content and then the regional.”

    “Data gives us a lot of numbers and drives us towards the south,” says the SonyLIV head. “If there’s a big skew in the south, we need to cater to that. And thankfully, we have real-time data, which clearly points out that we have a great piece of an audience in the southern part of the country.”

    Out of four broadcaster-led OTT platforms, Zee Enterprises’ ZEE5 and Star India’s Hotstar have already entered the game of originals along with the content they broadcast on television. However, the other two – Network18’s Voot and Sony Pictures’ SonyLIV – are yet to embark on their original content journey.

    Voot, however, is all set to begin the journey in another a month’s time, as confirmed by the platform’s head Gourav Rakshit during an exclusive chat with indiantelevision.com. “We are set to launch at least four new originals in Hindi within the next 30-45 days,” he said. The platform earlier in January has turned itself to subscription video-on-demand from ad-based video-on-demand.

    According to Mukherjee, it’s been two years since the proliferation of OTT has happened and it’s just a start. He believes there’s enough space for everyone just like there’s space on television for Sony, Zee, and Star. They have their own set of audience and running a successful business for so many years now, he explains.

    “Unlike other OTT platforms, the good part of the broadcaster-led OTTs is that they are already sitting on a huge amount of content they have produced and realised the importance of IPs created by them,” he says.

    “The good thing about SonyLIV is that we have some marquee sports properties this year such as Tokyo Olympics, Euro Cup, and we plan to monetise them really well. Since we have a strong cohort and ardent subscribers here, we need to take care of them by making original content,” Mukherjee concludes.

  • ZEE5 is India’s ‘most desired video streaming brand’ as per TRA

    ZEE5 is India’s ‘most desired video streaming brand’ as per TRA

    MUMBAI: ZEE5 has emerged as ‘India’s Most Desired Video Streaming Brand’ as per TRA’s recently-released Most Desired Brands 2020 report. In today’s world, with mobile phones and connected devices driving the majority of digital content consumption, leisure binge-watching has become a norm and, ZEE5 is leading the category in its debut year as India’s Most Desired Video Streaming Brand.

    The award showcases ZEE5’s leadership position in content, reach, and distribution, as well as the enormous popularity of the variety of shows and movies available for viewing on the platform. It surpasses all the other OTT platforms who are the well-known veterans of the industry.

    ZEE5 India CEO Tarun Katial said: “It is a very proud moment for us. A young start-up at heart and being in the business for over two years, we have managed to engage with India’s ever-growing appetite for entertainment and serve them with their favourite content in 14 Indian languages. We are extremely delighted and honored to be adjudged as India’s Most Desired Video Streaming brand by TRA. ZEE5 today has become ‘Super App’ of India with a depth of offering across content types, genres and languages that is hard to beat. We believe that with our unrelenting focus on producing quality content, building a robust distribution network and technology advancements, we will endure to entertain our audience and continue being the top streaming platform in India on any device at any time.”

    TRA Research CEO N. Chandramouli said: “Desire is a longing for a brand irrespective of its need, and the success of a brand is highly dependent on the desire quotient it emanates. The brands which feature in this list have been able to exude a deep magnetic pull that impacts the consumer at a subliminal level. TRA’s syndicated research is based on our proprietary Brand Desire Matrix which measures consumers’ expressions of desire on 36 intangible attributes of a brand”. MDB 2020 lists 1000 brands across 326 Categories and 39 Super-Categories.

  • Voot to roll-out 4 new originals in a month under SVoD

    Voot to roll-out 4 new originals in a month under SVoD

    MUMBAI: To lure more users, Viacom18’s over-the-top (OTT) platform — Voot — will roll-out four new Originals under the subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) category on the platform. The launch of these four new Original series will happen anytime within 30 to 45 days, says Viacom18 Digital Ventures, chief operating officer, Gourav Rakshit speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com.

    The media and entertainment company earlier this year has already formally announced a subscription-based video streaming service — Voot Select, a premium pay service. The arm of the company’s OTT platform will be helmed by Ferzad Palia, head – youth, music & English, Viacom18.

    “The shooting of Originals being already completed, it was outsourced to production houses”, says Rakshit. “As the platform will roll-out the very first Originals, it had to be Hindi genre, however, it will have a translation to other regional languages.”

    According to Rakshit, “Regional is going to be a growth factor for the next five years. Even though Hindi content will grow, the regional content’s growth would be more excessive.”

    Besides Voot Select, the company had also launched Voot Kids last year, its first paid service to tap into the growing demand for kids’ content. Meanwhile, Hotstar has also introduced a new “Kids” button to its website that filters age-appropriate content with parental control last year.

    The SVoD category will provide exclusive content across a diverse multi-genre marquee, of which four of them will be unveiled in a month’s time. “Originals are the big players in the customer acquisition for subscription business,” says Rakshit.

    The data and content have been the major engine drivers for OTTs. Disregarding both of them, Rakshit says, “Our focus is on users more than the data or content. Users exposed to content will definitely provide the data and the reason for our existence is only because of them.”

    “We are putting out a slate, which is our best guess with respect to upcoming Originals, beyond that we’ll start getting data,” says Rakshit. “We have already been live while in terms of just putting out our select service sans putting out Originals. This is done to get likes and dislikes of the consumer.”

    He adds, “On the AVoD side, there is a lot of content we make ourselves under Voot Night Live, which is like an extra innings of the hit show Bigg Boss.” This attempt itself has given a lot many tractions on the digital platform but it wanted to go beyond TV content on the OTT platform and hence the decision to come up with new Originals soon, explains Rakshit.

    Voot is the third broadcaster-led OTT platform, after ZEE5 and Hotstar, to enter into the SVoD category. It has over 100 million downloads on the Google Play store.

    Stating that it’s just a start for the OTT players, Rakshit says, “Don’t believe 2020 is going to be the transformation year. However, it’s going to be a whole decade. In this context, we are neither late nor early to come up with new Originals and in this decade lot many things are going to change.”

  • The top shows on AVOD services

    The top shows on AVOD services

    MUMBAI: It’s been raining premium originals on streaming services such as ZEE5, Hotstar, Netflix, Hoichoi, Arre, ALTBalaji and MX Player. The genres have been varied, but what makes the shows stand out is the quality of storytelling, production values, and casting. The good ones have a cinematic quality about them. Some of them hide behind pay walls and some are on free services, dependent on advertising. But there’s no doubt they are generating buzz amongst subscribers and viewers – some more than the other.

    What’s also working well on a handful of broadcaster-linked streaming services is the catch-up shows which either debut on their OTTs or on television. Some of these get larger audiences and watch times than do the premium originals made for OTT.

    They also serve to bring viewers back almost daily to watch the release of new episodes or catch up with the ones they have missed. Most of the top notch premium originals are on SVOD services, which release data when they want to.

    Choosing the most popular ones without any metrics or data to rely on is therefore  a challenge. However, we at indiantelevision.com took a shot at drawing up a list of shows on advertising video on demand (AVoD) platforms that we think made an impression and were a favourite amongst the OTT-bingers.

    The list is not definitive, is in random order, and it is subjective without any malice intended towards those who do not feature in it. Read on to find out.

    Kumkum Bhagya :

    Kumkum Bhagya is a ZEE TV drama series about a star-crossed couple Abhi and Pragya, who are now separated. Ranbeer falls in love with their daughter Prachi, while their other daughter Rhea vies for his attention. The show with a very high BARC rating has been running for the past five years on television, but it attracts viewers on Zee TV’s ZEE5 service as well.

    Thinkistan:

    Made by Rajnish Lall of Jigsaw Pictures, it is the story of the Indian advertising world in an era when the industry was just beginning to stand out. Created and written by Paddy, set in an ad agency in the 1990s, it chronicles the journey of two advertising professionals in an entertaining manner. It also touches upon one of the most prevalent problems which was deep-rooted in the industry – inherent bias against languages other than English. India’s answer to Mad Men has already launched its second season too.

    Kundali Bhagya:

    Kundali Bhagya is a ZEE TV drama television series starring Shraddha Arya, Dheeraj Dhoopar and Manjit Joura. The story revolves around the two sisters of Pragya, from Kumkum Bhagya. Her sisters are Preeta and Shrishti who discover the existence of their mother Sarla and sister Pragya, after their father’s death. The sisters try to unite with their mother and sister.

    Big Boss:

    The saga of friendship, betrayal, love, bonding, feud, laugher, tears in a house full of celebrities – the formula to keep the audience glued to a show even in its thirteenth edition. Big Boss changed the meaning of reality shows in the country since its first season. The star-studded contestant list, and the association of Salman Khan with the show for more than a decade have favoured it to sustain the excitement, engagement among its fans. While the 100-day reality show is being aired on Colors, it gets millions of viewers on Viacom18’s digital arm VOOT as well.  

    Sembaruthi:

    Sembaruthi is a ZEE Tamil romantic drama TV series about circumstances that force Parvathy and Aditya, the son of an affluent woman, Akhilandeshwari, to get married secretly. But will the shrewd Akhilandeshwari, who has high hopes for her son, learn their secret? If you are not able to watch it on TV, you can definitely go to ZEE5 to find the answer.

    Queen:

    The MX Player original Queen has really ruled the web-entertainment space after it was launched in December. Shakti Seshadri, the central character of the web-series, bears strong resemblances to the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. In the course of portraying a majestic political leader, the narrative does not glorify the character. The realistic emotional tonality of the story makes viewers connect to it. Along with a strong storyline, Queen offers a brilliant screenplay to from its  writers.

    Fuh se Fantasy:

    Fuh se Fantasy , the VOOT original is about the delight in modern relationships that dare to explore their deepest, quirkiest and most exciting desires. The 10-episode series which started streaming on VOOT last year features popular faces such as Karan Wahi, Plabita Borthakur,Naveen Kasturia, Anshuman Malhotra , Gaurav Pandey and Anupriya Goenka. The millennial audience will certainly connect to the anthology as it takes a look at the tabooed and unsaid desires.

    Feet up with the Stars:

    You may like to peep into the lives of your favourite celebrity but all the quintessential interviews make you wane. VOOT has a brilliant alternative, Feet up with the Stars  – a chat show which has caught word of mouth for its intimate and personal conversation. The celebrities here talk more about themselves in a personal and cosy set up rather than taking a dig on others in the B-town. After its first season cut through the clutter of chat shows, the one of its kind chat show came back with the second season last year.

    Agga Bai Sasubai:

    Agga Bai Sasubai on ZEE Marathi tells the story of the loving bond Asawari shares with her daughter-in-law, Shubhra. The women stick together during good times and bad and help each other face the challenges life throws at them. A refreshing and unique take on saas-bahu relationships is also available anytime anywhere on ZEE5.

    Rani Rashmoni:

    Rani Rashmoni is a Bengali television period drama series starring Ditipriya Roy in the lead. The show on Zee Bangla revolves around the life and struggle of Rani Rashmoni, widow of Babu Rajachandra Das of Janbazar, Kolkata. She took charge of the zamindari and business, after her husband's death and proved herself as an effective leader. The show has created a buzz in the Bengali market and has become a part of daily routine in many Bengali households.  If you are keen to look back at the life of a fierce lady of the colonial era, it can be watched on ZEE5 as well.

    Kalyana Vaibhogam:

    Kalyana Vaibhogam is a ZEE Telugu drama television series that also lures viewers to ZEE5 platform too. The Suryadevara Family is cursed and the first wife of all their first sons are bound to be chomped by the jaws of death. While Nithya and Jai, the current heir of the family, fall in love, Nithya’s mother is aware of the curse and replaces her daughter with a lookalike, Manga, an innocent village girl. How things fall in place between Jai, Manga and Nithya forms the crux of the story.

    Hello Mini:

    Someone has been watching, following every move of a girl living alone in Mumbai. Does it sound terrifying? MX Player’s thriller drama series Hello Mini revolves around her life. The protagonist Rivanah Bannerjee who moved from Kolkata to Mumbai seems to have everything at the place in the beginning – a good job, loving boyfriend but as the story goes on her life also goes topsy-turvy. The mystery around the stalker, however, prevails throughout the series making it binge-worthy.

    Gattimela:

    Gattimela is a drama television series on ZEE Kannada starring Sudha Narasimharaju, Rakshith Gowda and others. The story revolves around Vedanth and Amulya, 2 people with contradicting personalities, who are constantly at loggerheads whenever they meet. Whether both of them will turn their sour relationship into a loving one forms the rest of the story. The local users love sampling the show on ZEE5 also. 

  • Siti numbers improve on optimisation of major matrices

    Siti numbers improve on optimisation of major matrices

    BENGALURU: Indian leading multi-system operator (MSO) Siti Networks Limited (Siti) reported 7.8 percent increase in revenue from operations at Rs 1,210.29 crore for the nine month period ended 30 December 2019 (9M 2020, YTD 2020) as compared to the Rs 1,122.71 crore for the corresponding nine month period of the previous year (9M 2019, previous nine month period).  The company’s total expense for 9M 2020 increased 4.9 percent to Rs 1,330.30 crore (108.8 percent of Total Income) from Rs 1,267.81 crore (111,6 percent of Total Income) in the previous nine month period. Siti’s total expense across all major heads decreased 7.7 percent in 9M 2020, as compared to 9M 2019, but for pay channel, carriage share and related costs which increased by Rs 120.94 crore or 23.7 percent.

    Sit reported a lower loss of Rs 117.87 crore in 9M 2020 as compared to a loss of Rs 140.36 crore in 9M 2020.

    Siti claims in its earnings release that 9M 2020 operating EBITDA surged 1.24 times over similar duration of last fiscal, to Rs. 267.6 crore. The company attributes this jump to strict control over expenses and operating efficiencies. Siti says that its operating EBITDA Margin for 9M 2020 also expanded by 1.1 times y-o-y to 22 percent.

    Siti says its subscription revenue for 9M 2020 grew 19.5 percent y-o-y to Rs. 868.7 crore, aided by the strong growth. Subscription ARPU  leapt 1.8 times to Rs.128 per month. Total Revenue (excluding activation) also surged 12.7 percent y-o-y to Rs. 1218.9 crore for the same period.

    Siti CEO Mr Anil Malhotra said: “We are focused on working closely with

    our distribution partners for increased sweating of ground assets further through introduction of allied value-added services for our customers Siti Broadband with Zee 5, India’s fastest growing OTT app, gives both partners an opportunity to scale up our business ambitions, creating value for all our stakeholders with a focused and strategic approach."

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by the company

    Total Income for 9M 2020 increased 7.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 1,222,26 crore from Rs 1,135.11 crore in 9M 2019. Pay channel, carriage sharing and related costs in 9M 2020 increased 23.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 631.14 crore from Rs 510.20 crore. Employee benefits expense in 9M 2020 declined 7.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 57.83 crore from Rs 62.61 crore.  Finance costs in 9M 2020 reduced 3.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 122.16 crore from Rs 126.05 crore. Other expense in 9M 2020 reduced 10 percent y-o-y to Rs 261.17 crore from Rs 290.35 crore.

    Numbers for Q3 2020 as compared to Q3 2019

    For the quarter ended 31 December 2019 (Q3 2020, quarter under review), revenue from operations increased 4.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 402.60 crore from Rs 385.92 crore in Q3 2019. Total Income increased 4.6 percent in the quarter under review to Rs 407.94 crore from Rs 390.11 crore. Loss for Q3 2020 at Rs 33.56 crore was lower than loss of Rs 35.41 crore in Q3 2019.

    Total expense in Q3 2020 increased 4.9 percent to Rs 442.17 crore from Rs 421.70 crore, Excluding pay channel, carriage sharing and related costs, expenses in Q3 2020 declined 10.6 percent to Rs 227.75 crore from Rs 254.72 crore in Q3 2019. Employee benefits expense in Q3 2020 declined 9.5 percent to Rs 18.75 crore from Rs 20.71 crore in Q3 2019. Finance costs in Q3 2020 reduced 7.5 percent to Rs 38.06 crore from Rs 41.13 crore. Other expense in Q3 2020 decreased 13.4 percent to Rs 84.28 crore from Rs 97.33 crore.

  • Regional to prevail as 2020 buzzword for OTT

    Regional to prevail as 2020 buzzword for OTT

    MUMBAI: All major streaming services in India are keeping regional markets at the heart of their expansion strategy. In the last two years, regional has persistently guided the contenders in the over-the-top (OTT) ecosystem and 2020 is not going to be an exception. Some of the major platforms have already tasted success in the regional markets while others are looking at those markets as the next growth frontier. South Indian languages are undoubtedly the ones getting higher priority but other markets like Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi are also emerging gradually.

    Since its grand entry in the crowded OTT space, ZEE5 has emphasised on three ‘Vs , one of those is vernacular. In 2019, ZEE5 had at least one original web series come out in six different languages each month on an average in regional languages including Marathi, Bengali, Telugu and Tamil. The parent company also mentioned in its third quarter result – Kaale Dhande in Marathi, God of Dharmapuri in Telugu and Karoline Kamakshi in Tamil received positive reviews.

    ZEE5 India programming head Aparna Acharekar also explained while talking about the regional strategy that it definitely differs across the markets. Factors like penetration of data or adoption of OTT services, that particular language consumer’s affinities for his language, openness to other languages, etc., influence the strategy widely.

    “I cannot have a one size fit approach for everyone. I am looking at the show that has to cut across say largely Hindi speaking audiences, then my themes will be different because they are exposed to a whole lot of that. Today other competition also, who has entered the OTT space, is largely first creating Hindi content. So whatever I create as a benchmark starts getting compared in Hindi to another benchmark created by another OTT. But we are leaders in other languages and no one has actually come closer, the smaller players have tried little, local players are there. But there is no national-level player who can say let me try to take on the regional market. So, each market has to be looked at differently,” she added.

    Moreover, ZEE5 provides an option to change the display language of the app. If a consumer is not comfortable navigating in English, he can change the display language to Hindi or other regional languages. The platform has seen an uptake in that alternative display adaptation. “In fact with every passing month, we see more uptake of this and we see the relative share of English as a display language is going down and regional language is actually going up,” Aparna said in an earlier interview.

    The young player on the block which already has created a buzz with its Hindi shows, MX Player also has “a very clear regional strategy”. MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar stated that a big show is coming up in Marathi including big names Swapnil Joshi, Satish Rajwade along with two other big shows in pipeline. The platform is focusing highly on south-Indian languages, as Talwar shared.

    “We have some shows in Punjabi, which are in the pipeline. And we have two interesting shows in Bhojpuri coming up. I am so sure that if these two shows are so interesting that if we dub them in other languages, we will get the extraordinary viewership in other regional languages as well. Regional is a big strategy for us moving forward,” Talwar added.

    As per a recent report unveiled by Hotstar, 63 per cent of total online entertainment consumption happens in the non-metro centres of India, and Lucknow, Pune and Patna rank above Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata in consumption of content. YouTube also reported over 95 of its users watched videos in a regional language.

    Other than home-grown players, international streaming services that are keen on Indian expansion are also looking at regional content. According to media reports, a robust content licensing both in Hindi and other regional languages is in Netflix’s pipeline. Amazon Prime Video has a robust catalogue of blockbuster movies across languages. Amazon Prime Video India content director and head Vijay Subramaniam said that the platform will ramp up its language catalogue in Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati and Punjabi while they want to take up Tamil, Telugu further a few notches. While it tasted the water with one Telugu show, he added that Tamil and Telugu shows are in development.

    Smaller players like The Viral Fever (TVF) are not ignoring the promising sector. “We are actually looking at regional shows in 2020. We are working on Marathi shows. We want to line up shows in Tamil and Telugu. In 2020, we will get into regional space and we will later expand into other languages,” TVF chief content officer Sameer Saxena commented.

  • ZEE5 partners with Eduauraa to provide world class online eduction at an affordable price

    ZEE5 partners with Eduauraa to provide world class online eduction at an affordable price

    National: ZEE5, India's largest ConTech brand today, amidst the presence of Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India announced an exclusive partnership with Eduauraa, a premier digital learning platform. After reimagining the content landscape for Indian OTT consumers and entertaining millions of individuals with an array of bespoke content across 100+ originals, movies, news and its brand-new gamification offering all on one single platform, ZEE5 today, via this partnership, has taken a strong step forward in creating purposeful content for its viewers across the Nation. The partnership was launched at an event in Delhi, which was graced by the presence of Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, and Mr. Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Mr. Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India and Ms. Akanksha Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO, Eduauraa.

    Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development, during his keynote said, “My congratulations to ZEE5 and Eduauraa for showing great foresight in bringing education to a streaming platform. I am sure that the digital transformation of education will provide easy access to content and democratize education for masses. It should be our endeavour to see more innovation in the learning ecosystem that will allow each child to discover his strengths and abilities and fulfil his dreams in a digital world!”

    India has the world's largest school going population between the age bracket of 6-17 with over 310 million students. Over 55% of Indian students take tuitions, and on an average 11-12% of a parent's income goes on a single child's education. The cost of education has risen from Rs.55,000 to Rs.1,25,000 over the past decade, an increase of over 150%. Despite spending a huge portion of their earnings, parents have no control over the quality of education their children get. Access to e-learning platforms in India remains prohibitively expensive ranging from Rs. 15,000 to Rs.2 lakhs/year.

    When 85% of India earns below 8 lakhs a year, how can India afford this?
    ZEE5 and Eduauraa join hands to democratize education by giving world class quality education content at an
    affordable price, empowering over 310 million students.

    Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. commented, “Education is the most important pillar of any economy. If the education of this Country can be revolutionized, then every individual can be empowered to improve their standard of living, thus having a trickle up effect and in turn positively impacting the development of our Country. ZEE5's initiative with Eduauraa is our first step towards giving back to our extended family by delivering purposeful content at an affordable price.”

    Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India said, “Our larger vision at ZEE5, is to be able to build a rich repository of purposeful content across genres that makes a ZEE5 subscription an investment for an individual to enjoy content viewing anytime, anywhere. With Eduauraa on board, we want to create purposeful content and address the educational needs of the young students across the Country.  Quality education should be accessible to one and all, irrespective of age, gender, financial capabilities, and their place of stay. In most cities, a significant amount of household income is today spent on private coaching, irrespective of the child's grade. Eduauraa coming on board with ZEE5 will help us strengthen our education content portfolio. With our wide reach across the Country including metros, Tier 2 cities, Tier 3 towns and villages, we hope to provide quality education to children in an engaging way at no extra cost.”

    The partnership will transform the traditional learning system and provide students of class 6th to 12th standard across different boards including ICSE, CBSE and seven state boards (Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu), in English and Hindi. Concept based learning as per Board wise syllabus will be delivered through interactive video lectures using innovative and interactive methods that explain each and every topic or concept.

    Akanksha Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO, Eduauraa commented, “Having studied at great institutions, I realised that India can be transformed if superior quality education can reach every child. The challenge was that world class education was expensive and only the rich could afford it. We believe technology could be used as an enabler to eliminate all barriers and transform the way education is consumed. In ZEE5 we found a partner  with  a similar  vision.  With a  philosophy  of empowering children and playing catalysts to equal opportunities, Eduauraa was created with a vision to democratize education by using technology, making premiere quality education reach every corner of India at an affordable price.”

    ZEE5 has aggressively invested in onboarding best-in-class technology partners who could help deliver a hyper- personalised and a seamless content viewing experience for consumers to watch content on any device, anytime. With Eduauraa coming on board, ZEE5 will continue to invest further in technology to better the overall consumer journey onto the platform by making the app user friendly and intuitive.

    ZEE5 subscribers would be able to conveniently access Eduauraa through an in-app integration. As part of the introductory offering, ZEE5 will offer Eduauraa free for six months for new users who would subscribe to the annual pack and register themselves on or before March 31st, 2020. Eduauraa on ZEE5 would be available in Hindi and English
    – the only educational app at this price point to make language options available for the viewer.

    Some of the segment leading features would include multiple options to learn and excel such as interactive animation videos, e-books, and practice test papers, English learning segment which is valuable for people across all age groups, content to prepare for competitive exams such as civil services, banking and railways, team of IIT's, IIM's and other Professors who are responsible for the quality check of the content, and Eduauraa Proficiency Quotient, Eduauraa Assistant, virtual classroom and mentor service.
     

  • What factors drive content commissioning decision of OTT platforms?

    What factors drive content commissioning decision of OTT platforms?

    MUMBAI: From the later part of 2017, streaming players have delivered many “blockbuster originals”. Social media chatters, peer groups, office rooms see numerous discussions on premium content available on ZEE5, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, Voot , MX Player and so on. But what are the key factors that help OTT platforms to wisely craft their content library?

    In the last two years, a plethora of content was churned out by over-the-top (OTT) players in the country. Despite high investment in production, and marketing, not every show could create a buzz like Sacred Games, Inside Edge, The Family Man, Mirzapur, Karenjit Kaur, Rangbaaz, Thinkistaan. With a curiosity to find the secret sauce of this success, Indiantelevision.com spoke to experts on what are the prime factors they focus on while content commissioning as well as licensing. However, it was evident from the discussions that one simple factor stays at the centre of it – user taste and preference.

    ZEE5 India programming head Aparna Acharekar says data is the first benchmark and the decision starts with that, and ends with that. She reaffirms that data is the new oil that runs the entire industry. According to her, whether it is acquisition or buying, filters will have to be the same. The process has changed massively compared to one or two years back. A lot of their earlier commissioning was based on the overall knowledge of what consumers in OTT like.

    “Depending upon who I have on the platform, who I want to be on my platform, which is that most valuable group that I want to cultivate, acquisition also happens, commissioning happens, green lighting of original projects happen. Everything is guided by that one. Finally who we do this for, the consumer, the demand that is fuelling the supply,” she adds.

    Amazon Prime Video India content director and head Vijay Subramaniam says the decision of content commissioning starts with the customer, understanding her tastes and preferences, looking at how its evolving and what meaning the platform makes of it. Accord to him another input is diversity as India has multiple communities, several micro cultures. Hence, he adds it's important to recognise the nuanced changes between all of these communities and be able to tell stories that matter to all. He also says that it's important to respect diversity of individuals as well.

    “What do Indians care about? We know they care about movies. And so then they care about the latest and the greatest movies. It's important to be able to provide that to our customers, you know, young adults care about comedies, making selection there. So I think all this comes from an innate understanding of customers preferences towards content, also looking at everything else that's available to them, and where are the open spaces where there is a need and that is unfulfilled,” he states.

    “User is going to be at centre of this. Product, marketing, tech, content revolves around him. Either it can get me a lot of new users which are not there on my platform today or to my existing audiences it will drive higher views,” VOOT AVoD business head Akash Banerji comments.

    After announcing Q3 result, ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka said that the network would continue to invest in original content for ZEE5 to create a rich content library that will make it a compelling offering for consumers. Recently, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings said that the online video streaming company is investing Rs 3,000 crore in 2019 and 2020 to create more original content from India. Amazon chief Jeff Bezos also recently revealed his intention to double down the investment for the company's streaming service, Prime Video.  Moreover, Times Internet-owned OTT platform MX Player also announced recently a $110 million (INR 775 crore) funding round from Tencent and its parent entity. Hence, it is strongly clear that both homegrown and international players will be churning more premium quality content in the coming years.

    “Content commissioning takes a lot of time but you have to really look at who the show is being made for. We are overall a very consumer and customer-centric company,” MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar says.

    Talwar points out another important fact. “We also look at, are we overindexed or under for a certain genre? So we have to look at what is the balance required per genre,” he adds.

    Acharekar notes another clichéd but important factor. Content strategy is derived from business strategy. So what is the business need, how will the platform get more subscriptions? It’s not about getting accolades for content. But it’s about what is that content able to get for the platform as a business.

  • ZEE5 Super Family will unify and gamify India: Taranjeet Singh

    ZEE5 Super Family will unify and gamify India: Taranjeet Singh

    MUMBAI: ZEE5 is approaching the stiff competition in the crowded over-the-top (OTT) space with innovative measures. Taking the trend of gamification one step ahead, it is prepping to launch a new property – ZEE5 Super Family (ZSF). While fantasy games have been targeting men usually, ZSF is targeting women by gamifying Hindi GEC content.

    Although quizzes and games are not new in the non-fiction segment, they are on the fiction side. Even rare is engaging women via gamification. ZEE5 is attempting both.

    “It’s an interesting format where users get an opportunity to create their own super family and they will have a whole set of saas, bahu, beta, dost and users can decide how the chosen character will act out on that day’s TV episode and have a chance to win gratifications. We are actually looking at really good gratification with brands like car, smartphones, gif vouchers, ZEE5 subscriptions for the people who win the game at the end of the day,” ZEE5 India business head and chief revenue officer Taranjeet Singh said.

    To make it user-friendly, ZSF will include detailed easy-to-understand video tutorials that will assist viewers in playing the game and excel it to earn higher scores. The game also allows viewers to modify their family characters to improve scores and move ahead. The aim is to get higher engagement and traction. The game will go live between the end of this quarter and the beginning of the next.

    Gamification isn’t new for ZEE5. In 2019, the platform introduced games around big IPs in non-fiction format like Saregama and Dance India Dance which saw a surge in user engagement on the back of interactive content.

    “For us, building gamification helps from an audience engagement perspective and also from a brand point of view, it is really critical. We have launched Play5 which helps brand integrate with our content, where we have trading games across our live shows and other non-fictional programmes. It also helps to create casual games and hyper-casual games for users where brands can have integration,” Singh stated.

    The platform is in the process of partnering with major brands. He explained two reasons for brands to come on-board – the opportunity to be part of the gratification and integrating brand messaging in the games.

    The platform is in talks with PPG brands, personal care brands, and mobile phone companies. “It’s not about one particular genre. Brands which are interested in reaching out to family audiences, or particularly women, will find this platform as a great opportunity to integrate their messaging and build integration within the game,” Singh said.

    Singh is also optimistic about the growth of interactive content around fiction shows. He said that it is evident from social chatters that people love talking about their favourite shows when they discuss characters, programmes. Moreover, the OTT space is gradually becoming hyper-personal. “Most importantly, it is a massive opportunity to create better personalisation from the brand side,” he summed up.