iWorld
ALTBalaji to stream content to millions through Amazon Cloudfront
MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms’ video streaming service ALTBalaji has partnered with Amazon Internet Services to use Amazon Cloudfront, a global content delivery network (CDN) service. ALTBalaji will have access to multi-petabytes of bandwidth in preparation of the launch of the ALTBalaji service in mid-April 2017.
“We have built our platform to serve Indians globally and wanted a service provider who could support us efficiently across all geographies. We use Xstream Mediamaker as our backend OVP and video delivery is entirely hosted by and built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which already serves numerous global OTT platforms with over hundreds of millions of streams. Thanks to AWS, our platform setup is capable of handling high volumes of traffic and media content per week, and at the same time stream content to millions of our customers every day through Amazon Cloudfront,” said ALT Digital Media Entertainment COO Sunil Nair.
“Currently, all ALTBalaji distribution partnerships that use the content syndication system, payment partners and wallets available on ALTBalaji, including other middleware infrastructure, run on AWS. We use Amazon Redshift for our data warehouse, which allows for analysis of all the customer interactions to arrive at actionable inferences. We have found Amazon Web Services to be a very reliable and responsive service provider at a time when we prepare to take ALTBalaji global,” added ALT Digital Media Entertainment head of product Ashish Bhansali.
ALTBalaji leverages a vast range of tools offered by AWS to empower its video streaming platform. The anticipated interest in the video streaming platform and the original, premium and exclusive shows has prompted Balaji Telefilms to invest significantly in the latest cutting edge technology and infrastructure to ensure it provides a world class service to its global customer base.
“Increasingly, various businesses around the world are deploying their critical workloads on AWS and going all-in so they can refocus on serving their customers best,” added Amazon Internet Services Private Limited MD Bikram Bedi. “We’re truly excited for ALTBalaji’s adoption of AWS, which will allow them to quickly and easily scale, reduce costs, improve security, and increase agility for even their most critical workloads.”
ALTBalaji app will be launched with six new shows and will be followed with new shows every month for its viewers to binge watch. The content is created by some of the best talent of the Indian entertainment industry, including critically acclaimed directors and actors. The long illustrious list of artists comprises of Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Nimrat Kaur, Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and more.
iWorld
SonyLiv expands Suvonkar Banerjee’s role to lead Hindi originals
Executive will steer Hindi content pipeline alongside Studio Next role
MUMBAI: Streaming platform SonyLiv has expanded the mandate of Suvonkar Banerjee, appointing him to head Hindi originals while he continues in his role as creative director at Studio Next.
The move aims to strengthen SonyLiv’s Hindi originals slate. Banerjee will now oversee the development and creative direction of the platform’s Hindi content pipeline while continuing to guide Studio Next’s broader creative vision.
Banerjee joined Studio Next after a stint at Disney plus Hotstar, where he served as editor. His expanded responsibilities come amid a wider leadership restructuring at Sony Pictures Networks India, as the broadcaster sharpens its focus on digital growth.
Over the past year, SPNI has seen a series of organisational changes following the appointment of Gaurav Banerjee. These shifts have included portfolio realignments, consolidation of roles across business verticals and, in some cases, workforce rationalisation as the company recalibrates its operating structure.
The latest appointment signals a continued push to centralise creative decision-making within SonyLiv’s digital ecosystem, as the platform looks to build a more cohesive and competitive Hindi originals strategy.
