Leading film production and distribution company Eros International has said it is sharpening its focus to transform itself from a film studio, that only makes movies for the big screen, to a digital content company. The firm said it believes its OTT platform, Eros Now, is expected to garner 6-8 million paid subscribers by March 2018.

‘Conscious strategy’

Jyoti Deshpande, Group Chief Executive Officer, Eros International, said: “We made a conscious strategy to move away from high-budget movies back in 2015. For the past two years, we have been focussing on a model — to have a slate of profitable movies, monetise our movie library and push our OTT platform Eros Now. Our film portfolio has been broad-based with a mix of medium-budget and regional films.”

She said this has worked out to be a good strategy as it has helped the company feed its digital pipeline as well as reduce its dependence on the box office for revenues.

“Currently we have about 3.7 million paying subscribers (for Eros Now). We believe by the end of March, we will have 6-8 million.”

The company has been focussing on launching original shows on the platform, besides leveraging its movie library.

It is banking on its tie-ups with telecom companies to be part of their bundled packages, for acquiring new subscribers.

The firm believes nearly 25 per cent of its revenues will come from the digital space this financial year, and this contribution is expected to become much bigger in the next three years.

Deshpande also pointed out that film production companies will need to increasingly have a segmented approach of having a pipeline of films targeted at the big screen and developing original content for the digital platforms.

“One cannot have a one-size-fits-all strategy. We are green lighting films that have theatrical viability. At the same time, we have commissioned six films which will go straight to the digital platform.”

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