After TV and film, independent filmmakers and production houses are exploring the internet and mobile as new platforms for distribution.
Production houses eye Web, mobile as new distribution turfs
MUMBAI: Content producers have reason to rejoice. After TV and film, independent filmmakers and production houses are exploring the internet and mobile as new platforms for distribution.
Take PixelKraft for example. The Chennai-based media solutions company now has an English micro sitcom video series called Ram & Ria live on iShare, Rediff.com’s social publishing platform for videos, music and photos.
Siddharth Kumar, creative director for the micro sitcom series, says every “webisode” has been kept short and humourous. “TV audiences and internet users consume video content differently.
With over 40 million broadband connections, in India, there is a great market for real content being produced for alternative media like the internet and mobile.”
Manish Agarwal, V-P, marketing, Rediff.com, says, “More and more people are logging online to watch entertaining videos. Our focus therefore is on creating a distribution platform offering fast uploads, a good streaming experience and getting a captive audience base.”
Alexa ranks Google’s video-sharing site YouTube at the sixth spot on the list of websites that attract the highest traffic in India. YouTube still has no formidable competition in the country yet, but a few social media platforms have got their high capacity servers ticking in the last one year.
Social networking sites like Fropper, Campus18, BigAdda, Minglebox have latched onto the online video feature, which allows free uploads of user-generated content (UGC), meant for sharing among peers.
But for sticky viewership, publishers have been eyeing professionally produced content. And therefore you have the likes of Rajshri Media, Tangerine Digital creating exclusive video content for the Web and mobile.
Rajshri Media is set to to launch a 90-episode series targeted specifically at mobile phone users. Tangerine is currently in the process of creating an online serial exclusively for the Web.
Meanwhile, another Web company nautanki.tv has tied up with IDPA (Indian Documentary Producer’s Association) to source quality video content. The video media network’s CEO Sunil Nair says there is more to life than Bollywood and TV and there is an audience out there which wants to see content which never gets past the distribution chain.
He points out, “About 85% of online video consumption in India happens from offices, places where internet is configured in the ‘always on’ connection and with a steady 128 kbps speed.”
Monetisation, however, remains a key issue, not just for an online video model but for the overall social media business.
Rediff’s Agarwal agrees, saying, “Nobody’s cracked the right model for monetising video content on the web. It could be advertiser funded videos, pre-rolls, embedded advertising … but its all in experimental stages now.”
Perhaps that is the reason why Nautanki.Tv is using the long tail of the net to distribute content.
“The viewership is not on Nautanki.Tv itself, but across the 1300-plus websites/feeds. The publishers optimise the feeds to gain maximum viewership by creating embeds and therefore audiences are consuming our web content from where they already are.”
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net
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