iWorld
‘Lock Upp’ is ALTBalaji’s ‘KBC moment’ as it forays into AVOD: Divya Dixit
Mumbai: With its maiden advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) project “Lock Upp” delivering a stellar performance, Balaji Telefilms’ video streaming service ALTBalaji is currently experiencing its “KBC moment,” as the platform’s SVP of marketing and revenue Divya Dixit tells IndianTelevision.com. Clocking 100 million views within 19 days, and crossing 200 million unique views in 32, it has become one of the most-watched OTT reality shows since launching on ALTBalaji and MX Player.
“Lock Upp” marks a turning point in ALTBalaji’s journey, as the popular subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service opens up to the world of AVOD. The platform boasts 35 million subscribers, over 10 million MAUs, an engagement metric of 83 minutes per day, and a library of over 91 original shows. Up to 80 per cent of ALTBalaji’s audience is under 35 years of age.
ALSO READ | Understanding ALTBalaji’s ‘under 35 viewers’ with Divya Dixit
Having achieved these milestones, AVOD was a natural progression aimed at expanding the audience base, including via cross-sell and up-sell for ALTBalaji. Furthermore, “it adds a layer of advertising revenue over a successful SVOD business,” says Dixit.
To this end, “Lock Upp” was designed to have an international appeal. Fronted by a controversial host Kangana Ranaut, and featuring equally controversial contestants, the show’s sets, costumes, tasks, and dares, were all planned to keep these objectives and audiences in mind. It will be exported globally from the next season.
“After achieving tremendous success locally, the objective of creating a format that caters to the international audience is to expand our audience base as well as establish a homegrown exported-to-world IP, and have the freedom to implement new ideas,” states Dixit, adding that, “The strategy worked as the responses that we received have all been quite positive and exceeded the expectations.”
The platform has registered equal male and female viewership in the 18-34 age group and a high Average Time Spent (ATS) for “Lock Upp.” International traffic on the app has also shot since it started streaming.
Commenting on the idea behind launching AVOD with a captive reality show instead of other formats which ALTBalaji has seen success with, Dixit tells us that through AVOD the platform wants to ensure that its content also reaches the audiences that are currently still fence-sitters and buy-in OTT as a mainstream entertainment platform. “There had to be momentous propulsion and a valid reach thrust that would launch AVOD for us, and LockUpp with millions of views gave us that thrust,” she remarks.
ALSO READ | ALTBalaji’s ‘Lock Upp’ garners 15 million views in 48 hours
Going ahead, ALTBalaji will explore all different formats of entertainment through AVOD to have a prominent presence in the segment as well as to gain further reach. “Much like how we partnered with MX Player for ‘LockUpp,’ we are open to the ideas of other partnerships that will help us market our platform to the masses,” she asserts.
The ALTBalaji IP “Lock Upp” was created in partnership with MX Player. Owned by MX Media, MX Player is an ad-supported OTT service with over one billion downloads and 280 million monthly active users globally. The reality show is its first attempt at unscripted content.
“MX Player and ALTBalaji have always had a great business relationship, therefore we collaborated further on the show,” Dixit shares. “With the reach that MX Player enjoys, and with ALTBalaji emerging as a leader when it comes to unique content and marketing strategies, this is a win-win partnership for both platforms.”
As ALTBalaji gears up for a long-term AVOD play, it has established separate, dedicated teams and plans for both its AVOD and SVOD offerings to ensure that they do not end up competing with each other. “We have had synergies with several platforms and our history shows that we have managed all those ventures very well and very efficiently. Be it SVOD or AVOD, our main focus has always been to provide world-class entertainment for our fans,” concludes Dixit.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
