Airtel, Disney tie up for mobile content

After the launch of Airtel Easy Music across the country, the mobile service provider Bharti Airtel has got even more aggressive with strategic tie-up with Walt Disney to provide Disney cartoon mobisodes to its subscribers.

Airtel and Disney have joined hands to launch 'Disney Mobile Theatre', which will enable Airtel customers to have access to six Disney animated series in the form of 30 - second shorts, exclusively made for mobile devices featuring Disney characters.

Airtel will also offer Disney images, animations, videos, ringtones and games. These contents can be downloaded from the company's multi-access entertainment portal, Airtel Live, and ringtones can also be downloaded from Hello Tunes portal.

According to the company, the tie-up with Disney is in line with its strategy of offering innovative services.

The mobile operator follows a four pillar strategy of entertainment - music, movies, cricket and mobile gaming, as the company views these as growth areas.

"The launch of Disney branded mobile content on Airtel, including Disney Mobile Theatre and personalisation, content and games would create an engaging and unique mobile experience for customers here," said Mark Handler, executive vice-president and MD-international, Walt Disney Internet group, said.

The Disney products are priced from Rs 10 for a wallpaper to Rs 99 for a java game. The pricing for the episodes has been pegged at Rs 15.

Hemant Sachdev, director - marketing & communications, Bharti Airtel, said, "With voice pricing going down, alternate revenue streams such as these will add a significant chunk to the total revenue. Internationally, non-voice revenues range from 12 - 20 per cent of the turnover."

The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) provides centralised strategic leadership, back-end business support and a global technology platform for all broadband and wireless properties from Walt Disney.

The launch of Disney mobile content on Airtel marks the company's first mobile carrier distribution deal in India.

WDIG has mobile content distribution in 12 other markets in the Asia-Pacific region including Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, the Phillipines, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Macau. In this region, more than 69.5 crore mobile users have access to Disney Mobile content.