Movie producer and distributor Eros International today entered online entertainment platform by launching ErosNow and announced to invest USD 25 million this year to tap into the fast growing digital content segment.
"Our objective is to transform ourselves from a leading film studio to a content and digital company," Eros International group chief executive and managing director Jyoti Deshpande told reporters here.
He also said the company will invest USD 25 million in ErosNow this fiscal year. Since inception in 2012, it has invested USD 25 million to get the back-end operations, technology, building of the app. It expects to break even in the next four years.
"The absence of enough premium content on television is now driving general public to use smartphones and to look for alternate content on demand. That is the opportunity we want to tap into," Deshpande said.
ErosNow has garnered over 19 million registered users in its pre-launch phase, Eros digital chief executive Rishika Lulla Singh said, adding will launch five movies -- Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Badlapur, NH10, Shamitabh and Happy Ending, before its TV premiere.
Deshpande said most of the content will be offered for free initially but they would look at different subscription options ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 150 a month.
Recently Eros acquired a mobile value added services company called Techzone which is into billing integration of mobile networks.
A recent Ficci-KPMG report estimates that there will be 500 million Internet users in the country by 2017. The smartphone users are expected to be 382 million by 2017, of which 70 per cent would be 3G and 4G users.
