MxMIndia

Tag: Spuul

  • Announces strategic investments in key areas to enhance customer engagement

    Spuul unveils new avatar as it seeks to grow viewership across India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spuul has announced strategic investments in key areas made with the objective of enhancing customer engagement and growing viewership across regions. In line with this move, Spuul is presenting itself in a new avatar with its mobile and web applications with a redesigned interface created to facilitate easy content discovery, quick and easy modes of payment with pocket friendly pricing, and tweaks that will allow users to stream content over low bandwidth networks. The update is currently available for Android & the web, with an update scheduled for iOS devices in the coming weeks.

     

    With a revised pricing strategy, Spuul will be offering premium subscriptions at sachet prices ranging from Rs. 30 for 5 days to Rs 150 for 30 days. The OTT service provider has tied up with telecom operators to provide carrier billing for payment options from within the app, allowing users to pay for their subscriptions through their mobile operator.

     

    Keeping in line with its commitment to offer its viewers a complete experience, Spuul has also launched the ‘Tiny’ download option – which will help combat slow data connections and erratic network issues.

     

    “India has typically been a single TV household – it is now transforming into one where ~650M people will have a TV in their pockets by 2019. 90 per cent of all consumption on Spuul already comes from smartphones. With this update we aim to increase consumer engagement and enhance their overall experience. Furthermore, India is a growing market where a device’s network often creates a hindrance for a user trying to consume content in any form, especially when one is outside a wi-fi zone. We’ve kept this in mind while trying to present a seamless experience to the user, by introducing certain features that will allow him to consume content, even in poor network areas. With this update, we are very excited to present our users with immense flexibility to pay and stream their favorite content,” says Subin Subaiah, CEO, Spuul.

     

    Spuul’s UI for the website and mobile apps has undergone a complete overhaul, with increased browsing options that make content discovery easier. The update comes with an improved search experience that will help the user to search by language, genre, actors and directors. The app’s Instant Play feature allows the user to resume the video right where he paused it, and also throws up recommendations of unwatched content based on the users’ viewing history.

     

    “With our growing content library, aiding the user with the discovery of untapped content is essential to engagement. With these new features, we are confident that the viewing experience will only be further enhanced.” says Subaiah

     

    Spuul has introduced completely new price points to suit the wallet of users in India. “We took the consumer goods model of sachet pricing and exported it to the VOD space. Our new price points for recurring subscriptions are Rs. 30 for 5 days, Rs. 60 for 10 days, Rs. 90 for 15 days, and Rs. 150 for 30 days. You can pay using your debit or credit card, iTunes & Google Play or operator billing for which we have partnered with Vodafone & Idea. By March, we will have all the major telecom operators covered. In addition to the tech updates, we are adding a ton of content this quarter, which will surprise and delight viewers”, added Subaiah.

     

  • Spuul.com aims to combat online piracy by acquiring newer movies immediately after theatrical release and offer them to consumers in good quality and at a relevant price

    Spuul’s 1-stop entertainment to beat piracy

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spuul.com was founded by Sudesh Iyer who is the Founder of Sony Entertainment Television and S Mohan, the Founder of Accellion, buUuk and a number of other technology and venture companies. Spuul.com was launched in 2010 and aims to combat online piracy by trying to acquire newer movies immediately after their theatrical release and offer them to consumers in good quality and at a relevant price. Spuul.com, which aims to launch newer genres of Indian content too, wants to be a one stop entertainment destination for Indian content in the long run.

     

    Spuul.com is an advertising supported subscription service that provides on-demand access to the best of Bollywood movies and television programmes via the web and mobile devices. If the year 2011 was all about focusing on technology and content acquisition, the year 2012 will see the company increasingly focus on building up its content. Only recently this year, Spuul.com had launched the iOS app i.e. the apps for iPhone and iPad etc, thus making it easier for the users across the globe to watch Indian contents online whether it is Hindi Cinema, television shows or even regional contents.

     

    Spuul.com offers three levels of content to its consumers, ‘Freemium content’ which includes access to a broad range of free movies. ‘Specials’ which are pay per view movies, available at a certain price (pay per movie for 72 hours of unlimited views) and premium subscription which provides consumers access to the very best of Bollywood for a month. Spuul.com is said to be receiving good traction from India, and particularly from other parts of the world namely, the US, UK and even Middle East wherein users are increasingly visiting Spuul.com and consuming Indian contents online.

     

    Prakash Ramchandani

    According to Prakash Ramchandani, South-Asia and India Head, Spuul, “We are in the evolution phase and we want to grow and set a benchmark in the industry. Content consumption is getting more fragmented today. We see a trend in India as well as internationally that there is no dedicated service which is legal, purely for Indian content. So we are targeting just the Indian segment, which includes the Hindi cinema as well as television programmes as well as regional content. Thus we will be across multiple content genres, pan India for consumers across the world. We want to be ready for India when India is ready for it.”

     

    Spuul.com which is said to have pre-roll ads that does not interfere or disrupt the consumers viewing experience, also aims to combat piracy and make it a better monetization model for the producer and the content provider. “Our entire focus is to combat piracy and to provide better monetization model for the producer and content provider. If we can get the movie as soon as possible post theatrical release and give it to the consumer on the go, it is better than somebody giving it away for free. Our focus is also providing good content and customer experience. In fact we had our first subscriber within one hour of launch, this shows that there are consumers and that they are ready to subscribe or buy online if they are given different content, at the right price and with a good customer experience, they will buy it” added Mr Ramchandani.

     

    In the long run Spuul.com wants to be a one stop entertainment destination for Indian content wherein its breath of content would include all types of genres as long as it is premium focused.  Currently, Spuul.com has a total of 15 employees in its Singapore office, it has also has an office in Mumbai and aims to open more offices across the globe in the near future. Speaking on the future of online video streaming in India, Mr Ramchandani was of the view that smart phone and tablets will drive the online video consumption as the growth of smart phones will be much faster in the near future than what it was in the last six years. “Online video streaming is exploding in India and globally and this is the best time for the second screen i.e. mobile” said Mr Ramchandani.