Movies
Artist One’s, Tata Comms’ & AMC’s mega plan to disrupt live entertainment globally
MUMBAI: It’s an initiative that’s being talked about as being a game changer for live entertainment. No longer will artistes have to jet across time zones, wake up groggy and yet have to perform in front of tens of thousands of fans who have paid top dollar for tickets. The innovation that’s being discussed gives them another way to connect with audiences – live across the globe from one venue.
Well, Pennsylvania registered next gen company Artist One Entertainment group which is looking to build v2.0 of the entertainment industry, has brought together a clutch of partners including Tata Communications, ticketing firm Atom Tickets, and a deep bench of live production companies to “revolutionise live entertainment – unveiling the first globally connected arena.”
Exclusively launching throughout AMC Theatres’ robust footprint, Arena One is a collective of interconnected immersive venues, where fans, artistes, and creators around the world will be able to see, hear, and interact with each other in real-time. Made possible by next gen tech, global audiences will share in bespoke live shows – all together, all at once.
“Imagine the world’s most incredible live concerts, locally accessible, more sustainably produced, and affordable for hundreds of thousands of fans who are together in-real-life in one shared experience,” says Artist One Entertainment group founder & chief creative officer, Rohit Kapoor. “Every single person, no matter where they are on the planet, is up close and intimately connected to the artist and performance. With boundless visual potential, high-fidelity surround sound, and no such thing as a ‘nosebleed seat,’ Arena One heralds an entirely new future-forward category in live entertainment.”
Arena One’s unprecedented real-time interaction is powered by Tata Communications’ next generation media platform, which leverages proprietary low latency technologies and the cloud capabilities of its live production and delivery service, The Switch. Tata Communications carries roughly 30 per cent of internet routes globally, and its media entertainment services (MES) division supports live event coverage for the biggest sports and entertainment organisations in the world.
“This launch marks a transformative shift in how music fans and artistes engage with each other, utilising cutting-edge technologies to create an unparalleled, interactive real-time experience,” says Tata Communications vice-president & global head of media and entertainment c. “We are excited to bring a new immersive experience through this partnership, drawing on our live event expertise and global reach to introduce an entertainment concept that gives audiences unmatched access to their favorite artistes.”
Arena One simultaneously disrupts the theatrical and live entertainment industries – reimagining and revitalising existing theatres and screens through a new lens. Performers will have the power to shatter the limits of traditional filmed events – as if there’s no screen there at all – engaging live with their global fanbases just as though they are in one arena together. With additional production enhancements that physically extend the performance into the theatres, all audience members are in the center of the action.
“AMC Theatres welcomes the opportunity to offer music fans across the United States and Europe unique and engaging experiences with their favorite artistes,” says AMC Theatres executive vice-president, worldwide programming & chief content officer Elizabeth Frank, “Arena One will enable exciting artist performances, ranging from fresh takes on fan favorites to launches of brand new music, from tech-infused dance parties to intimate acoustic sets, from tributes and sing-alongs to holiday collaborations, and much more. All of these live performances will be presented through high quality broadcast technology and delivered with the convenience, comfort and affordability of a neighborhood venue.”
Live performances will originate at purpose-built Arena One studios, and link to theatres everywhere within milliseconds, facilitating universal and multi-dimensional live interactivity between connected studios and venues. These innovative performance facilities give artistes powerful studio-level precision and complete control over the quality and content of their creative vision, while boasting multi-stadium reach and revenue generation from a single live performance.
“Audiences are thirsty for memorable experiences that are unique and deeply special. What we?re building allows every fan to gain access to the most coveted blue chip events – and sit in the best seat in the house,” says Arena One managing partner Megan Colligan. “Exhibitors all over the world are looking for more content – this is exactly the kind of innovation our business needs.”
The inaugural Arena One east coast studio is located on the acclaimed Rock Lititz campus – an epicenter of entertainment industry creativity and innovation. The campus, which is 65 per cent solar and geothermal-powered, is headquarters to several of the world’s preeminent leaders in live production, many of whom have participated and invested in the design and development of Arena One.
Future performance hubs are planned in Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, London, Singapore, Mumbai, Melbourne, Accra, Brazzaville, Johannesburg, and São Paolo – bringing artistes from around the world directly to their fans, no matter where they are.
Live Arena One performances will be uniquely presented from a single stationary camera, capturing the most realistic, ideal and best seat audience point of view – with high production-value elements taking place on the technically advanced stages, capable of an elaborate physical and digitally augmented visual spectacle. The studios will also be equipped with multiple robotic and 3D stereoscopic cameras, and adjacent Dolby Atmos mixing studios; in addition to putting on a once-in-a-lifetime live performance, artistes are able to capture, edit, and release subsequent concert films, downstream releases featuring behind-the-scenes content, and albums of their unique live performance mixed in spatial audio.
“Providing artistes the power to pull up to one comfortable state-of-the-art studio with unrivaled creative tools at their disposal, get that irreplaceable rush of performing live to a packed arena of fans, and simultaneously generate a treasure-trove of content for future applications in one consolidated pipeline – the Arena One model radically shifts the artiste experience, the fan experience, and entertainment industry economics across the board,” says Kapoor.
The launch of Arena One firmly locks in Artist One Entertainment Group and Tata Communications shared vision to originate the world’s largest, most advanced live entertainment ecosystem, capable of seamlessly scaling and expanding into limitless territories and formats.
“This is just the beginning. Music, comedy, sports, e-sports, Broadway and beyond will all find a home here,” says Arena One managing partner Mo Rhim. “Not only are we opening new windows of marketing, distribution and monetisation, but the underlying data and technology will also provide creators deep insights that empower them to connect with their fans in places and ways never imagined. Arena One is a universal stage that connects communities and brings separate entertainment verticals together to create something completely new.”
With the inclusion of hundreds of traditionally untapped markets, Arena One provides consumers hyper-local, equitable accessibility to premium live shows at ground-breaking price-points and scale. The ability to instantly contract and expand its connected seating footprint from one-hundred to hundreds-of-thousands of available seats, as well as the flexibility to host multiple shows concurrently across different markets, makes Arena One the venue of the future for all artistes and fans.
“We are all about empowering artistes with more equity, transparency, control, and scale. Arena One gives a new platform for artists – setting the stage for live special release events, one-night-only live global performances, mini-residencies, and sustainable tours,” says , music industry pioneer, programming Arena One’s inaugural slate of artistes Marcie Allen.
Rounding out Arena One’s seamless end-to-end offering is a collaboration with Atom Tickets – the social movie ticketing platform for the modern generation. A full-service online and mobile ticketing site will offer concertgoers instant access to Arena One shows, including pre-order options for merch and concessions.
“With our collaboration, we ensure that planning your concert experience is effortless,” says Atom Tickets CEO Bryan Bowles. “For Arena One customers, we’ve added special enhancements during the ticketing process, bringing audiences closer to the artist and delivering unique surprises along the way.?”
Tickets for the up-close-and-personal live Arena One shows, inclusive of all fees, will be an astonishing fraction of the cost of a typical concert-going experience, and vary by artiste and connected venue location. Arena One will open doors with 230,000 available seats across 1,600 connected domestic auditoriums this coming spring, with planned expansion to 400,000 seats worldwide by the end of 2025.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
