Game changers: HBO Asia and Eros International

— Kishore Lulla

HBO Asia, that has a growing network of premium movie channels across 22 territories in Asia, and Eros International Plc have come together to launch two 24-hour premium television channels for India — HBO Defined and HBO Hits. To be launched on digital platforms, these will be advertising-free movie channels showcasing a mix of Hollywood and Bollywood movies.

Due to the absence of advertising funds, the profit sharing revenue model of the channels is based on subscriptions. Kishore Lulla, Executive Chairman, Eros International Plc, says, “These channels are going to be launched only on digital platforms and we are looking at the subscription fees of Rs.100 per month for both the channels. Currently, India has a base of 75 million subscribers and another 100 million will be added by 2016. You will see several players in the premium television space soon and Eros and HBO are the game changers.”

According to Lulla, the beauty of this model is that his company will not be shelling out money on content development because, “HBO and Eros have huge libraries of movies and we are going to capitalise on our assets. The only investment is on setting up of the channels and marketing costs.” While Eros has a library of more than 1000 films (produced and distributed content across languages), HBO, too, has a library of more than 100

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