Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Piracy plays spoilsport for Bollywood’s hybrid...


NEW DELHI : The release of Salman Khan’s Radhe recently has proven the Indian entertainment industry has a long way to go before the hybrid or multi-platform film release model can emerge profitable. Slow Internet and lower bandwidths coupled with inadequate viewing infrastructure gives rise to rampant piracy, especially in small-towns that are the primary audience for mass-market films. While Radhe may still have released in overseas cinemas and a handful of theatres in India, direct-to-digital offerings such as Akshay Kumar’s Laxmii and Varun Dhawan’s Coolie No.1 were also illegally played in small-town theatres after their release on Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video respectively last year.

Traditionally, advertising and subscription-led video streaming services have lost up to 30% of their annual revenue to piracy with content being circulated on file-sharing platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp. A film producer admitted on condition of anonymity that he had received at least three links to Radhe on the day of release on Telegram.

“India is at an extremely early stage of OTT penetration and Internet bandwidth is only truly smooth in, say, the top 10-15 cities. Technology-wise, we are decades behind Hollywood where the pay-per-view model has gained ground," film producer, trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar said.

By releasing a film directly on a digital platform, producers are not really expanding market...


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https://dgtlyf.com/piracy-plays-spoilsport-for-bollywoods-hybrid/

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