ALTBalaji eyes content distribution, billing partnerships; in talks with Vodafone, Airtel

NEW DELHI: ALTBalaji, an over-the-top video content provider, is eyeing distribution and billing partnerships with domestic and foreign telecom operators, including Vodafone Group and Bharti Airtel, according to a top executive of the Reliance Industries-backed company.

Chief marketing officer Manav Sethi told ET the company is bolstering its original content offering with 50 new shows and plans to spend about Rs 100 crore on marketing in the next fiscal year.

“We are in advanced discussions with Vodafone globally along with other telecom operators. We are eyeing Vodafone partnership for Europe and they have a large Indian base in the UK. We will possibly close something soon,” Sethi said.

App analytics platform App Annie ranks ALTBalaji as the third largest revenue earner among video streaming applications after Netflix and Hotstar.

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According to Sethi, ALTBalaji is already working with Vodafone for its Vodafone Play platform in India and is looking at similar tieups with Bharti Airtel for its Airtel TV application. “We are discussing very closely with Airtel Wynk, which is their entertainment and video platform. So we are in advance phases of closure with them,” Sethi said.

Bharti Airtel, which is India’s largest telco by subscribers, already has content distribution tie-ups with Hooq, Eros Now and Sony LIV, and is also enhancing its live TV offering through its Airtel TV application.

ALTBalaji is already live in 80 geographies and has paid customers from around 30 countries. In India, it competes with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and Hooq, among others. The company has already inked a billing partnership with Fortumo for international markets, and is currently driving discussions around content distribution and carrier billing partnerships with international telecom operators.

By way of Reliance Industries’ recent acquisition of 24.9% stake in Balaji Telefilms for Rs 413 crore, Jio will now be using content generated by both Balaji Telefilms and ALTBalaji.

“They (Reliance Jio) want to leverage the content strength that ALTBalaji and Ekta Kapoor bring, which in turn would help them drive incremental data ARPU (average revenue per user),” Sethi said. “They have an outlook on our strategy, but they don't have any day-to-day operation. We retain that independence completely.”

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For its international foray, ALTBalaji is looking at countries like the US, the UK, Middle East, Singapore, Pakistan and Bangladesh, said Sethi, adding that international geographies are ARPU drivers for the company, given that the lowest subscription pack for international users is costlier than the pack for Indian users.

To back the 50 new shows which are in various stages of readiness, ALTBalaji will have a marketing budget of about Rs 100 crore for the next financial year, including on its overseas forays, up from this year’s Rs 35 crore, of which Rs 22 crore has already been spent. "We will have a lot of new shows. Our number of live hours will increase, hence this market budget for next year,” he said.

ALTBalaji is heavily relying on digital channel to acquire subscribers. And, 90% of its marketing budget is going towards the digital channel.

ALTBalaji is already integrated with streaming device Roku and Yupp TV, and has tie-ups with billing tie-ups with Mobikwik and JioMoney. It also has a partnership with Ola for its connected car platform.

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