Eros International expects about 75 per cent of its revenues from digital platform in the next three years -- up from 25 per cent now -- with increasing data affordability bringing more people online to content consumption, a top company official has said.
Eros International Media is on the path of transforming itself from a "full studio to a digital company" as it is sensing a great opportunity in the OTT (Over-the-top) media services, the official added.
"We think right now this year, out of USD 260-270 million revenue, digital would be USD 40 million. It's about 25 per cent of the total revenue. Fast forward after three years, digital would be three-quarters," Eros International Group CEO and MD Jyoti Deshpande told reporters here.
She further said: "For Eros it's about transforming, it's about completing the transformation from being a film studio to becoming a digital company. Film studio we would continue, we would continue to scale it but the goal is totally different."
Indians are now ready to pay for the movie contents, which are legitimately available for consumption within two to six weeks of their release, Deshpande added.
"The product has to be good and we have 10,000 movies and music videos and more importantly, we are making originals. We are using our access to the film industry to make our own original shows," Deshpande said.
The company is trying to make series on issues which include comedy and human trafficking.
"Our goal is that we are going to launch one series a month," she added.
The competition in the video-on-demand space has intensified specially after the launch of Reliance Jio's services that saw data tariffs in the country coming down drastically.
While NetFlix plays in the premium segment, Hotstar and Amazon Prime are also competing aggressively for a share of the customer's viewership.
New players like Yupp TV, Hungama and ALT Balaji are actively expanding their library with original programming to tap into the Indian market.
Eros OTT platform has trebled its growth in the last one-and-a-half years.
"In 2016, we had 400,000 paying subscribers and today we have 3.7 million paying subscribers...by March it will hit 6 to 8 million paying subscribers. For 2018-19, we would guide double of that," Deshpande said.
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