iWorld
Mobile internet rates drop by 93% in three years
MUMBAI: Mobile internet rates witnessed a phenomenal drop of 93 per cent while data usage per user surged by more than 25 times in the three years ended 30 September 2017, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said in a tweet today.
The mobile data consumption in India is now the highest in the world at 1.3 million GB per month–more than the combined data usage in the US and China. This trend has also been fueled by the penetration of smartphones—which has shot up from 190 million to 390 million—in the country. Internet users have increased by about 66 per cent from 251 million to 429 million (in June 2017) between 2014 and 2017.
“Cheapest tariff globally—Rs 33 per GB in 2014 to Rs 21 per GB as on September 2017, tariff reduction of 93 per cent,” the DoT tweeted. The data war started following the entry of Reliance Jio in 2016. The company this year slashed the prices to as low as Rs 4 per GB per day. With declining mobile internet rates, data usage also grew multi fold. “Average data usage per subscriber grew 25 times from 62 MB per month in 2014 to 1.6 GB per month in 2017,” the DoT said .
— DoT India (@DoT_India) March 29, 2018
The broadband access in the country increased from 61 million subscribers in March 2014 to 325 million subscribers in September 2017, the DoT said. According to latest performance indicator of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, there were 445.9 million internet subscribers at the end of December 2017.
The DoT data showed that during the three-year period, the mobile base stations in the country more than doubled from 7.9 lakh in May 2014 to 16.8 lakh by 2017-end.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
