Devesh
Core Member
Balaji Telefilms’ OTT service ALT Balaji will technically go live on 21 February. The commercial launch will take place on 15 April. “ALT goes live, tech live on 21 February. What that essentially means is that it will be freely available. We are testing the technology,” Balaji Telefilms Ltd Group CEO Sameer Nair told ET Now.
After this testing phase is over, the commercial launch is slated for 15 April, Nair said. The service will be priced at Rs 60 per month. ALT will start with 60-80 episodes of content. The plan is to create 300 hours of original content in the year, Nair said. Balaji Telefims will be making 30 per cent of those shows while the rest 70% have been commissioned to other production houses. “We are creating series of 12-15 episodes. Each episode will be between 15- 22 minutes long,” Nair said. As reported earlier by TelevisionPost.com, Balaji Telefilms has invested Rs 30.7 crore in its OTT venture and continues to add original and exclusive content in preparation for its launch. ALT Digital Media Entertainment, which houses the digital business of Balaji Telefilms, is entering into marketing and distribution tie ups with leading smartphone OEMs, telcos, ISPs, e-commerce and payment partners. To launch and expand the digital media unit, Balaji has raised Rs 150 crore by issuing preference shares to global investors like Atyant Capital India Fund – I, Vanderbilt University, GH , GHI LTP Ltd, GHI HSP and GHI ERP. ALT Balaji will have a mix of subscription-based and premium ad-supported models. The OTT platform will initially have English and Hindi content. Going forward, it will have regional content in Tamil, Bengali and Telugu in order to cater to a wider spectrum of the audience. ALT Balaji’s content will be created for 32 different interfaces spanning mobiles, computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, game stations, or use an HDMI cable to mirror the high-resolution content on internet-ready TV sets. The content will be available across nine different speed profiles.
Read more at: http://www.televisionpost.com/news/balaji-telefilms-to-commercially-launch-its-ott-service-on-15-apr/ | TelevisionPost.com
After this testing phase is over, the commercial launch is slated for 15 April, Nair said. The service will be priced at Rs 60 per month. ALT will start with 60-80 episodes of content. The plan is to create 300 hours of original content in the year, Nair said. Balaji Telefims will be making 30 per cent of those shows while the rest 70% have been commissioned to other production houses. “We are creating series of 12-15 episodes. Each episode will be between 15- 22 minutes long,” Nair said. As reported earlier by TelevisionPost.com, Balaji Telefilms has invested Rs 30.7 crore in its OTT venture and continues to add original and exclusive content in preparation for its launch. ALT Digital Media Entertainment, which houses the digital business of Balaji Telefilms, is entering into marketing and distribution tie ups with leading smartphone OEMs, telcos, ISPs, e-commerce and payment partners. To launch and expand the digital media unit, Balaji has raised Rs 150 crore by issuing preference shares to global investors like Atyant Capital India Fund – I, Vanderbilt University, GH , GHI LTP Ltd, GHI HSP and GHI ERP. ALT Balaji will have a mix of subscription-based and premium ad-supported models. The OTT platform will initially have English and Hindi content. Going forward, it will have regional content in Tamil, Bengali and Telugu in order to cater to a wider spectrum of the audience. ALT Balaji’s content will be created for 32 different interfaces spanning mobiles, computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, game stations, or use an HDMI cable to mirror the high-resolution content on internet-ready TV sets. The content will be available across nine different speed profiles.
Read more at: http://www.televisionpost.com/news/balaji-telefilms-to-commercially-launch-its-ott-service-on-15-apr/ | TelevisionPost.com