In the biggest outreach ever targeting an ethnic community as well as ride on the sudden interest in all things Indian in mainstream society, cable television giants Comcast and Time Warner are offering a selection of classic and contemporary Bollywood movies to six million households across the United States.
Known as Bollywood on Demand/Video on Demand ( BOD VOD) service, the project is a result of collaboration between (212)Media, founded by Neal Shenoy and Vinod Bhat, and Schramm Sports &Entertainment, headed by cable TV veteran, Joe Schramm and his partner, Raphel Eli.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Shenoy said that the BOD VOD service started on a trial basis on August 1, with a total of seven Bollywood movies available for viewing, at the standard rates for pay per view movies, in six million homes with access to digital cable. The selection includes classic and contemporary movies such as Hum Dil De Chukke Sanam and Rangeela.
In the second phase of the project, at a date that has not been decided, a variety of content would be added to BOD VOD, which would also provide music videos, news, cooking, religious and dramatic serials on a VOD menu.
“We are not only catering to the South Asian audiences, but also first-generation viewers from West Africa, the Middle East, and of Eastern European descent, who enjoy Bollywood movies. The cable companies feel the time is ripe to reach out through Bollywood.”
Shenoy says that some 30 hours of programming would be available in the second phase, and they are trying to convince Comcast and Time Warner to offer it free of charge. Schramm is providing the marketing and strategic-distribution support for BOD VOD and (212)Media is responsible for content acquisition and programming.
Schramm says that the launching of BOD VOD is similar to Hispanic channels, which are now a staple of the cable.
“While we built our Hispanic offering for cable operators, they also asked us about ways in which we could help them to reach South Asian audiences. This is a natural evolution of business to attract a variety of ethnic subscribers and reduce churn,” says Schraamm.
