India Gets Another VoD Service; Viacom18 & Reliance Launch voot

By Abhishek Joshi On Apr 1, 2016

India has had services that replicated Netflix, and a lot have only picked up pace in the past one year, owing to digitization and growth of Internet in India. About six months back we had reported that Reliance Industries is planning to launch Voot, and it has finally made it to public.

Launched as a 50:50 joint venture between Viacom18 and Reliance Industries, Voot is a video-on-demand service, just like Hotstar, Spuul and BoxTV, and offers plethora of video content online. Online video viewing is on the rise and this is the best time for any company to enter the market.

Sudhanshu Vats, Group Chief Executive at Viacom18, said, “This market is at the cusp of a digital boom with over 400 million Internet users and over 200 million smartphone users spending significant amount of time online with entertainment and allied content being the prime driver.”

There will be shows in every format and variety of genres. Viewers will be able to enjoy long and short videos both, from large organisations like MTV, Colors and Nick. Viacom18 has ensured there is content for both kids and adults alike. On one hand there will be the regular cartoons and on the other hand there will be daily soaps and comedy shows available online.

What sets Voot apart from its competitors?

To be frank, the service is exactly like its competitors. However, as a differentiator, Voot wants to create original content that is not available elsewhere. Exactly how Netflix does. Voot wants to go beyond being just aggregator of content, but want to content creator itself.

Digital advertising on video-on-demand services is expected to be a 1 Billion USD Industry by 2020, which makes it extremely important to tap into. Once the market also matures, Voot could get subscription models like Netflix and Spuul.

If you’re already subscribed to one of the other video-on-demand services, it is better to stay put. Voot is currently in the initial stages and nothing much that differentiates them from others. In case you’re a newbie in this industry, you might as well check out Voot and compare the shows available on different platforms.