The rising popularity of video streaming on mobile devices is prompting broadcasters and mobile application makers to offer movie streaming services.

A number of operators have entered this segment over the last few months, including the Star TV-led Hotstar, Eros, BoxTV and Hungama. The SingTel backed Hooq is also launching services in India.

The strategy is driven by the success of companies such as Netflix and Hulu in markets such as the US. Netflix ended 2014 with 57.4 million global subscribers.

Good demand Though it’s still early days in India, some apps are already seeing good demand. Hotstar, for instance, has been downloaded by 18 million users, say industry estimates. Most companies are also streaming TV shows, music and popular serials.

Hotstar has content from the Star TV network.

Hungama.com, a distributor of Bollywood and South-Asian entertainment content, is in the process of launching a movie streaming app called Hungama Play. Hungama already has other applications, including music-streaming app Hungama Pro, which allows users to hear their favourite songs even when they are offline.

Says Siddhartha Roy, COO of Hungama: “The Pro service is a solution for our consumers who do not like to be dependent on the internet for streaming audio and video. With the issue of quality of connectivity of data, the service breaks the barrier and allows users to enjoy the music and videos offline and without ads.” Hungama said that the Pro service will reach out to its consumer base across the world besides being rolled out to tier 2 and 3 cities.

The Sunil Lulla-led Eros has a content tie-up with Chromecast for its mobile application called Erosnow. This will allow users to transmit movies from their tablets or smartphones to their television sets. Besides it has also tied up with Kerala-based internet service provider Asianet Broadband to launch a movie streaming service called Broadband Movies.

Says Nishant Batra, Head, Engagement Practice, Ericsson: “India is having a revolution for video content with the domestic market growing (at) twice the (rate of the) world market.” Ericsson, has enhanced its compression portfolio to go across all kinds of formats, including mobile and television screens.

Popular titles on Eros Now include movies such as Ram-Leela, Chennai Express and Queen and TV show Comedy Nights with Kapil .

Batra says the Indian television and media delivery industry’s revenue is set to increase from $9 billion to $14 billion by 2017.

BoxTV, another player, has more than 18,000 hours of content and a subscriber base of 1.2 million — primarily Bollywood and regional content — in nine languages for customers outside India.

“Our target consumers are urban, upwardly mobile consumers who want to enjoy the best of Indian and international content on the go. It includes both domestic and diaspora users. Over time we see it expanding across Indian audiences, as smartphone and mobile internet penetration increases,” a BoxTV spokesperson said.

Regional content is in big demand, especially because smartphone growth is now picking pace in tier-2 and -3 cities. The other big target user base is the large NRI population, which can now access not just Hindi movies but also popular regional TV shows,” said a market analyst.

Hazy revenue model The revenue model is, however, still not clear. While international operators such as Netflix have a subscription model, Indian service providers offer a lot of content free. Relatively new releases are offered on a pay-per-view model, which ranges between ₹60 and ₹150 per view. Hotstar, though, is betting on digital advertisements. Hooq, meanwhile, is launching services on a subscription model, at ₹199 a month for unlimited viewing.

The big challenge is piracy. For example, Netherlands-based Popcorn Time, which is a Bittorrent-based free movie streaming service, is giving Netflix’s subscription model a tough time.

“The growth of smartphones is no doubt contributing to the movie and song streaming business. However, what is sad is that not many people are willing to pay to legally download content. This is a major challenge,” said an industry expert.

But despite the challenge, initial indications are that mobile applications could overtake other digital mediums. On April 8, Hotstar recorded 7.2 million video views for the first IPL match, between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. This was six times the viewership for last year’s first match, on Starsports.com.

The next big leap for these companies would be to bring movie releases to smartphone screens.

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