The head of Voot Select said the next six months will give a clearer picture of Paramount+’ entry into the Indian market, adding they will see ‘if it’s a separate service or is it through Voot Select.’
American OTT streaming service Paramount+ will now have most of its content exclusively available on Viacom18-owned Voot Select in India. Besides, the platform will also be home to the Showtime originals.
Speaking to Variety, Ferzad Palia, head, Voot Select and international business, Viacom18, said even as Paramount Plus prepared for a roll-out globally, the decision concerning the India market will also be taken soon. He said that the next three to six months will give a clearer picture of Paramount Plus’ entry into the Indian market, adding they will see “if it’s a separate service or is it through Voot Select.”
In March 2020, the subscription-based Voot Select was launched to compete with the likes of established brands such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar among others. Over the past year, the platform has drawn the interest of millions of users with over a million subscribing through direct payments. Even though it’s currently available at a yearly subscription of just Rs 499, it may go up to Rs 999 soon.
Since the Indian market is particularly interested in local language shows, Voot has been able to tap into it, offering hits such as Asur, The Raikar Case and The Gone Game. According to reports, the platform is planning to air 25 more shows, nearly half of them are reported to be in Tamil and Bengali. Voot has its content in other regional languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, and Gujarati as well.
Palia said Voot’s focus is not on putting out the maximum number of titles but on narrating quality stories in the best possible manner, adding the platform won’t take the route of a rat race.
Experts believe Voot’s decision to launch Select last March was crucial, for it coincided with the nationwide lockdown in India, leading to a massive rise in paid subscriptions. Voot Select head said that the pandemic introduced people to a variety of content on different platforms that they may not have been exposed to before. As a result, they saw and spoke about it to others, who, too were drawn, he said. “So now we’re not seeing any slowdown in the current format with the country pretty much almost fully operational.”
When it comes to Voot Select’s deal with Showtime, signed last year, the platform exclusively features shows such as Your Honor, the comedy Moonbase 8, and the docuseries The Reagans. However, because of Showtime’s existing agreement with Hotstar, which it signed in 2017 before Viacom and CBS merged, all existing Showtime content stays on Disney+ Hotstar until the deals expire. Voot Select can pick those titles after that, reported NDTV.
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