Shemaroo partners with DTH players to launch 'Miniplex'

Film content and entertainment business provider Shemaroo Entertainment plans to launch its movie premiere service 'Miniplex' on cable and online after partnering with two DTH players.

Shemaroo last month tied up with direct-to-home operators (DTH) Airtel and Tata Sky to launch Miniplex and the company said it will also look at tying up with other DTH players. "DTH has now emerged as a large subscription platform.

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So we started initially with Airtel and then with Tata Sky, and over a period, we will make this service available to many platforms as possible, where the paid subscriber base has some scale," Shemaroo Entertainment Director Hiren Gada told PTI.

He added that the expansion would happen in a phased manner and it would take about three to four quarters to have a wider base.

"By next December we should be present on many more platforms. There are four other (DTH) players. There are cable operators, particularly in the phase I, phase II markets where the digitisation has already taken place or the cities where the process is taking place, so that is another set of people that we are looking to work with," he said.

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The company would be focusing on multi-system operators (MSOs) first as they have scale in terms of numbers and have technology back-end to support a paid platform. He further said they are considering a digital platform distribution that the Miniplex content can go through, on a paid basis.

Miniplex is an ad-free movie service, where the company will premiere one movie every Friday, besides showing curated movies through the week. Miniplex will predominantly showcase Hindi movies but the company will look at some cherry-picked regional content as well, going forward.

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"The current thought process for Miniplex is that it is a Hindi movie service. But if some really brilliant regional cinema comes -- which has a wider appeal, which has an international acclaim or National award winners or India's entry to Oscars -- those kind of movies we feel may fit into the proposition or the kind of audience we are looking at," he said.

Source PTI