After making unexpected entry into the streaming video, Times Internet acquired MX Player, an offline video player, is planning to disrupt the space through heavy investment in original content.
In the first year, it has planned 20 original show in Hindi and regional languages like Tamil, Telegu, Marathi among others. It will create 50k hours of premium content, former COO of EROS Now Karan Bedi told FactorDaily.
Bedi is looking to tap into more new audience through original content. He plans to make the platform the single largest libraries of original content on digital platforms. The platform is working on around 40 original shows and creating an enticing brand for advertisers to have upper hand over its competitors like Youtube.
The new app, which will be available to all, will also stream live TV channels. At present, the firm is testing OTT App on a different version of MX Player — MX Player Beta, which is available on the Google play store. MX player, for the first few years, will invest around Rs 100 crore.
In India, MX Player is second only to Youtube with 172 Mn monthly active users (MAU) and 65 Mn daily active users (DAU). Youtube, which primarily user-generated content, has around 180 Mn MAU and 120 Mn DAU.
In January, Times Internet had acquired a majority stake in Gangnam (Seoul)-based MX Player for about $200 million. MX Player claims to be the first Android video player which supports multi-core decoding.
MX Player is also popular in countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran among others. While it’s been among top 10 apps on Google Play Store in India, It is reportedly among the top 20 most used apps in these countries.
In the past three years, OTT space in India has witnessed the entry of many new players and all of them are bullish. Jack Ma-led Chinese Internet major Alibaba and Facebook are also working on their OTT video service in India.
Indian online video industry is expected to touch $1.6 billion in revenue by 2022, according to media research and consulting firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).
According to experts in the industry, content is an expensive game and will test all existing and new players to its financial depth.
All players in the space like Hotstar, Sonyliv, Netflix, Amazon have been investing heavily in the space to grab a larger market share.
Currently, Star India-owned video streaming app Hotstar commands top position in OTT space in India.
