iWorld
Homing in on broadband TV
The San Jose based Homeland Networks is gearing up for the broadband era in India and across the Asian continent. The venture promoted by ex-Intelite and broadband expert Ron Victor has unleashed three sites www.tvofindia.com, www.radioofindia.com and www.pressofindia.com. The company believes in “interactivity by ethnicity and geography”.
Tvofindia.com is a project for the broadband world and already has a bit of broadband programming which can be viewed as streaming video. UTV has signed on as a content provider and has picked up a 10 per cent stake, apart from providing infrastructure. Ron is in talks with several media companies for providing interactive content and he wants tvofindia to be a platform for interactive programmes in all genres. The site claims to generate 1,000 viewers a day.
Says Ron, “We’d like to work with every single media company in India to provide exciting interactive content to the viewers. Our ambition is to make the whole world into a single studio. We want our viewers to get an incredible experience which cannot be felt on regular television or radio, and interactivity will be a key component.”
Homeland Networks has already struck a deal with a media company for content. Talks are on with a couple of television channels.
The company is also looking at archived programming from different media companies and providing them with a medium to showcase them.
Currently tvofindia.com focusses on the NRI community due to the availability of broadband abroad. But Ron Victor is confident of it gathering pace in India within a year and half to three years and would then focus on the resident Indian community.
The revenue model of the company is sponsorships and advertising apart from e-commerce which will take some time. Pay-per-view and video-on-demand will also generate revenues. The global viewership will be backed by local advertising and e-commerce and will additionally have global branding opportunities for advertisers. The difference between traditional Internet advertising and advertising on Homeland sites would be the feedback and the possibility of monitoring the actual effectiveness of the ads, reveals Victor.
The company is backed Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia who has picked up a 5% stake in the company, KB Chandrashekhar of Exodus fame having 5% stake, Ronnie Screwvala of UTV who holds 10% stake. The company is in talks with a couple of Venture Capitalists for the second round of funding.
Victor plans to focus on the China market after the India and to replicate his India model for Internetters there.
iWorld
Frodoh, Chaupal introduce non-intrusive first-screen ads for OTT platforms
New ad-tech layer unlocks revenue without interrupting OTT viewing
MUMBAI: Frodoh has partnered with regional OTT platform Chaupal to roll out what it calls an industry-first “first-screen” monetisation framework, aimed at helping subscription-led streaming services generate additional revenue without interrupting content viewing.
The new model focuses on connected TV home screens, introducing ad formats that sit within the discovery layer rather than the content itself. In simple terms, viewers may notice subtle brand placements while browsing, but once they hit play, the experience remains ad-free.
The technology is designed to tap into high-attention areas such as session depth, viewing intent and discovery behaviour, turning previously unused interface space into monetisable real estate. For OTT platforms, this opens up a fresh revenue stream without diluting the premium experience that subscribers expect.
Chaupal chief executive officer Sandeep Bansal said the move balances growth with user trust. “By partnering with Frodoh, we are introducing a sophisticated ‘first-screen’ monetisation layer that integrates seamlessly into our UI, ensuring discovery remains native and non-intrusive while keeping content consumption ad-free.”
From Frodoh’s side, the pitch is clear: expand the ad pie without cluttering the screen. Frodoh founder and chief executive officer Russhabh R Thakkar said the framework creates a new category of advertising by unlocking high-visibility home screen inventory that was previously untapped.
Industry watchers see this as part of a broader shift in OTT monetisation strategies, especially as subscription platforms look to diversify revenue without risking churn. With connected TV usage rising steadily, the home screen is quickly becoming the next battleground for attention.
If the model scales, this partnership could signal a subtle but significant shift in how OTT platforms monetise, proving that sometimes, the most valuable ad space is the one you see before the show even begins.
