MUMBAI: Online is the way to go! While many Indian film producers have realised the potential of additional revenues from online streaming of films, now the Big Daddy of Bollywood – Yash Raj Films – is going the same way. US based TinselVision, a Tinsel Cinema broadband Internet, video-on-demand (VoD) service targeting South Asian communities in the US, UK and Canada, has inked a deal with Yash Raj Films to showcase the latter’s films on its website (www.tinselvision.com).
This will be the first time that Yash Raj Films will be syndicating its movies to a website. While companies like UTV Motion Pictures and Pritish Nandy Communications amongst others provide their movies for online downloads and streaming to Rajshri.com and BigFlicks.com, Yash Raj Films has until now refrained from joining the bandwagon. However, it does provide paid downloads of its films’ songs on its website – www.yashrajfilms.com but their movies have not been made available for download on it as yet.
According to sources close to the development, the deal between TinselVision and Yash Raj Films is likely to be announced sometime in early October and Yash Raj will provide its past and present catalogue of movies to TinselVision. The revenue that comes from the movie downloads will be shared by the two companies. However the time frame of the deal and the number of films included in it could not be ascertained at the time of filing this story.
When queried about the same, TinselVision chairman and CEO Chase Weir was tightlipped on the development. “Within a week’s time you will hear about a film producer that we have tied up with that will clearly put us in a different league. I am not at liberty to take names at this point in time but the very fact that the film producer has come on board with us even before we have launched our service goes to say a lot about our credibility. We are in talks with a lot of big players in the industry for content and the necessary announcements will be made at the right time. We expect every significant content provider to be on board with us,†Weir told Businessofcinema.com without divulging the name of the player.
TinselVision recently also inked a content licensing and online distribution deal with Star India to deliver Star’s television programming globally via TinselVision’s web video service.
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The company has set up offices in Mumbai and
TinselVision will be launching its service next month in October. Plans are to deliver Bollywood and South Asian movies, TV series and sporting events via the Internet to PCs, laptops, TVs and mobile devices to the South Asian community in the US, UK and Canada.
However, Weir doesn’t see other VoD sites like Rajshri.com, BigFlicks.com and Erosentertainment.com as their competitor even though they provide Bollywood on-demand content. “We will be providing an entire gamut of content ranging from Bollywood movies, television shows, sports and other lifestyle based content. Hence Bollywood movies will only be a part of our website. No other player in the space is providing the range of content that we will be. We will be providing premium content be it films or television or sports,†said Weir.
“Additionally, what a company like Eros does is opening up an online store to generate more revenues for their distribution business. They are like any other chain of video rental store. From what we understand is that their purpose is not be an online entertainment destination. Same goes for BigFlicks… I might be wrong but that’s the impression that we have,†adds Weir.
Earlier this year, TinselVision secured funding of $3 million for its expansion plans. Weir also informed that the company was also looking at acquiring content film and television from other South Asian countries.
Related stories:
TinselVision, Star India ink licensing deal
Zee TV US inks VoD deal with TinselVision
