A 15-minute Bollywood movie now on your phone! Courtesy Shemaroo
Well yesterday I did a post on the Future of Online Movie Downloads and did think of the concept of movies being served via the mobile and whether this could be healthy source of revenue for content providers – well as if on cue, Shemaroo (A film entertainment and animation company) has come up with a plan to broadcast 15-minute Bollywood movies on the mobile.
No not a series of 15 minute episodes! But shortened versions of movies. 2-3 hour movies shortened to 15 mins and served on your phones via GPRS (Only for BPL Mobile subscribers -exclusive tie-up). Shortening of the first movie took Shemaroo more than a month!
“We are experimenting with different formats for films. In mobile, we have to ensure that the story is intact and also that the consumer enjoys it,” says Hiren Gada (VP – Shemaroo Entertainment).
Movies which are currently on offer are ‘Chupke Chupke’, ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Shiva’.
Why I feel this won’t work is pretty obvious – The Price?! They are currently charging Rs 5 per minute. That’s Rs 75 for the whole 15 minutes! And I’m not sure if this includes the GPRS charges? Why would I pay Rs 75 for the 15 minute version of movie – to be seen on my cell phone? Wouldn’t I rather buy the whole DVD for Rs 66 – 99? Or see the movie in a hall? Or perhaps rent it? Or even download it!
How can a model like this survive? This seems to be a nice platform for short movies. Or movies can actually be split into multiple parts and served. Serials and soaps could be obvious content. But the most important thing is that – content has to be served completely free of cost, embedded with ads. Contextual ads or perhaps ads based on the user profile (If it’s a tie-up with a Mobile Operator – though I’m not sure mobile operators can officially divulge the profile of a customer).
Well it’s something new in the mobile space…
Do feel free to share your views.
Related Posts
Posted in Technology | Email It!
Liked WATBlog? 
Subscribe to Rss OR 
Subscribe to email alerts
Loading ...
Very interesting. Yes - the pricing is inaccurate. It would probably be better if content owners would give away content free but earn from Ad revenue.
The problem with this is the fact that its obsolete. Traditional advertising in movies is no longer making sense. Hence the subtle ads by pepsi and Coke and of course more recently Nike and Addidas.
For a content owner to justify his investment in content, the price needs to be balanced with usage. Firstly, we are still far from 'movies on the mobile' fad. India, as usual will take time to catch up. One or two cities dont matter.
Secondly, being the first mover in this area demands you grow with your learning and not learn with your growing. Look at RIL - they launched their handsets at rock bottom prices and rose to the 2nd largest operator in 10 months !
A better thing for Shermaroo would have been to allocate a direct investment on this and give away free movies to an operator. Once the cocaine hits home, it'll be time to rake in the moolah.
Dont ever think about pricing while talking about so called Value Added Services.
I believe its high time these mobile operators wake up and take a re look at their pricing strategy (evil)of VAS .
While a local call/sms now is almost free a call/sms to these shortcodes comes at 6rs/3rs.
arent these people robbing the end user in the name of the great marketing strategy of Skimming the market.
(i)
This strategy is very good for companies not not for customers, whom they target, we are not fools to download a film at such a high cost, if v can get its original CD or DVDs at much cheaper price.
Its high time for those who make these types of marketing strategies to wake up…