Short format content,B & C towns our core focus:Sweta Agnihotri on Chillx

Anil D Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment yesterday announced a new venture in digital media content and distribution company, FunOnGo Media & Entertainment LLP, founded by Vijay Singh and Ujjwal Narayan. The company has launched its first offering in the entertainment space, an Android app called ‘Chillx’.

Chillx is a complete entertainment-based platform aimed at placing the power of choice in the hands of consumers. The app will give consumers choice in languages, entertainment formats, genres as well as payment mechanisms. The app is a digital entertainment departmental store that curates a mix of games, music, viral videos & clips, entertainment news, short films & full length movies.

Content on Chillx is available across major Indian regional languages like Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, etc. Chillx contains an exhaustive games section, with several premium games available on a try and buy basis. The portal also lists and recommends apps for Indian users depending upon their usage habits.

Speaking on Chillx, Sweta Agnihotri, CEO – Content Syndication, Reliance Entertainment, said, “While apps downloaded are mostly in line with global popularity, interest in content consumption in regional language is high. We see smart phone screen as a fantastic gateway to the consumer and our cross functional team will leverage its understanding of content and industry relationships to amplify value offering to the consumer.”

Vijay Singh CEO, FunOnGo Media & Entertainment LLP, added here, “This endeavour allows us to widen the scope of consumer engagement on a scale that is possible only when you are a part of India’s leading entertainment conglomerate like Reliance Entertainment.”

Shibasish Sarkar, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Entertainment, remarked, “Digital platforms are encouraging a wider audience with diverse consumption patterns, we recognise that this calls for innovative approach in the manner we produce and present our content. The launch of Chillx is in line with our business vision.”

Adgully caught up with Sweta Agnihotri, CEO - Content Sydication, Reliance Entertainment, at the launch event in Mumbai yesterday, who shared further details on Chillx. She informed that the app was in the making for one and a half years. Karbonn, Intex, and Lava are the main OEM partners.

In order to reach the market, Reliance Entertainment has tied up with quite a few OEM partners, which include Samsung (25 per cent), Karbon (5 per cent), Lava (9 per cent), Intex (11 per cent), and Micromax (14 per cent).

Over 100 content partners have come on board, which include Phantom Films, Reliance Group Synergy, and Plan C Studios, among others. Besides, there is great opportunity for game developers and short filmmakers to launch and showcase their projects.

What is the competitive advantage that Chillx has?

There are a few things about this app that really stand out. We are an all-in-one entertainment app. Typically, when people want to listen to music, or watch movies, viral videos and play games they have to download 3-4 such apps and these apps are heavy, thus, taking up too much of your phone space. With Chillx, you have this one app that takes care of all your entertainment needs. So, that’s a big advantage that we have.

The second biggest advantage that content on Chillx is available in 10 Indian languages, making it easier for users to access content in his/ her native language and smoother navigation. That’s why we have gone the extra mile and changed everything into local languages. I think that’s a big USP and that’s how we are going to reach out to the smaller towns. The third USP is that being part of Reliance Entertainment, there are lots synergies that will come in. There is a lot of premium content that we are going to create with our partners – Phantom Films, Plan C. So you will see a lot of innovation and premium content on this app.

This apart, every week we are going to have 150 new videos that we are going to post. So, there will be a lot of refreshed content. Globally what we are doing is that we are taking some shot videos that have been made across the world and we are going to dub them in nine Indian languages. So, it’s a lot like Hollywood films, which, when they come in English, have a certain market, but when you dub them in Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages, those numbers explode. People want to see really good content, but they may not necessarily understand the English language. So we are going to localise the content. These are some of the USPs which I think most of the other players don’t possess.

How do you plan or strategise to sustain in this highly competitive market?

If you see our strategy, it is slightly distinct and for exactly the reasons I have mentioned above, wherein we have very good competitive advantage. Yes, you are right, over time a few serious players will remain, a lot of new ones will emerge, but we are confident of our mass market strategy. We are not going after the premium end of the business, which I think most of the players today are focussing on. Our entire plan is focus on the B and C towns, where really the Internet smartphone explosion will take place and those people do not have much access to cinema halls – we have only 10,000-12,000 cinema halls in the country. Where will they get their entertainment from? Because our content will be mass, it will be for the youth, it will be different and varied. We believe we certainly have a longer play because we are looking at segments of the society on which most people are not focussing on. We are not really looking at the English high-end Malabar Hill kind of crowd.

What will be the core TG for Chillx?

The core TG will be the youth, because they are the ones who are on smartphones and on the Internet. And ours will be a mass market. So we are looking at individuals who buy phones in the Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 mid-price range. Almost 80 per cent of Indians are not that proficient with English. That’s our core TG. We are looking at the population in smaller towns, who are more comfortable with their native language rather than focusing on the premium end.

Have you got any original content in place?

We will also soon start commissioning. We have fantastic in-house directors like Madhu, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane, Neeraj Pandey. We will certainly be creating content. We are also working with a lot of South Indian producers of content to create local language content. So you will see a lot coming from our stable very soon.

What kind of content will the app focus on?

Our core focus is going to be on short format content, viral videos, gaming, because people are willing to pay for gaming content. Though we will always have films, that will not be our core focus area. People want ‘snacky’ kind of content on smartphones. Watching a three-hour long movie will be too much of a strain. But yes, certainly anything that is of 5-10 minute duration will be our focus area.

What would be your revenue source?

We have various revenue models. We have the SVOD model, which is a subscription-based model, then we have a weekly payment model, we also have a snacky – pay per view model, where you can watch movies by paying just Rs 10; you can access games which are available for as low as Rs 10. The rest of the content will be viral video, which will be available for free and that will obviously be an ad-supported model.

What is the price range of the content packages?

For the SD version, the price has been kept at Rs 49 per month, while for the HD version, it is Rs 99 for the whole month.

What about partnerships?

We will be making the announcements soon in Phase II.

Do you plan to rope in celebrity brand ambassadors for Chillx?

Masses and the common man are our brand ambassadors. Our market strategy is very different from the others. We have 800-1,000 daily users on our app and more than million downloads. Our product will speak for itself. The app and its features are going to get viral soon.