KOLKATA: Leading telecom brand Vi today flagged off its pay per view service model, clubbed with deals from Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. This is a first-of-its-kind offering by a telco in India’s exploding premium video-on-demand (PVOD) market.
This will enable Vi customers to get access to 380+ movie titles, including one of the most talked about film in 2020 by acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, Tenet, in four languages – Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu.
The PVOD market in India is very premature but promising, as Indian audience continues to be price conscious and choosy. PVOD models are changing in the new post pandemic era as consumers are looking at alternative options of entertainment in the comfort of their homes.
Vi Movies & TV pay per view model is a natural extension of its entertainment offerings. The current offerings allow users to watch content at no extra cost as per their recharge or post-paid plans. Pay per view launch is furthering the agenda to empower users to pay for the content that they want to watch, in a language they want to watch.
Vi CMO Avneesh Khosla said, “With the opening of the economy and entertainment business, new content consumption models are emerging that allow users to watch single content for a specific price. Our innovative and partnership led content strategy has helped us adopt a telco-first approach for content monetisation in this hugely untapped market. We look forward to working with like-minded partners like Hungama Digital, to grow this segment.”
Hungama Digital Media COO Siddhartha Roy said, “Through our partnerships with international studios, Hungama Play offers its users the opportunity to watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters within a few weeks of their theatrical release, in a pay per view model. The integration of Hungama Play's transactional service with Vi Movies and TV will allow their users to explore and consume an extensive library of the latest Hollywood titles, giving them access to global entertainment on their phones. We have had a long and fruitful relationship with Vi and are certain that the latest association will expand the scope of on-demand services that can be offered to Vi users.”
The partnership between Vi and Hungama is designed with the objective of bolstering growth of digital ecosystem in India, and will allow Vi customers to access premium Hollywood movies. Some of the titles which will be showcased and will be available for Vi customers, as a part of this initiative are — Tenet, Joker, Birds of Prey, SCOOB, Aquaman, to name a few.
Tenet will now be available to Vi customers at an attractive price point of Rs 120 along with the best of more 2020 movies releases, while other films will be available at Rs 60. This is the best pricing in the market for Hungama movies. Users can rent a film title and watch it within a window of 48 hours from the comfort of their home. They also have the option to Chromecast the film and watch it on a large screen.
