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Tag: Pandurang Nayak

  • The fund will support innovation in the area of financial sustainability for video news

    Network18 selected to be a part of the GNI YouTube Sustainability Lab

    By A Correspondent

     

    Media conglomerate Network18 has announced that it has been selected by the Google News Initiative (GNI) for funding as part of the YouTube Sustainability Lab. The fund will support innovation in the area of financial sustainability for video news.

     

    Commenting on the selection, Pandurang Nayak, Chief Technology Officer, Network18 Digital said: “We appreciate the GNI’s effort to work with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age and are delighted to have been selected to work on this initiative.  We believe that the financial support and peer interactions with media companies around the world will enable us to do greater innovation to deliver a world-class product that’s focused on India. We are committed towards forging greater integration between TV & Digital, and pivoting our philosophy to ‘TV first, digital always’, thereby mobilizing our strength of 1200+ reporters, contributing daily in 13 different languages, to do mobile journalism using AI/ML-powered tools and make it faster and efficient to publish premium news content on our websites, apps and social media properties.”

     

     

  • The age of TV may not be imminent yet, but the internet is a strong rival – and quality online streaming content is a big reason

    The Anchor: 5 reasons why premium online video streaming is the next big thing in India

    By Pandurang Nayak

     

    #1 The ‘screen’ is everywhere:

    Technology has enabled true convergence of content across various kinds of devices. Your phone or tablet is also your television and entertainment device. Your television is also your internet device. With the proliferation of devices, users want premium content wherever they are. The users who have their handheld device as their first computer are already here!

     

    #2 Appointment-viewing vs On-demand:

    The days of people waiting for their favourite show at a particular hour of the day is fast changing. On-demand video lets users break from the shackles of appointment-based television viewing and decide which part of the day or night they want to watch their favourite content.

     

    #3 Internet proliferation:

    Better broadband speeds and network infrastructure has meant that even people in small cities and towns have a Facebook account, share stuff online with their friends and colleagues, read news online and do more online activity than ever before. Online video consumption for short-form content has grown massively in the past few years. The surge in internet access through faster network speeds, better data plans and increased awareness means that the time is here for premium long-form content.

     

    #4 Shortening of the windows:

    Content owners are wary of rampant digital piracy and the lost opportunity of making revenue in the digital streams with genuine content. This has led to shortening of the time it takes for new releases to arrive on digital distribution platforms. Content owners have also carried out bold experiments like doing simultaneous releases or releasing on the internet first, and seen some early success.

     

    #5 Transcending boundaries:

    The internet has always helped transcend boundaries faster. With the relative simplicity of streaming content via the internet, it is easy for content owners to take their content around the world. From the user’s perspective, users can get content from all around the world sitting in one place. This opens the viewer to a world of content that was never available before and thus creates an explosion in video consumption patterns.

     

    Pandurang Nayak is Business Head, Boxtv.com

     

  • BoxTV's content includes blockbuster movies, TV shows, short films and much more that can be accessed via web browser, smartphones, tablets or any other internet-enabled device

    Online video entertainment service Box TV launched

    By Ananya Saha

     

    After a lot of buzz around its premium online video content service, Times Internet Limited has finally unveiled BoxTV.com in India, the US and UK. BoxTV’s content includes blockbuster movies, TV shows, short films and much more that can be accessed via web browser, smartphones, tablets or any other internet-enabled device.

     

    The website, which can initially be accessed only by invitation, will work on the ‘freemium’ model. Content will be available on an ad-supported free-to-user basis and the rest of the content will be available on a monthly subscription basis. The subscription in India is Rs 199 per month, in US $4.99 per month and in the UK, £4.99 per month. With 12 content partners currently, the content currently is available in English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada. Box TV plans to add more regional content and more content partners. The site boasts of having accrued more than 50,000 invite requests following its invite-only alpha preview in August this year.

     

    Satyan Gajwani

    Making an impact with a paid model can be a tough strategy. Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet Ltd agreed, and said, “This is the first-of-its-kind model that we are trying in India. We are positioning ourselves as premium. We will not be offering user-generated content like YouTube. And we are sure that people who want to see the content we offer, will be ready to pay.”

     

    Mr Gajwani added, “In the US and the UK, it is easier to be a pay-model. It will definitely be difficult in India. In the first year, we will obviously be getting more subscriptions from outside India. However, we are hopeful that this ratio will change in the next 2-3 years.”

     

    Pandurang Nayak, GM-Digital Video Initiatives, Times Audience Network/Box TV, said, “With the premium content, we are targeting SEC A in urban markets in India. And we will be adding more premium content as we go along.” For India, thanks to the broadband issues, Box TV has an in-built auto-bandwidth optimizer for working well on low or inconsistent bandwidths.

     

    The premium video destination, though has no advertiser on-board yet, will be selling the space at price 3-4 times higher than the current internet sites in India, according to Mr Gajwani. Before opening the site for advertisers, Box TV is aiming at having a sizeable number of registered users. The marketing and promotional activities will also begin 2-3 months down the line. “We are aiming at finding early adopters, and make our service better on the feedback. Then, we will aim at viral growth. We will start marketing as the business model makes its case to spend,” said Mr Gajwani.