iWorld
Voot to soon launch premium SVOD Voot Select
MUMBAI: Tiering is coming to the OTT ecosystem in India. AVOD, SVOD, premium SVOD is the direction it seems to be taking. Following in the footsteps of Hotstar which launched its VIP service earlier this year, Viacom18, India’s fastest growing entertainment network has announced its second subscription video on demand service called Voot Select. Pricing was not revealed in the announcement sent out a short while ago.
To be helmed, by Ferzad Palia head –youth, music and English, Voot Select will give users access to diverse multi genre marquee content experiences which includes exclusive originals.
Says Viacom18 Group CEO & MD Sudhanshu Vats: “The video on demand market is the fastest growing segment in the media and entertainment sector today. Subscription led business models are going to be the next big growth drivers in the years to come. Having established Voot as India’s second largest premium AVoD platform, we think the time is apt for us to unveil our premium subscription offering, Voot Select. The new premium offering will bring more bespoke content to our always-on viewers.”
Adds Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshit: “With Voot, the successful launch of Voot Kids and now Voot Select, our aim is to build a versatile and immersive digital ecosystem that will add value to our users. The new offering will provide them with differentiated content experiences across genres and segments. Currently in its final leg of testing, the all new Voot Select once live will see many untapped genres being made available for our users to experience and enjoy.”
An exclusive logo has been designed for Voot Select that reflects the company’s commitment to providing exclusive content and quality entertainment for subscribers. “Minimal, premium, and contemporary, this wordmark distinguishes itself from the mother brand through its form, while being intimately connected with the core brand ethos through subtle gradients and rounded edges. It is a visual translation of the brand proposition to provide the best digital content for a discerning audience,” says the release.
iWorld
Prashant Iyer joins Sony LIV as head of marketing
The former Netflix India director grew the streamer’s social following from half a million to 55m
MUMBAI: Sony LIV has poached one of India’s most battle-hardened streaming marketers. Prashant Iyer, who spent nearly eight years at Netflix building its India operation into a social-media juggernaut, has joined the platform as head of marketing.
Iyer leaves Netflix having done rather a lot. He grew the streamer’s India social community from roughly 500,000 followers to over 55m, delivered engagement and organic impressions double those of rivals, and ran more than 250 campaigns across titles, brand and partnerships. In his final role as director, marketing, he sat on the core leadership team credited with driving 15-times revenue and subscription growth over eight years. He also served as the only director-level social leader across Asia-Pacific, a regional mandate that stretched across a 200m-plus follower community.
Before Netflix came Nike, where Iyer spent three and a half years straddling digital brand commerce and key account management, including ownership of Myntra, the brand’s largest digital account in India. Earlier still, Titan Company gave him his first crack at brand and digital marketing.
Sony LIV, which has been muscling for position in an increasingly crowded streaming market, has landed a marketer who knows precisely how to build an audience from scratch and, just as importantly, how to keep it. For a platform still chasing the kind of cultural cachet Netflix India took years to earn, that is not a bad place to start.
