VOOT forays into Telugu market with Colors Telugu, plans four original shows

Video on demand platform VOOT has forayed into the Telugu market with Colors Telugu. The service will start from September 23.

The content line-up for the channel includes originals, Hindi and regional Viacom18 IPs and a library of 150 plus Telugu movies.

Talking to Moneycontrol, Gourav Rakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures said: "One marquee original that we are launching in non-fiction is Feet Up with the Stars that is based on the format which we do in Hindi and a lot of consumption is there for the show in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the Hindi show itself. In addition, there are four fiction shows in development."

With 55 million monthly active users, VOOT is looking at regional markets for growth.

"We have been witnessing significant offtake of network regional consumption on VOOT. The latest success of Bigg Boss Marathi with over 100 million views establishes the scale of the regional content opportunity," Rakshit added.

According to him, the scope of the Telugu market in digital content as well as significant internet penetration in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana present a high value opportunity.

"Right now, our Telugu consumption is in single digit in terms of consumption from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region. And we expect to get it to 10-12 percent based on local language content," he added.

He said that currently, the audience from these markets are consuming Hindi content and this is why he expects traction for Telugu content to grow the fastest.

Along with Telugu, Viacom18's regional content footprint includes Colors Kannada, Colors Super (Kannada), Colors Bangla, Colors Marathi, Colors Odia, Colors Tamil, Colors Gujarati.

In addition, VOOT has plans to launch subscription service in the premium space within this calendar year.

Talking about the difference in AVOD (advertising on-demand) and SVOD (subscription on-demand) model, Rakshit said that “90 percent of revenue comes in AVOD and 10 percent comes in SVOD.”

For SVOD, out of the 10 percent, only a small part of it is direct to consumer and a lot of SVOD comes from telco partnership.

(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust, which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)