MUMBAI: In November 2018, ShortsTV entered the Indian market with the concept of showcasing the world's largest catalogue of high quality short films and series. In partnership with various distribution platforms like Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, DIsh TV and D2H, the channel reached over 60 million households in India. The next big move coming from the company is to launch a video streaming app in the second quarter of 2020. Another focus of ShortsTV in 2020 will be on creation and acquisition of regional contents.
"We’re thrilled by the response we’ve received so far by audiences in India. People here love short films," comments ShortsTV chief executive Carter Pilcher.
In an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, Pilcher informs, “We are very excited about the coming year as we have a lot of plans for the Indian market. We will be focusing a lot on content creation and acquisition including adding to our growing portfolio of regional language content. Another key initiative is the launch of our video streaming app which is expected by the second quarter of 2020 in India.”
The app will mainly have short films and series in all formats and genres including live action, animation, dramas and documentaries.The company is currently testing the app in beta mode in the US. He says, “There are huge opportunities in India around mobile, as more and more people are streaming content on their mobile devices. Short films are perfect for this, as they can be enjoyed anywhere and anytime. We are looking forward to providing the best short film content to mobile viewers in India.”
He said that the big focus in 2020 will be the launch of ShortsTV’s app, which uses a machine-learning algorithm like Spotify. Viewers will be able to choose from categories based on director, language, mood and genre.
In 2020 ShortsTV will also be seen investing heavily in producing regional content in Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam apart from Hindi and English languages.
Pilcher comments, “We see regional content as hugely important as there are many emerging filmmakers producing exciting short films in different parts of the country. Our existing catalogue offers shorts in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil and our acquisitions team is always on the look-out for more regional films to add to our service. Next year we plan to add more content in local languages like Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and beef up our existing regional portfolio.”
ShortsTV launched in India with 150-175 hours of Indian titles with another 500 hours of international content. Over the next year it aims to add another 200 hours of Indian origin shorts and have 50 per cent of the library of Indian short films.
It has a growing catalogue of more than 13,000+ Indian and international short movies. Top of the list are award-winners from all the biggest international award franchises: Oscars, BAFTAs and Cannes with the biggest Hollywood and Bollywood stars: Benedict Cumberbatch to Jackie Shroff and Judi Dench to Radhika Apte. “In India, currently about 30 per cent of our content is Indian produced and we’re working to increase that amount by acquiring content from leading producers around the country,” opines Pilcher.
Pilcher believes, in India, the most popular genres are horror, thriller and crime. He says, “Millennials are inclined to watch all kinds of content. They are more open to edgy and provocative films than earlier generations, which short films are great at delivering and which we have a lot of on ShortsTV.”
ShortsTV has partnered with some of India’s short film producers, including Large Short Films, Terribly Tiny Tales and Humara Movie. Some of the popular titles in its catalogue include Chutney, Ahalya, Kheer, Int. Café Night, Half Full, etc. featuring some of the leading Bollywood actors like Radhika Apte, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, amongst others.
It has also partnered with Bollywood directors like Anurag Kashyap and Subhash Ghai’s film school Whistling Woods to bring alive more creative shorts content.
