Contus, a Chennai-based company offering digitisation of entertainment content, hopes to tap into the trend of television viewing giving way to mobiles and laptops, as youngsters catch up on movies and entertainment though these devices.

The company has come up with a framework — Contus Vplay — that helps media houses stream movies and other programmes through its dedicated mobile and web application.

Contus provides social, mobile, analytics and cloud-based solutions for the retail and media industry.

Sriram Manoharan, founder and Managing Director, said: “Worldwide, television channels are slowly turning digital and it will only be a matter of time before the trend catches on here.“But for a company to develop such a framework may take years and the cost may go up to millions. This is where Contus comes into play.”

“The media channels can use an already available framework like ours and customise it. It saves both time and effort,” he added. The framework’s starting price is $40,000. Beyond that the cost is proportionate to the bandwidth the company requires.

The market for digitising entertainment is estimated at $100 million. Though there are a few players in the digital technology space, not many utilise cloud technology. “This is where we differentiate ourselves,” said Manoharan.

The company uses the latest technologies like cloud for development, with Amazon as its technology partner.

“We are already in talks with two major media outlets in the country who have expressed interest in this product,” he said.

Contus focuses on small and medium scale enterprises that generate revenue between $50,000 and $5,00,000.

About 80 per cent of the company’s business comes from the US and West Asia and the rest from India. It registered revenue of about $3 million for FY16 and expects to touch $8 million this fiscal.

The company is setting up an office in Dubai and looking for office space in Bengaluru as well. Currently employing 242 people, it will add another 250 in the coming year.

Talent shortage Finding talent is one of the major challenges, said Manoharan. There is also a deficit of creative people, he added. “Though the programming skills are good, people lack creativity, an important differentiator when it comes to design.” Contus plans to establish a facility to provide design training. The 45-day training programme on designing user interface will be free and open to people with a creative background.

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