Witnessed healthy growth in India, expanding at rapid pace: Lionsgate Play

Premium content streaming platform Lionsgate Play on Thursday said it has witnessed “healthy” growth in India and expanding at a rapid pace in the country. Lionsgate Play, which is global content company Starz”s OTT streaming service in India, has also launched ”BingePass” to woo new users to the platform.

“Globally, Starz Play is subscribed by over 30 million users, the India number is a part of that. Our growth in India has been really healthy and at a rapid pace…we are expecting to reach a wide majority of the OTT audience through BingePass offer,” Lionsgate South Asia and Networks – Emerging Markets Asia – Managing Director Rohit Jain told PTI. He added that the company”s core target audience is 25-45 years old, and currently resides in metros.

Talking about BingePass, Jain said the company is looking at not only expanding to tier 2 cities through the offer but also inviting young users – who love watching premium content but look for offers – to sample the service. BingePass will allow new users unlimited access to the curated library of Lionsgate Play at Rs 9. Users can avail the limited period between August 5-8 for a 30-day subscription. The platform – which had launched its services in India in December last year – has also roped in actress Ananya Panday for a TV commercial to promote the offer. She will appeal to millennials to explore the Lionsgate Play app.

Online video streaming services have had multiple tailwinds that fuelled their growth in India over the past few years. Factors like affordable data, ubiquitous availability of mobile phones and engaging content have driven the adoption of these services, especially among the millennials.

Adoption of over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+Hotstar has seen further acceleration during the pandemic-induced lockdown amid restricted social activities. A recent report by RBSA Advisors had said India”s video OTT market is expected to touch USD 12.5 billion by 2030 from about USD 1.5 billion in 2021 on the back of access to better networks, digital connectivity and smartphones. The next wave of growth in the OTT landscape will come from tier II, III and IV cities and the Indian language speaking population, it had said. Jain said the platform has been regularly strengthening its library with urban, edgy shows and movies exclusively for the audiences.

“We have a brilliant content library on Lionsgate Play…While the core of our service is premium content, we were always certain that consumers preferred this in their languages. We have dubbed many of our popular content in six local languages like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bhojpuri,” he stated. While English enjoys healthy consumption, the platform has many takers of Indian languages as well, he added. “We have 60 originals lined up for next 12 months, from Direct to Digital releases like The Father, Spiral to returning seasons like Home Economics. “Our Indian originals include those made in collaboration with filmmakers such as Kunal Kohli, Akarsh Khurana and production houses like EndemolShine India and Jar Pictures.

We”re in the process of announcing more local Indian originals with big stars, but it will take some time,” he noted. Lionsgate Play has also formed partnerships with Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Jio FTTH, Apple TV+, Amazon Firestick and others. PTI