iWorld
Vuclip hires Vishal Maheshwari as country manager – India
MUMBAI: As it gears up to launch its Over-The-Top (OTT) video streaming service in the country, Vuclip has roped in former Yahoo! India director Vishal Maheshwari as country manager in India.
Maheshwari’s core responsibilities will include driving consumer adoption, engagement and monetisation for the video on demand (VOD) service in India through strategic partnerships, service innovation and consumer insights.
The appointment also reflects the company’s strategic intent to expand market share in a hyper competitive VOD market like India post the entry of international players like Netflix and HOOQ.
What’s more, Vuclip is also looking at transitioning from a B2B to a consumer facing company.
Maheshwari joins Vuclip with over 15 years of experience in the telecom and mobile internet space with organisations such as Yahoo! India and BPL Mobile, and 10 years of product and brand management experience at Parle, Warner Lambert and SBI Cards.
Vuclip COO Arun Prakash said, “We are excited for Indian consumers in 2016 to experience a whole new way of entertainment on the go and pleased to have Vishal come on-board to lead our OTT service in India. With India in digital overdrive, creative thinking, fleet-footedness and focused execution are required to win over consumers’ hearts, minds and devices. Vishal’s leadership, consumer centric thought process, passion for product and brand, and value creation for partners will lead Vuclip and this entire industry in India.”
“The ever evolving video space in India offers the thrill of a challenge. It is my endeavor to make 2016 a year of delight for the Indian audience in the entertainment and OTT space. I believe Vuclip is best positioned to make that happen,” added Maheshwari.
Vuclip has a free user base of 20 million and a paying subscriber base in excess of five million people in India. The company’s OTT service in India will see tough competition from existing players like Netflix, Hotstar, HOOQ, Sony Liv, Ditto TV and ErosNow amongst others.
iWorld
Talk to your telly: JioHotstar’s new AI voice feature reads your mood to suggest shows
The streaming giant ditches the scroll for a “conversational” AI that understands moods, cricket and Hinglish
MUMBAI: The era of the endless scroll may finally be over. JioHotstar has officially flicked the switch on its “Conversational Voice Discovery” (CVD) feature, a high-tech overhaul designed to turn the hunt for a Friday night film into a natural chat. Developed in a landmark partnership with OpenAI, the tool moves beyond clunky keyword searches, allowing users to find content by describing their mood, context or even the most bizarre viewing scenarios.
The feature is vision of Uday Shankar, vice chairman of JioStar, whose goal is to eliminate “content overload” by replacing the tedious, traditional scroll with natural dialogue. By leveraging ChatGPT’s ability to grasp context and cultural nuance, the new mobile interface allows users to bypass menus entirely, turning search into a seamless conversation.
The launch, which rolled out across India this month, sees a ChatGPT-powered interface integrated directly into the heart of the app. Instead of typing “action movie” into a sterile search bar, viewers can now speak to their devices as if they were asking a well-read friend for a tip. For now, the feature is exclusive to the mobile app, with a rollout for Connected TV (CTV) expected in later phases.
Beyond the keyword
The CVD feature is built on what JioStar calls “Multilingual Cognitive Search.” It is designed to interpret nuance rather than just matching text. If you tell the app, “I’ve had a long day, give me something mindless and funny,” it won’t just look for those words in a title; it will sift through 300,000 hours of library content to find a light-hearted sitcom or a stand-up special that fits the vibe.
The tech is natively multilingual, catering to India’s diverse linguistic landscape. Users can switch effortlessly between languages—asking for “Koi light-hearted comedy dikhao” (show me some light-hearted comedy) or requesting a “Thriller hai but zyada dark nahi chahiye” (a thriller that isn’t too dark).
Real-time curiosity and live sports
Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the rollout is its integration with live sports. During a high-stakes cricket match, the AI acts as a digital companion. Fans can ask, “Who is the top scorer right now?” or “Show me that last wicket again,” and the system will pull the relevant data or clips instantly. It even attempts to explain the “why” behind the crowd’s energy, responding to prompts like, “Why is everyone reacting like that?” by contextualizing on-field events.
A shift in streaming strategy
The move is part of a broader reimagining of the entertainment experience following the massive merger between JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Uday Shankar noted that the goal is to make premium entertainment “truly accessible” by embedding AI at the core of the user journey. By anticipating culture and context, the platform hopes to kill off “decision fatigue.”
For OpenAI, the partnership represents a major play in the Indian market. Fidji Simo, the head of applications at OpenAI, said the goal was to turn a “one-way” passive consumption experience into a “deeply personal conversation.”
As the feature goes live for millions of subscribers, the message from Bombay House is clear: the remote control is becoming obsolete. Whether you’re looking for a show that “feels like a rainy Sunday afternoon” or a crime series with a “strong female lead but not too violent,” all you have to do is ask.
