iWorld
Eros Now gets 4-5 million subs from telcos & OEMs
MUMBAI: Folks at Eros are popping bottles of champagne! Eros International’s OTT platform Eros Now has achieved two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and Vodafone.
Between the four platforms, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60 per cent of India’s total mobile user base of more than a billion. Jio has announced a user base of 52 million users in just a few months following their launch.
“Our strategy remains to distribute Eros Now, a world class OTT platform, to consumers across telecoms and OEMs with compelling content and product features. We view the recent demonetization move in India as a great opportunity for the OTT business as more consumers are signing up for online and mobile pay systems. I am really excited about the exponential growth in front of Eros Now and am confident we will continue to consolidate our leadership position and first mover advantage,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh.
These deals across 20 different telecom operators and OEMs alone provide visibility to a minimum of 4-5 million subscribers annually to Eros Now at an average annual ARPU of $4-5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Since these deals were agreed at various points in time in FY 2017, Eros Now will see the full year benefit of these deals flowing through in fiscal 2018. Most of these contracts are long term deals averaging five years.
With a movie library of over 5,000 films and a further library of 5,000 films being added to this list, Eros Now plans to offer the widest repertoire of Indian movie content across any OTT platform in the world.
In another development, Eros International’s Sanam Teri Kasam was one of the eight chosen films that were screened across 21 cities at the Bollywood Film Festival in Russia. The week-long event flagged off on 30 November.
The film debuts Harshvardhan Rane and Mawra Hocane and is directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. Rane was also invited for the film’s screening and was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation the movie received.
iWorld
OpenAI hits back at Elon Musk’s lawsuit ahead of trial
Company calls claims “baseless” and accuses Musk of trying to disrupt a rival.
MUMBAI: When the stakes are measured in billions and egos are involved, even Silicon Valley titans can turn a courtroom into a battlefield. OpenAI has issued a sharp public response to Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit, accusing the billionaire of filing the case to harass a competitor rather than address genuine concerns. In a strongly worded statement shared on its official X account, OpenAI described Musk’s allegations as “baseless” and suggested the lawsuit is an attempt to disrupt the company as the case heads toward trial later this month in Oakland, California.
The response comes after Musk’s legal team recently amended the complaint, proposing that any damages potentially exceeding $150 billion should go to OpenAI’s nonprofit entity rather than to Musk personally. OpenAI questioned the timing and motive behind this change, calling it a late-stage attempt to “pretend to change his tune” on the nonprofit structure.
The company further labelled the lawsuit a “harassment campaign”, arguing that Musk’s actions are driven by personal rivalry, ego, and a desire for greater control and financial upside.
At the heart of the dispute is Musk’s claim that OpenAI has abandoned its original nonprofit mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. A co-founder who left in 2018, Musk is seeking governance changes, including the removal of CEO Sam Altman from the nonprofit board, and the return of certain financial gains linked to Altman and President Greg Brockman.
OpenAI has firmly rejected these allegations, maintaining that its current hybrid structure, a public-benefit corporation overseen by a nonprofit parent remains true to its long-term goals. The company has also previously accused Musk of anti-competitive behaviour aimed at weakening its leadership.
As the case prepares for a jury trial, this public exchange highlights the deepening rift between two of the most influential figures in the AI revolution and raises broader questions about governance, mission, and power in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence.
In the high-stakes game of AI, it seems the real drama isn’t just inside the models, it’s playing out in courtrooms too.
