iWorld
Ditto TV goes OTT first with ‘before TV’
MUMBAI: Zee Digital Convergence Limited’s Over The Top (OTT) platform DittoTV now allows viewers to enjoy their favourite content from the channels under Zee Group before airing it on television through their new feature titled ‘before TV’.
The feature is in line with the company and group’s continued focus on content and service innovations for the consumers.
Talking about this new initiative, ZDCL CEO Debashish Ghosh said, “The fact that more and more people are finding it easy to cut away from appointment viewing and watch their chosen entertainment anytime, anywhere, has only driven consumer expectations higher and upped the ante for OTT platforms the world-over. While, original content will remain one of the key drivers and focus of DittoTV’s global operations, serious innovations will help give our consumers something new and engaging all-the-time, every time. before TV is one such step in this direction.”
The company has recently created an original content titled as Life is Music and also plans to launch music based documentary titled as Chords of Change, which will feature musicians narrating their stories of their struggle and registering their protest in various zones across the country through their music.
The platform is focused on markets like the US, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Asia Pacific and some parts of Africa. It will also carry non-Indian content shortly in the markets where it has been launched.
iWorld
Prashant Iyer joins Sony LIV as head of marketing
The former Netflix India director grew the streamer’s social following from half a million to 55m
MUMBAI: Sony LIV has poached one of India’s most battle-hardened streaming marketers. Prashant Iyer, who spent nearly eight years at Netflix building its India operation into a social-media juggernaut, has joined the platform as head of marketing.
Iyer leaves Netflix having done rather a lot. He grew the streamer’s India social community from roughly 500,000 followers to over 55m, delivered engagement and organic impressions double those of rivals, and ran more than 250 campaigns across titles, brand and partnerships. In his final role as director, marketing, he sat on the core leadership team credited with driving 15-times revenue and subscription growth over eight years. He also served as the only director-level social leader across Asia-Pacific, a regional mandate that stretched across a 200m-plus follower community.
Before Netflix came Nike, where Iyer spent three and a half years straddling digital brand commerce and key account management, including ownership of Myntra, the brand’s largest digital account in India. Earlier still, Titan Company gave him his first crack at brand and digital marketing.
Sony LIV, which has been muscling for position in an increasingly crowded streaming market, has landed a marketer who knows precisely how to build an audience from scratch and, just as importantly, how to keep it. For a platform still chasing the kind of cultural cachet Netflix India took years to earn, that is not a bad place to start.
