New Delhi, June 14: After winning over 5 million Indian viewers with its AI-based hyper-personalized OTT recommendations every month, OTTplay – one of the most credible OTT review and recommendations platforms in India, is foraying into the aggregator space with the launch of OTTplay Premium- bundled subscription packs!
The subscriptions not only bring together 12 popular Indian & International OTT platforms like SonyLIV, ZEE5, LIONSGATE PLAY, Sun NXT, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV, and DocuBay under one subscription; but also include 4 international OTTs launched in India by OTTplay FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!
Indian cinephiles now need to look no further! They will, for the very first time, have access to globally acclaimed movies, shows & originals, documentaries, and live events from international OTT platforms – Hallmark Movies Now, DUST Sci-fi, FUSE+ and Tastemade+; these newly launched platforms, along with Curiosity Stream and LIONSGATE PLAY bring the best of the world under one umbrella of the OTTplay Premium Subscriptions.
Regarding their inspiration, OTTplay’s co-founder, Avinash Mudaliar, said, “Through OTTplay Premium subscriptions, we aim to take a step-jump in our journey of democratizing the OTT watching experience and bring some of the best global content out there to the screens of Indian viewers. Gone are the days when watching foreign films/shows was a rare occurrence; today, the popularity of international shows and movies like Shark Tank, Dune, Spiderman, and the massive following of K-Dramas in India reflects the growing appetite for international content. After months of focused research on the content gaps and viewer preferences, we concluded that Hallmark Movies Now, DUST Sci-fi, FUSE+ and Tastemade+ are the new 4 platforms that would complement the already rich OTTplay Premium subscription offerings with global platforms like Curiosity Stream & Lionsgate Play, with their academy award-winning documentaries, ground-breaking shows, and originals. The viewing experience, of course, gets accentuated by the personalized discovery enabled by OTTplay’s AI-based recommendation engine, which is the key differentiator of OTTplay Premium.”
The newly launched platforms bring in a whole host of differentiated content rooted in global inspiration. The launch event in Mumbai was a star-studded affair, with the shining stars of Indian OTT & cinema-like Sonakshi Sinha, Pankaj Tripathi, Pratik Gandhi, Rasika Dugal, Boman Irani, Imtiaz Ali, and Viveck Vaswani sharing their views on the changes OTT ecosystem has brought in for content creators and viewers.
Hallmark Movies Now hosts a wide collection of feel-good rom-com, family movies and dramas bound to tug at audiences’ heartstrings across all age groups. India’s love for romance and drama spans generations and languages. With 84% of Indian consumers preferring Comedy as a genre and 62% preferring drama as per the KPMG Unravelling the Digital Video Consumer Report, Hallmark Movies has a large viewer base in India.
“Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said Francisco Gonzales, SVP, international distribution. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”
With the wave of action and thriller OTT content and the popularity of shows such as Dark and movies such as those from the Marvel Comic Universe, Indians are always looking out for science fiction content, and it is not surprising that 51% of Indians love Action and 44% prefer thriller as a genre. Home to sci-fi blockbusters and premium scripted and unscripted series featuring time travel, aliens, and artificial intelligence from visionary filmmakers around the globe, DUST, the world’s premier destination for sci-fi, is excited to make a foray into Indian screens.
“We are honoured to be part of the launch package for the innovative OTTplay Premium subscription,” said Janet Brown, EVP of Global Distribution and Commercial Operations, Gunpowder & Sky. “We can’t wait to entertain sci-fi fans in India and are thrilled to be expanding the community of DUST fans worldwide.”
Food has always been a passion for us Indians, oftentimes almost bordering on obsession! In recent times, the tastebuds and minds of Indians have surely become more curious about the food culture around the world as they look at newer ways of experiencing food. With ideas that inspire and shows that entertain, Tastemade+ hopes to take Indians on a journey to upgrade their taste with its wide collection of curated and award-winning content around Food, Travel, and Design from around the world.
Commenting on the partnership, Jeremy Strauss, Global Head of Business Development, Tastemade+, said, “India is one of the world’s biggest media markets, and we’re very focused on continuing to build our footprint in the country; this partnership is an important step in that endeavour. As we continue to invest in original content, we’re excited to partner with OTTplay, to enable a new way for users in India to subscribe to our library of award-winning lifestyle programming. ”
While OTT platforms are consumed by users across all age groups, young Indians under 35 years of age account for 89% of OTT platform users, Counterpoint Research’s India OTT Video Content Market Consumer Survey revealed. This makes India the perfect new opportunity for FUSE+, a platform that celebrates talent, pop culture, artists, and creators who break boundaries and empower the youth through their compelling original series, documentaries, and films guaranteed to intrigue the younger audiences.
“We are delighted to partner with OTTplay in introducing FUSE+ to an international audience for the first time,” said Fuse Media chairman and CEO Miguel ‘Mike’ Roggero. “Authentic, empowering entertainment has a universal appeal, and we are pleased that OTTplay shares our commitment to amplifying and celebrating fresh, young voices.”
It’s no secret that Indians love movies! 30% of Indians responded that their preferred content format was movies in the survey conducted by KPMG for their ‘Unravelling the digital video consumer report’. While OTTplay Premium subscription has a rich library of Indian language movies, LIONSGATE PLAY brings in Hollywood’s finest collection of award-winning movies, TV series, and original web series dubbed in 6 Indian languages at the fingertips of OTTplay Premium subscribers.
Documentary viewing in India, especially on streaming platforms, is registering an uptick in viewership. It is no longer the genre that was watched only by the festival-going cinephiles. Today, the curious youth of India is drawn to non-fiction, real and fascinating stories that they can connect with, an interest that was furthered during the extended lockdown period and the desire to go deep and understand a particular subject. Curiosity Stream not just informs but enlightens, entertains & inspires millions globally with high-quality, award-winning documentaries.
At Curiosity, we know our audiences want to know more, and our factual content and documentaries satisfy that need. We are very pleased to partner with OTTplay as they optimize valuable insights to super-serve their consumer with the factual content they are searching for, providing for the ultimate customer experience,” said Mr. Bakori Davis, Managing Director and Head of International for Curiosity, Inc.
“Role of the aggregator platforms is important in today’s highly competitive market. DocuBay is glad to partner with OTTPlay to expand its footprint in the ever-growing OTT space in the country. The association will help us reach out to new viewers who can watch our vast collection of documentaries from across the globe.” – Girish Dwibhashyam, VP – Strategy, DocuBay.
Specializing as a factual entertainment video service, DocuBay features premium international documentaries from all corners of the globe in various categories. The platform is available in 170+ countries and offers an ever-growing collection of documentaries extending across 12 themes.
Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive Officer, ShortsTV, said, “We are thrilled to join OTTplay Premium and the Hindustan Times group to bring our ground-breaking short films to audiences across India. Short films are India’s cauldron of creative energy, with some of the planet’s most surprising and interesting movies emerging in what can only be described as a post-Bollywood revolution. .”
Unlike a few existing aggregators, the platform works seamlessly across all operating systems and does not need any additional hardware to be installed.
Users can explore OTTplay subscriptions seamlessly on the OTTplay website and the iOS and Android apps.
