Sony Liv, Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) premium digital video entertainment service has partnered with mobile payments company Fortumo – the partnership will allow Sony Liv to offer Carrier Billing to their users. With this association, more than 580 million subscribers of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel will be able to access videos and movies on Sony LIV by charging payments to their mobile operator’s bill.
Fortumo’s carrier billing solution will enable users to choose specific premium videos or movies that they wish to watch and pay for content using their phone – the payment is either deducted from their prepaid SIM card or charged to the phone bill in case of a postpaid contract. With carrier billing, the users do not need to set up any additional accounts or enter private information to make payments.
If you are no aware of Carrier billing, it essentially means that you pay for any services or app on mobile through your telecom operator. For post-paid users, the amount gets reflected in the monthly bill at the end of the month, and for pre-paid users, the amount is deducted from their balance.
Carrier billing eliminates the need for users to have any other payment methods like Netbanking, Credit or Debit cards etc. It also makes payments very easy.
From app developers perspective, Carrier billing definitely increases the number of transactions done by the users due to ease of use!
In regards to the Uday Sodhi, EVP and Head -Digital Business, MSM: “Direct Carrier billing helps viewers of Sony LIV to pay easily for their content consumption without a debit or a credit card. Fortumo was identified as the perfect synergistic match for Sony LIV due to its impressive background of powering payments for some of Asia Pacific’s leading digital content players. The tie-up with Fortumo will enable us to take our Video-On-Demand (VoD) service to an even larger audience.”
Fortumo has forged number of partnerships since they opened their Carrier billing platform for mobile developers in India in 2013. They now have a dedicated Indian office and have partnered with various digital content providers including Box TV, Ditto TV, Tensports, Gaana, Octro Teen Patti among others.
