DTH
NBC’s ‘Conviction’ debut episode on iTunes prior to TV broadcast
MUMBAI: As part of its multi-pronged launch efforts for the new legal drama Conviction, NBC broke network ground by offering the pilot episode as a free download two weeks on the iTunes Music Store before its TV debut.
The announcement was made by NBC Entertainment Group chief executive officer Jeff Zucker. The pilot will be available for a free download from 21 February through 3 March, along with a 3-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and a music video featuring footage from the series, by The Gabe Dixon Band.
Said Zucker, “We believe we have a youthful and energetic cast that should appeal to a new audience increasingly comfortable with this downloadable format as a viewing option. The multi-platform efforts are a buzz-generator for certain shows such as Conviction, and we want to pro-actively reach out to these viewers who have many options for entertainment.”
The promotion will extend until the show’s network debut 3 March, after which each episode of Conviction will become available for purchase and download on iTunes for $1.99 per episode the day after airing. NBC will also promote the free preview on the show’s TV promos, across NBC Universal Web properties and on iTunes.
Apple’s vice president of iTunes Eddy Cue said, “We’re thrilled to be making history with NBC premiering a new prime-time series on iTunes for the first time. Millions of viewers will have the chance to watch the pilot episode of Conviction on their computer or iPod a full ten days before the show airs on television.”
Conviction follows a group of young assistant district attorneys in New York who are confronted with tough cases that challenge their limited experience.
This new legal drama comes from the Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf (“Law & Order” brand series) and the pilot was written by Walon Green (Law & Order) and Rick Eid (The Guardian). “Conviction” is a Wolf Films production in association with NBC Universal Television Studio. Wolf, Green, Eid and Peter Jankowski are the executive producers.
The cast of Conviction includes Stephanie March, Jordan Bridges, J. August Richards, Milena Govich, Eric Balfour, Anson Mount and Julianne Nicholson.
This marks the first time an episode has been made available for free download by a network before airing. Other programs have been made available for free viewing, including Everybody Hates Chris on Google and Jack and Bobby on AOL, but in those instances the video was only streaming and not downloadable
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
