Mobile content and MVAS has been amongst the most spoken about topics on WATBlog. While a lot of new innovations has happened and a lot of models tried, there is a general feeling among those who monitor this space that voice based content/data is the best way to tap into the potential of this space (CBRT, RingTones, IVRS, etc.). Now on similar lines UTV is bringing its movie content on to mobile.
According to Afaqs.com, UTV has started what it calls Audio Cinema, which will package UTV movies as audio clips which are 60 minutes long. These clips will consist of narration and dialogues from the movies that are available. This service being voice based is available for langline users as well and not restricted to mobile users.The service is being targeted towards Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Also in all 208 movies are on the roster to be released with this service in its first year. UTV plans to release these movies in a phased manner and will launch a movie every week in each language.
Initially movies like Fashion and Sholay; Prem Loka, a Kannada movie; Tamil movie Thalapathi and Telugu movie Gang Leader are set to be released.
The technology is powered by OnMobile while the business will be driven through pay per use. The service is essentially a call based service, where users can dial in to 505999555 and select the movie that they want to hear (never thought I’d blog such a line). Users will be charged anywhere between Re1 to Rs.6 a minute for these calls.
The logic is good, audio like I said before has been one of the most salable VAS on telecom, and UTV does have a wide array of content that it owns. It also takes away the hassles of the requiremetn of Internet or complex apps to access content and thus easier for mass use. The question therefore purely remains on the demand for such a service.
UTV seemingly has got its market right, Telgu and Tamil cinewatchers are fanatic about their movies and stars and to now hear their favorite actor speaking their best dialogues on the phone can be a novel feature for many even if they can’t watch them. The problem that I see is that in the long run perhaps the novelty might wear off and lead to lesser interest in such content. Moreover, piracy is rampant in the target markets addressed (in fact all over India), so if people really want to watch or hear movies they can do it with a CD instead of spending on audio perhaps as well (quite a possibility).
So perhaps, adoption will now boil to how this service is marketed and promoted. UTV will surely have to come up with a good creative work to drive adoption. Interestingly UTV had recently made available the first music video channel on Mobile TV, so it looks like it is betting big on mobile to drive content adoption and revenue.
And if this is picked up well by the masses it can then open doors for other cotnent providers to show itnerest in entering the space which is good for the MVAS market in general. Till now only Star TV has used this medium when it launched audio clips back in 2006.
You really think this is gonna work ? I seriously doubt. Think about it, you now have the option of carrying entire films in your pocket. In fact, in a bus or a local train, you can actually spot strangers exchanging video files from mobiles. So then, whats the novelty factor? When I can carry Audio + Video in my mobile and watch/listen to it anytime, for free, why should I pay for it?
That said, as a kid, I’ve heard the audio-cassette for “Sholay” dialogues innumerable number of times. Ummm…ok, one guess… their biggest sell will be “Sholay”. The dialogues of the film have a standing of their own.
Would like to see your comments.
Although at a conceptual level I think its a great service, my apprehensions are two folds – a) I am not sure of how much % of the mobile phone subscribers would want to pay between Rs 60 to Rs. 360 (Rs. 1-6 per minute for a 60 min movie!) for just one time experience b) Purely from a consumer behaviour perspective, imagine holding a phone to your ear for one hour! It could be quite taxing, which could bring down the overall value of the proposition from a consumer’s perspective.
Cinema traditionally has been an audio/video medium, so if the marketers are taking one defining trait of the proposition away from the consumer (viz video) it becomes even more challenging to ask the consumers to adopt to a new definition of ‘cinematic experience’.
I agree that the cinema fanatics like listening to their favourite stars..so how about if i give them the ability to customize their favourite dialogues and also allow them the ability to put that either as their caller tone or their ring tone! I see huge value potential in that kind of a service…
Imagine – ‘Mogambo khush hua’ being customized to a user with his name (ofcourse with the voice of Amrish Puri)! Simple yet effectively magnetic proposition for a large userbase to pay for..
I would really want to be proven wrong here, but dont think this service would attract a lot of users…unless ofcourse the challenges i have spoken about earlier, can be taken care off…
Ankit and Shitij
I completely concur by your views here, in fact these are the things that came to my mind immediately on reading the news..
However, why I think there is a chance for this to work initially is because of their primary target market the smaller cities.
There have been reports even if infrequent that the consumption of such content in smaller cities are higher than Tier 1 SEC A’s and the likes. Moreover, even the handsets used predominantly by the 400 million odd subscribers predominantly tend to be voice driven (FM, Speaker Phones being the prime features) than the high end visual creations that we tend to use. I am not saying these cities don’t have high end users but a majority doesn’t. For them such a feature is quite useful because they don’t have access to video.
Imagine a scenario like this:
A bunch of Rickshaw drivers are at a junction somewhere in Hyderabad, and one of them calls this number and switches his speaker on..and you have Chiranjeewi belting out his dialogues.. they’d listen to it comment on it together and this can go on for 10-15 mins almost everyday during their lunch time (initially at least). I think this is something that can work for such content.
I don’t mean to say that only rick drivers will listen, but a crowd who is really into such content and meets their needs and scope..
Spending money is an issue, and therefore I think it can’t be sustained, but these kind of things people do tend to take a chance initially depending on their level of fanaticism.
No?
Hi Maneesh, thanks for your response. Unfortunately, the economic realities are something that marketers always have to struggle with! Otherwise a picnic to moon is the best experience one can offer to a consumer! (figuratively speaking)
A 15 minute use of this service could set back the rickshaw puller (note: consumers of a particular demographic strata) by about INR 15 to 90! Its anybody’s guess as to how much a rickshaw puller must be making. Thus, for him the entry barrier itself would be high.
While I agree that there are always early-adopters, but for a VAS to succeed, the % of such early adopters have to be a significant one.
Moreover in the smaller cities, there is always a ‘charm factor’ to be part of a ‘developed larger city’. Cinema serves dual purposes for the residents of smaller towns – a) ofcourse high value entertainment! b) exposure to what life is in the urban towns / foreign locales, which then becomes either their reference point, or something which they connect with immediately at an emotional level.
For a large proportion of population which primarily earns either through agri or physically exhausting work, the most important route to unwind themselves is ‘Cinema’ (experience in totality, which is audio and video feed both!). Thus, while the service might have initial euphoria around it (caveat to smart marketing), it will fail to rise up to expectations, is what I believe in. Considering marketing realities, I doubt how much investment (both in terms of time and resources) shall be pumped into this service before declaring it to be a ‘dead-horse’. Basically meaning that the gestation period from a business perspective for this kind of service will be lower given the economic conditions.
Thus both from a consumer standpoint (overall value proposition compared to price being paid) and from a business stand-point (lower withholding levels, in terms of marketing investments and gestation periods), I think its extremely challenging for this kind of a service to do well in India, at this point in time. Perhaps we need another circle of mobile entertainment evolution, for the Audio Movie business to get accepted and flourish.
Thanks!
Certainly there are issues in charging less for operators won’t allow that. Operators are making at least 50 p per min from every timeslot of the airtime.. certainly chargin less than that is not doable especially in the network that is already clogged
I think with DRM things could be made more interesting. The download will happen once for let’s say Rs 30 and then you will pay Re 1 everytime you hear to it which will be deducted from your account.