MUMBAI: Eros International has launched an official Bollywood channel on Google’s video sharing website YouTube, which can be accessed at www.youtube.com/erosentertainment.
Movie trailers, music videos and other footage from Eros International’s catalogue of 1300 films are now available to YouTube users. This is the first partnership between YouTube and a content owner from the Indian film industry. The deal will allow Eros to monetize the channel from a share of advertising revenues generated by YouTube.
Apart from YouTube, Eros is also looking at partnering with other websites for its content. Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Eros International chief operating officer and commercial director Jyoti Deshpande said, “We have plans to launch several channels on the web. YouTube is one of the distribution channels for our content. Additionally, day and date premieres of select films on the web is a definite strategy. These will be for movies that won’t have a wide theatrical release.”
The new channel will be featured in YouTube’s “Partner Channels” section and will feature film trailers from recent and upcoming movies including Aishwarya Bachchan’s Provoked, Akshay Kumar’s Namastey London and Amitabh Bachchan’s Cheeni Kum. Additional footage from exclusive film premieres and star interviews will be showcased on the channel.
Eros International chairman and CEO Kishore Lulla said, “We are really excited about this initiative since we believe in empowering the consumers with the ability to watch what they want, when they want and how they want. The partnership with YouTube allows us to not only promote our content but also monetise it through advertising revenues. Legal online distribution of compelling content is an integral part of our new media strategy.”
As has already been announced, Eros recently concluded a deal with Liberty Media Corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary OnCommand Video Corporation, which is a provider of in-room entertainment technology to the lodging and cruise ship industries to supply its current and catalogue films for video-on-demand access within hotel chains across USA.
