Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Big Entertainment, which houses the media and entertainment business of the group, is entering into the video-on-demand space with its new over-the-top (OTT) mobile application Chillx.
Reliance Entertainment has acquired a two-third stake in FunOnGo Media & Entertainment LLP, which has created the app and is set to officially unveil it on November 9.
“It’s a space of new opportunities and if we continue to sit and see from the sidelines, we will miss the bus,” Shibasish Sarkar, COO, Reliance Big Entertainment.
According to Sarkar, Reliance helped FunOnGo founders — Vijay Singh and Ujjwal Narayan – with funding, group understanding, and partnerships while the duo drove the development of the product.
“With so many apps available today, we were wondering what should we bring in to fill the need gap. Our answer is Chillx, which is the first app to be available in 10 different languages, and a one-stop shop for content as well as games, which no other app is providing at this moment,” Sarkar explained.
The app, currently available for Android-based mobile devices, offers Bollywood, Hollywood and regional movies, music, short format content, viral videos, news as well as games. While the app will offer a lot of free (advertising-supported) content, it will also have premium content ranging from games, movies and originals for different subscription packs ranging from Rs 10 for a week or a game to Rs 49 (standard definition) and Rs 99 (high definition) for a month.
It will have content in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi languages. In order to reach out to mass audiences, the company has partnered with the mobile handset makers, including Micromax, Lava, Intex, Carbonn and Panasonic, to offer app pre-installed.
“We will be launching with the app already installed in 1 million handsets and our target is to reach to 30 million in one year,” Sarkar said.
“Our cost on the content side is much lower than other start-ups because of our existing relationships and group synergies. We will launch with over 7,000 pieces of content and will add 150 pieces every week,” said Sweta Agnihotri, CEO-Content Syndication, at Reliance Big Entertainment.
Source: The Economic Times
