ShemarooMe not to compete with Netflix, Amazon

ShemarooMe, the digital venture of the media and entertainment company Shemaroo which has been in the industry for decades, has no plans to compete in the OTT market but is focusing on partnerships and collaborations.

Talking to Moneycontrol, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited CEO Hiren Gada said, “We have content up on multiple platforms like Netflix, Amazon. So, what we think is that the areas where we don’t have strength. I will partner with those players where they have strength in those areas.”

“We are too small to compete with the might of some of the larger players so we might as well carve out our own space within the larger picture,” he added.

By this, he means to leverage Shemaroo’s vast content library that has more than 3,000 hours of video content created in the last few years. In the Gujarati segment, the company has more than 400 titles including movies and theatre plays.

Amid its prominent categories which includes Bollywood plus and classics, Gujarati and devotional, ShemarooMe has 200 hours of content in classics.

“It has been a journey of segmenting the consumer and combining that with the areas where we have strength in terms of content,” said Gada.

The OTT platform, launched in February 2019, is working on multiple ways to reach out to consumers.

“One is B2B i.e., business-to-business like TV channels or other OTT platforms. Then there is B2C (business-to-consumer) which is going direct to the consumer and then there is something called B2B2C, working with existing platforms and riding on their reach of customer base. For us that is the bigger driver for the OTT strategy,” he said.

The company recently announced a tie-up with Vodafone and is tapping into the telco’s existing customers. “Also, these platforms are themselves not running a service. So, it is not just about syndicating few movies," he added.

From DVDs to YouTube, ShemarooMe has used its extensive data to know what kind of market exists.

”There are different consumer needs as far as video is concerned. Fundamentally, India is a highly heterogeneous market as far as consumer taste and preference is concerned. There are segmented consumer needs that is possible. The way we approached it is we clearly divided Bollywood into classic and Bollywood plus. So, clearly there is a market for classics. Although, it may not be as big as Bollywood plus but there is a market,” said Gada.

In terms of regional content offering, the digital platform has Gujarati, Punjabi and now Marathi. It is planning to add more languages to penetrate in tier II and III cities.

“We have penetrated in metros and large cities but our next step is tier II and III cities. Now, the consumption preference there is much more regional. And devotional kind of content will connect there much more,” he added.

Ask about competition, and Gada presents two aspects. According to him, there is competition on the original content side and getting rights for new films. However, according to him, ShemarooMe has stayed away from that.

He also points out, “In India, we have about 300 million digital video consumers. And, in three to five years, the number is expected to cross 700 million. Market growth is ahead of us so we don’t think it is too late to enter the space. Whether overcrowded or not, in a market where there are more than 500 television channels we still have relatively a handful of players (OTT space).”

Even a few industry experts believe that content creators are not in a direct competition with content aggregators like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar. In fact, companies like Shemaroo and Eros are entering the OTT market to benefit from its large existing libraries and drive new revenues through partnerships.

But, will Shemaroo jump on the original content bandwagon? Gada said that originals would not fit into its segmentation strategy. Nevertheless, Shemaroo has created devotional content like Dham Yatra. They also have a 22-part series called Cinema ka Safar anchored by actress Renuka Shahane. They have also created a short series called Pehli Baar.

For 2019, ShemarooMe is looking at international integrations, more tie-ups with telcos and other video platforms, and a few more category additions.