Kuku FM launches Kuku TV to foray into vertical micro-dramas

Kuku TV claims to currently have a library of over 300 hours of premium stories across genres such as action, Bollywood, Sci-Fi, and mythology

Storytelling platform Kuku FM announced on February 14 that it is foraying into serialised micro-dramas with the launch of its video streaming platform Kuku TV.

Available on Android and iOS, Kuku TV will offer short, episodic vertical micro-dramas across Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. Each episode will last up to 2 minutes, with over 50 episodes per series.

Kuku TV claims to currently have a library of over 300 hours of premium stories across genres such as action, Bollywood, Sci-Fi, and mythology. The company plans to release one Indian regional micro-drama everyday starting next month.

The service will be available on a subscription model, with plans starting at Rs 399 per quarter and going up to Rs 899 per year.

"Traditional OTTs aren’t built for India’s mobile-first audience, whose attention spans are rapidly shrinking. 90% of Indians consume vertical videos on social media, yet there is no dedicated premium OTT platform for this format" said Kuku co-founder Vinod Kumar Meena.

"With Kuku TV, we are bringing the next wave of entertainment—high-quality, serialized vertical storytelling, available across Indian languages" he added.

Meena stated that operating the audio series platform Kuku FM, which currently has 4.5 million active paying subscribers, has given the company "deep insights into what works for personalised content consumption," and it will apply these learnings to enhance the experience on Kuku TV.

Kuku TV stated that it is collaborating with directors, writers, and producers to develop and distribute micro-dramas, while also acquiring rights to "underrepresented" films and shows.

Started in 2018 by Meena, Lal Chand Bisu, and Vikas Goyal, Kuku FM offers audiobooks, stories, book summaries, and short courses across over 20 genres and over seven languages.

The Bengaluru-based startup counts Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Partnership, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Google, Krafton, 3one4 Capital, and India Quotient among its investors. It has raised around $72 million funding across multiple rounds to date.

Kuku FM reported a revenue of Rs 87.95 crore for FY24, a two-fold jump from Rs 41.2 crore in the previous year. The company also trimmed its losses by 17.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 95.8 crore in FY24, from Rs 116.6 crore loss in FY23.

Last week, Kuku FM partnered with Krafton to launch an audiobook adaptation of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) called BGMI: Lone Survivor on its platform, marking one of the first adaptations of a video game into an audiobook in India.