Hotstar | Pixr8 News

12Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Hotstar Launches in the UK with Two Subscription Plans

One of the most popular Indian video streaming platform Hotstar has launched its services in the United Kingdom. This has been done ahead of the Asia Cup cricket tournament that is starting on Saturday. With this move, Hotstar has now expanded its services in four markets including India, the United States, Canada and now the United Kingdom. The video streaming platform claims that it will offer more than 60,000 hours of television shows, and more than 2,000 Indian movies, along with live sports such as Cricket, Kabaddi, Badminton and Hockey to consumers in the United Kingdom. The service will be made available through two different plans - a monthly plan priced at £11.99 and a yearly plan priced at £59.99. The streaming platform will now have two business verticals - advertising-led...

YouTube Originals is Coming to India with AR Rehman’s Show

6Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

YouTube Originals is Coming to India with AR Rehman’s Show

The most popular video streaming platform YouTube which is owned by Google is introducing its YouTube Originals to India in partnership with music maestro A.R. Rahman for its first such show in the country. After Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, YouTube is also bringing in 'Originals' for the Indian audience. Meanwhile, the India originals will be on the company’s ad-supported platform. But it will, gradually, launch an ad-free subscription service called YouTube Premium. "Affordable data costs are driving video consumption in India, data usage is about 8 GB a month per subscriber. This has pushed online video consumption as well, which is now about 75% of all mobile traffic as per industry reports," said YouTube India Head of Entertainment Satya Raghavan. Satya Raghavan also stated t...

Airtel TV Crosses 50 Million Downloads on Android: Extends Free Subscription

7Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Airtel TV Crosses 50 Million Downloads on Android: Extends Free Subscription

India’s popular Delhi-based telecom company Bharti Airtel has publicized that its Android app called Airtel TV has crossed the milestone of 50 million (5 crores) downloads on the Google Play Store. To acknowledge this success, the company has announced that it will be offering a free subscription to the Airtel mobile customers till 31 December 2018. Earlier, Airtel provided free subscription on Airtel TV app to its customers only till June, but now the time period has been extended till the end of this year. The free subscription will be offered to each and every Airtel prepaid and postpaid user. "We are thrilled at achieving this milestone and being able to scale up the app so rapidly. This is a strong endorsement from our users and a result of our unrelenting focus on delivering a wo...

30May By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Facebook on a Hunt for India Head

The social media giant Facebook is up for finalizing its new head for the operations in India, and it is basically looking for Top media and FMCG executives. The interviews regarding the same are being taken up by the company’s vice-president for global marketing solutions David Fischer who is in the country for this purpose. A decision would be taken by him after reviewing and close examination. The sources convey that the shortlisted candidates included Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan, Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal, Star India MD Sanjay Gupta, and former Karnataka IT secretary Srivatsa Krishna, among others. The leading candidates among these are Hotstar and Tata Sky executives. The job description, for that matter, states that the new India leader will be responsible for Facebook's India ope...

IPL Fails to Drive TV Audience But Wins Big Online

3May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

IPL Fails to Drive TV Audience But Wins Big Online

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, currently aired on Star India network, is unable to attract the viewership it recorded for the 2017 season when aired on Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) channels. Star India network acquired the broadcasting rights of the competition this year after acquiring global media rights for a colossal Rs 16,347.5 crore. According to stats from the Economic Times, the network registered 302.8 million viewers above the age of 20 in India in rural and urban locations throughout 17 live matches. This figure is spread across 10 Star India channels broadcasting the cricket matches, namely, Star Sports 1 (SD+HD), Star Sports (SD+HD), Star Sports 1Tamil, Star Sports Select 1 (SD + HD), Star Suvarna Plus (Kannada), Star Maa Movies (Telegu) and Star Jalsha (Ben...

Delhi High Court Asks Airtel to Change IPL T20 Ads

15Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

INDIA

Delhi High Court Asks Airtel to Change IPL T20 Ads

Bharti Airtel has been asked to change its Indian Premier League advertising campaign by Delhi High Court after allegation from Reliance Jio Infocomm declaring the ad campaign to be 'misleading', 'deceptive' and 'misrepresentative'.The company has argued that the content will incur data charges for the plan, hence it's not free unlike it is being stated as in the "ad campaign". In the Airtel promoted advertisement, it is being popularised that users can access T20 cricket coverage "live and free" for which all they need is a 4G Airtel SIM to download the TV app and get access to a virtual season of the coverage. "The deception and misinterpretation in the advertisement are aimed at enticing and luring the viewers to subscribe the defendant's telecom service (Airtel) and give it prefe...

This is How You Can Advertise Your Platform in IPL 2018 Using Hotstar Adserve

31Mar By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

BUSINESS

This is How You Can Advertise Your Platform in IPL 2018 Using Hotstar Adserve

While Indian Premier League is just around the corner, video streaming service of Star India, Hotstar has launched a self-service ad tool called Hotstar Adserve. This is simply one lucrative opportunity for small-sized advertisers to showcase their advertisements on a well-known platform that attracts massive viewership globally. Star India is the proud digital and television rights holders of the IPL globally after signing a 5-year contract last year for a colossal Rs 6,247.5 crore bid. The cricket tournament is scheduled to begin on 7th April and will be broadcast in six languages, namely Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, and English. This diversity of languages is an initiative from Hotstar to reach over 700 Mn viewers across digital and television platform during this year’s 6...

30Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Hotstar Offers Cheap Ad Deals For IPL

The Indian Premier League is starting in a week and Hotstar, the video streaming service of Star India has launched a self-service ad tool called Hotstar AdServe. This service has been designed to offer small and medium-sized advertisers with shallow funds to use expensive platforms such as live sports accurately in order to reach their target audience. This will be done by making use of targeting facilities and interactive ad formats. The service is specially crafted to allow regional companies of advertising their product or services across the country at reasonable prices. Several ad formats are at the disposition of those willing to advertise on the platform such as Billboard (photo/video/carousel), native images for install or content ads and video ad formats like Bumper, mid rolls...

Top 5 Most Promising Indian Startups in 2018

17Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

Story

Top 5 Most Promising Indian Startups in 2018

India is now a clear contender to become the capital of startups. Foreign investment and governmental initiatives such as start up India are all driving forces encouraging and promoting the start up culture in India. In this article we are going to take a look at the 'Top 5 most promising startups in India 2018'. 1. Zerodha Zerodha is an Indian financial service company that provides equity investments, retail and institutional broking, commodities and currency trading, and mutual funds, all brokerage free. The Zerodha was founded by Nithin Kamath in 2010 as he wanted to change the landscape of Indian broking industry by breaking down the hurdles he was confronted to during his time as a trader. He wanted to overcome all obstacles traders and investors face in India when it ...

Star India Will Promote Indian Content Internationally Using Hotstar

22Jan By AdityaNo Comments

News

Star India Will Promote Indian Content Internationally Using Hotstar

Media major Star India is quite upbeat over the viewership numbers of Hotstar and gearing up to engage more global audience by placing high quality Indian content on its video streaming platform, said a top official. Speaking to Pixr8, Star India Managing Director Sanjay Gupta said, "Hotstar is witnessing over 100 million new users coming to the platform every month across the globe." As part of its strategy to address all age groups, Star is ensuring a strong presence across screens, be it television, iPads or mobile handsets couped with strong content, he explained. To maintain its leadership position in the digital space, the company is investing heavily on content and has acquired broadcasting rights of the major sporting events such as IPL, Kabbadi apart from adding India-spe...

27Dec By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Videos Streaming Platform Dekkho Raises USD 1.2 million Seed Funding

Videos streaming platform Dekkho has raised USD 1.2 million in a seed funding round from seven marquee angel investors. However, the company hasn’t disclosed the names of the investors. “We are looking to revolutionise the way entertainment is consumed and delivered in India and create India’s first social video network, where users are closely connected to their favourite content creators. Indian consumers are far from paying for online content. We aim to create a sustainable, three-way ecosystem for content producers, advertisers, and users through a free-to-use service.” , said co-founder Tanay Desai. Dekkho is a free over-the-top (OTT) content provider that consumes less internet bandwidth and also offers offline viewing facility. The company claims to have over 12,000 hours of p...