Sony Liv, the over-the-top services player owned by broadcaster Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India, and Star India’s Hotstar will use Hollywood movies and English TV content to take on Netflix in the Indian market. Hotstar, which claims over 50 million downloads, has launched its first pay wall (Rs 199 per month) with the launch of sixth season of ‘Game of Thrones’, an HBO original series, along with other TV series. Sony Liv, with over 20 million downloads, has taken the films route and recently launched a subscription service for Bollywood movies.
It is banking on its Hollywood library to offer English movies on subscription and plans to offer titles like The Goosebumps, The Angry Birds, Hotel Transylvania and Concussion to its users before their TV premieres on a per transaction basis for Rs 120.
“While we have subscription plan forRs 150 per month, we are offering recent movies on a pay-per-view and transactional VOD basis for Rs 120. As these films are not aired on TV, we hope that people will pay to watch it on Sony Liv,” said Uday Sodhi, executive VP and digital business head at SPN India. “We are trying to add more and more movies to the library,” he told ET. “Consumers who consume content in English have always been associated with higher spending power.
These consumers also are more amenable to paying for content if they can get it on a when and-where-I-want-it basis,” said Ashish Pherwani, head, advisory for media & entertainment at EY. Earlier this week, Hotstar launched its monthly subscription service for Rs 199 a month with “unspoiled” version of Game of Thrones, an hour after US release. As of now over 30 shows are listed in its catalogue, including the entire HBO Originals library True Detective, Silicon Valley, Veep, Vinyl, Leftovers, Band of Brothers, Entourage, The Sopranos, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Facebook has also updated photo-sharing Instagram app for Windows 10 mobile.
“Today, we are excited to rollout Windows 10 apps for Facebook and Messenger on desktop and Instagram on mobile. These new apps will load quickly and easily within Windows and have the most up-to-date features,” commented Davis Fields, Product Manager, Facebook .
Facebook for Windows 10 is fast, easy to access and is one click away from the Start Menu. The app starts and loads News Feed much faster than previous Facebook desktop applications.
The new app has built-in desktop notifications feature and a user can pin a new Facebook Live Tile that will show the user latest updates from friends, family and Pages.
Also, it is now easy to share photos to Facebook straight from apps or File Explorer.
The company has included a string of new features such as reactions, stickers in comments and a right-hand column that shows birthday and event reminders, trending topics and more.
With the new app interface and an in-app browser, it is now easy to read and share multiple articles from News Feed.
Meanwhile, the Messenger for Windows 10 has features, including stickers, group conversations and GIFs.
The Messenger for Windows has native desktop notifications and a feature that lets a user see unread messages with a Live Tile.
Although payments, voice/video calling and taking photos/video within the app are not supported yet, the company will be updating Messenger over time.
The company also rolled out the updated Instagram for Windows 10 Mobile with all of the community’s favourite features, including Instagram Direct, Explore and video.
The Instagram for Windows 10 Mobile supports Live Tiles, showing updates right on home screen.
Facebook and Messenger for Windows 10 are available in the Windows Desktop App Store while Instagram for Windows 10 Mobile will be available in the Windows Phone Store.
Facebook and Messenger are arriving on Windows 10 phones “later this year”.
“If you look at the total revenue of Adobe last year, it was $4.896 billion and Asia Pacific contributed nearly 14 percent of the entire revenue,” Umang Bedi, managing director (south Asia), Adobe, told IANS.
Several Indian companies have subscribed to Adobe’s digital marketing solutions in the recent past to enhance consumer experience and revenue generation.
“Some of the largest customers were from the regional parts of the country. Today, we support nearly 10 regional languages, including Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali,” he added.
According to Chinmai Sharma from Taj Hotel group that uses Adobe’s digital marketing solutions to improve customer experience, nearly 75 percent of customers staying with them either book or search online.
“They use desktops and smartphones to search for the best options. That means that digital marketing has a huge potential,” Sharma, chief revenue officer at Taj Hotel group, told IANS.
“…so if we use it the correct way, it will help us customise the messaging to each and every customer which helps them to choose wisely. We can provide them with some great offers and itinerary in advance,” he added.
On asked why the group chose Adobe as a partner, Sharma said Adobe has domain knowledge and expertise on the technical and industrial side.
“We wanted a company where the data can be stored and accessed from one place. We used Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) service and the biggest advantage was that a customer could run the website from smartphones, desktop and tablets with ease,” Sharma noted.
“Clicks to the ‘Booking Engine’ almost doubled from 14 percent to 27 percent. People are staying on the website for longer — from 122 seconds earlier to 154 seconds now — and the bounce rates have gone down to 44 percent from 55 percent before,” Sharma added.
Aimed at showcasing the actual side of LGBT community and taking content beyond stereotypes in India, recently the Creative Gypsy rolled out web-series titled All About Sec-377. According to Amit Khanna, Director, LBGT community is not depicted in the right way in our society. Thus he felt it was important to tell their story, share their feeling and mind frame.
Khanna believes that the LGBT community is being neglected and side lined by our society. There have been a lot of conversations and up’s and down’s after certain laws were passed on homosexuality.
Speaking about the concept, Khanna said, “I wanted to make an attempt to cover it all in a humorous and emotional manner and open everyone’s eyes to the reality of a gay person’s life. Hence, my newest direction, All about Section 377 is a web-series which is about freedom of love – love in its purest form. The webseries is a light and fun representation of the dilemmas faced by homosexuals. It takes a light hearted look at gay couples’ life as seen through the eyes of straight homophobic man.”
What is Section-377?
According to section 377 of the Indian Penal Code sexual activities against the order of nature including homosexual acts are criminalised.
However, on 2nd July 2009, the High Court of Delhi decriminalized with respect to sex between consenting adults. Later on 12 December 2013, that judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court of India with the Court holding that amending or repealing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary.
Recently, on 2ndFebruary 2016, the final hearing of the curative petition submitted by the Naz Foundation and others came for hearing in the Supreme Court. The three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice of India T. S. Thakur said that all the 8 curative petitions submitted will be reviewed afresh by a five-member constitutional bench.
Introduction and meet the characters
All About Sec-377 is a story of homophobic man and how his perceptions changes after spending some time with homosexuals and knowing them closely
This 8 episodic web-series tells the story of a Delhite Suresh Chaudhary played by Gulshan Nain who came to Mumbai to try his luck in modelling and acting. He joins his cousin renowned Gay photographer RohitMehra portrayed by director Amit Khanna himself.
Mehra lives with his bi-sexual boyfriend SiddharthJuneja played by AnkitBhati and domestic helper Chhotu played by Mustafa Shaikh. Apart from this, series contains lots of supporting but yet interesting characters such as Mehra’s lesbian assistant Surbhi and his Gay make-up artist and to add glamour quotient Fiza is there to entertain audience.
There are three elderly ladies playing mothers and mosi of Suresh and Rohit delivers awesome performance. Suresh’ mother adds humour quotient to the story, every time she comes to the frame, audience will laugh. On the other side, Rohit’s mother is an emotional lady and this character contains lots of intensity and depth within limited frames.
“I feel our web-series can connect to each and every individual of any age or from anywhere in the world since love is a universal feeling i also feel everyone must understand this and everyone must watch the series, we have focused more on our content we have faith in it and hence we are sure through word of mouth it would spread”, opined Khanna.
The USP is its characters, the topic and its execution. Khanna informed that the way this web-series has been portrayed is unimaginable – light hearted, fun and at the same time so effective.
Amit Khanna is making is acting debut with this web-series. There were two major challenges, firstly the sponsors coming on board and secondly actors opting to be part of the film due to its controversial topic and homosexuality are still considered as a Taboo in India.
“Rohit’s character again is very complex and layered, he is bitchy, emotional, loud as well as homely, it was important that we depict the nuances well but not go overboard, many actors shied away to play a gay character so as the writer i felt i must cast myself, which i feel scared me initially but with everyone’s support i knew ill manage. So yes I made my acting debut through the Web-series”, expressed Khanna.
Since Suresh is just a homophobic straight character casting of Gulshan was not that tought, but to find the rest of the cast was a challenge. The Creative Gypsy conducted several auditions and found Ankit Bhatia and Mustafa.
Road ahead
The Creative Gypsy has already rolled out 5 episodes of the series followed by a video of its making. In next three episodes, this web-series will be concluded and since, the response is terrific, Khanna mentioned that very soon second season will be launched.
At the moment The Creative Gypsy is gearing up for its next hard hitting web-series and short stories, which affect India as a country. Khanna informed that each short film is award winning and audience would certainly relate to them.
“I am so happy with the way viewers have poured comments on the YouTube channel, it has been very motivating for the entire team. The series will see season 2 very soon. My next project is a web-series called Mere girlfriend ka boyfriend which is a ROM COM.I am also working on 2 more nonfiction Web-series”, concluded Khanna.
Fashion photographer and film maker, Amit Khanna has be honoured the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to the Fashion Photography Industry. Apart from this he has been invited to attend the Cannes and NICE international film festival of France this may 2016 where his short film – An untold story of Paperboats is being screened and nominated respectively.
The payment platform JunoTele announced the appointment of Vikrant Khorana as Chief Business Officer. Khorana will be a part of Management team of JunoTele and will lay down the strategic roadmap for the company to generate new revenue streams and expand in different territories.Khorana will work closely with JunoTele’s founding team to scale up payment infrastructure and use his rich experience to make the JunoTele platform future ready.
Speaking on Khorana’s appointment, B Sekhar Rao, Founder, JunoTele said, “I am thrilled that Vikrant is bringing his huge talent and vision to us, and his appointment will bring deep market experience and herald an exciting new phase for JunoTele.” Commenting on his appointment, Vikrant said, “I’m looking forward to this exciting role at JunoTele where we aim for business expansion nationally and Internationally. I will also be setting-up Financial Technology (Fin-tech) vertical for the company and develop new innovative products using Juno’s patented solutions.”
Earlier, Khorana was the Sr. Vice President & Business Head for Non-Ecommerce Business at PayU India. He was responsible for verticals like Government, Telecom, Insurance, Education, Real Estate, Banking & Financial Services and Airlines. He had been supervising strategic direction, product and technology solutions, formulizing strategy to enter new verticals , cost management and business process reengineering.
Khorana comes with over 10 years of rich experience in leading global technology and payments organizations. His experience spans across Telecom, Mobile & Internet and IT industry with reputed brands like Indiatimes, Wipro US, Tencent and Ibibo Group. He headed Business Development & Strategy with Tencent India, where he held a key role in building the product WeChat. Prior to this, he helped grow business for Communication, Media & Telecom vertical at Wipro US.
Available for download through the Google Play Store and Apple itunes in nearly 140 countries, the ‘nexGTv Kids’ app will allow children between the ages of 2 and 10 to access a plethora of highly educative and entertaining video content.
Speaking on the announcement, Abhesh Verma, COO, nexGTv said, “We are very excited to present the brand new ‘only for kids’ platform, “nexGTv Kids”. We have thoroughly handpicked the content that entertains, educates and encourages kids to learn, teaching them skills of crafts, origami etc. Kids can enjoy their favourite shows in a safe, uninterrupted, no-ads environment, while the parents and guardians can just relax and be reassured that their kids are in the right company. Besides, to further enhance our service offering for kids, we are also planning to introduce new high-quality original content with familiar characters.”
In addition to the entertainment content, kids will also have access to several informative and educating videos featuring Housing Clay Art tutorials, jovial Science Experiment videos and popular nursery rhymes to take care of their holistic learning.
Adding to the entertainment is the Live TV section of the app, which gives access to universally-loved channels such as Cartoon Network and Pogo, while a featured Movies list including popular films such as Popeye – Bride & Gloom, Boxer Rebellion, Bumm Bumm Bhole and Bal Ganesh will also be present as an option. The app effortlessly juggles between Education, Learning and Entertainment by hosting a vivid range of videos, animations, movies and jolly tutorials.
The rating upgrade takes into account the recent equity infusion from the promoter group (Rs. 530 crores in February 2016) and the improving operating performance of itiI Cable, which is expected to result in an improvement in the credit profile of the company. ICRA also noted that being an Essel Group entity, Siti Cable has been benefitting from regular financial support from the promoter group.
Speaking about this rating upgrade, V D Wadhwa, Executive Director & CEO, Siti Cable said, “We welcome this upgrade in SITI Cable’s credit rating and thank ICRA for re-affirming SITI Cable’s growth story. Improvement in profitability, growth in Digital Subscriber base, continuous focus on operational excellence and promoter’s confidence in sustainable growth of the company, have all been the drivers for SITI Cable’s growth. SITI Cable has been at the forefront in offering great value to customers through video and broadband services.”
ICRA has also noted Siti CABLE’s significant investments in consumer premise equipment towards conversion of analogue subscribers to digital. Siti CABLE achieved a financial turn-around for the first time by reporting Profit Before Tax of INR 56 Crores in Q3FY16, the promoters had infused fresh funding in Q3FY16.
Hollywood’s popularity in India should never be underestimated. Disney’s Jungle Book has not only clocked more than Rs 150 crore but also managed to top Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan’s Fan in the process. Now, media conglomerates Star and Sony plan to cash in on this Hollywood rage in a different way.
It is banking on its Hollywood library to offer English movies on subscription and plans to offer titles like The Goosebumps, The Angry Birds, Hotel Transylvania and Concussion to its users before their TV premieres on a per transaction basis for Rs 120.
These consumers also are more amenable to paying for content if they can get it on a when and-where-I-want-it basis,” said Ashish Pherwani, head, advisory for media & entertainment at EY. Earlier this week, Hotstar launched its monthly subscription service for Rs 199 a month with “unspoiled” version of Game of Thrones, an hour after US release. As of now over 30 shows are listed in its catalogue, including the entire HBO Originals library True Detective, Silicon Valley, Veep, Vinyl, Leftovers, Band of Brothers, Entourage, The Sopranos, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
