Star India will soon launch its own Video on Demand (VOD) platform, acting on the insight that the online video consumption is exploding.
According to various reports, today, 100 million people watch videos online, whereas in 2011, the number was just 49 million. The number of videos viewed per month has also gone up to 6.5 billion in 2014, from 3 billion in 2011.
Star Network’s VOD platform is likely to air more than 100 TV shows from every channel of the Star Network in India, including regional channels in six languages. It will also air more than 300 movies, across languages.
During the launch month, the network plans to focus on blockbuster movies such as ‘Kick’, ‘Dabangg’, ‘Jai Ho’ and ‘Bang Bang’.
In sports, the main focus will be on cricket, that has plenty of options starting from India Australia series that goes up to the ICC World Cup 2015. This has both live streaming and video on demand content.
The USP of this new VOD platform is that, it comes totally free for the viewers. This platform will have a user-friendly interface and content will be streamed at 64kbps.
Content can be viewed through a website and also in Mobile app. One can also download the content to the library and view it later. Star network is hoping to monetise this platform purely through advertisement revenue in the initial stage.
Currently, Star Plus uses YouTube to run its promotions and teasers. So, except for content like ‘Mahabharat’ and ‘Satyamev Jayate’, full episodes of the serials don’t get uploaded. So far, Star has been using YouTube as a platform for marketing, which will change with the launch of the VOD platform.
It is believed that, given the wide range of the network’s content across drama, movies and sports, Star hopes to capitalise on this trend instead of sharing its profit with YouTube. It is currently not known if Star TV will be reviving its Star Player with this initiative or launching a new brand.
