Mumbai : SonyLIV, the digital platform of broadcast network Multi Screen Media (MSM), has adopted paid distribution model for its movie genre as broadcasters wake up to the revenue potential of digital distribution when people across the world increasingly access television content on smartphones and internet.
“A bulk of our revenues come from advertising on the back of our content on SonyLIV and going forward we see a lot of potential in the subscription-based model,” said Uday Sodhi, executive vice president and head of digital businesses at Multi Screen Media.
“In the next two years 70% of the revenues will come from advertising and 30% from subscription,” he said.
While at least half a dozen Indian broadcasters have put up digital platforms, some of them such as Star Network’s Hotstar and the recently launched Viacom 18’s Voot remain completely free platforms.
SonyLIV, which was introduced earlier this year following the launch of Hotstar, too, was a fully free platform till recently.
Sodhi said MSM has no plans to make SonyLIV a fully paid platform anytime soon, but some sections on the platform will become subscription based.
“The other genre which can be added into paid model is sports,” he said. MSM owns the rights to the Indian Premier League and has a huge library of content of the cricket extravaganza.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises was the first broadcaster to expand to the digital platform when it launched Ditto TV three years ago.
Popular among non-resident Indians, Ditto TV is a fully paid platform and has witnessed a steady growth of 30%-35%, according to Debashish Ghosh, CEO at Zee Digital Convergence.
He said the company has till date invested Rs 50-60 crore on the platform that clocked revenues of Rs 30 crore in 2014-15. “For a product like this, cost of streaming is directly proportionate to consumption.
