Although paid for movie downloads are the rage worldwide, legal film downloads in India are still at a nascent stage. The Indian film industry produces 1,000 movie titles -- 300 of which are made in Mumbai. However, Web piracy has been chomping into the Indian film industry’s profits, leading to a 50% revenue loss, according to industry insiders. Globally, according to an Adams Media Research study released in January 2007, the annual consumer spend on internet downloads of movies and TV shows will top $4 billion in 2011, up from $111 million in 2006. The study also predicts that the ad spend on Internet video streams to PCs or TVs is expected to be $1.7 billion by 2011.
Most Indian film industry experts and filmmakers feel net downloads have the potential to become a significant source of revenue, connectivity problems notwithstanding. However, there are major hurdles in achieving the Internet’s true potential because of myriad factors that include expensive legal download prices.
Sunil Thakur, CEO of wahindia.com, says, “Most of the current technological advances are focused on delivering video content to your TV screen by leveraging Internet broadband technology. Now, Indians are downloading films and videos from all over the world and many of them are paying in US dollars to view the content.” Indians, for instance, are among the top consumers at rapidshare.com, a site that allows free download of content, as also of YouTube. The major problem is the resistance of the film and TV industry to putting their content online.
Eros International, which owns 1,300 movie titles, offers video-on-demand through www.bondemand.tv. It also has an alliance with Microsoft, under which consumers with a Microsoft media centre edition PC and Intel ViiV technology can connect wirelessly to any big screen. The main market for net downloads is the NRI market. The US, Canada and UK constitute over 70% of total global online movie revenues. Rajjat Barjatya, MD of Rajshri Films, claims that their online downloads have come from lesser-known markets like Tunisia, Finland and Norway.
For NRI consumers, broadband downloads work out cheaper than going to see a movie in a theatre. In the US, a ticket for a Bollywood film could cost between $8 and $15. Online consumers can rent a film from official movie sites belonging to Yash Raj, Dharma Productions or Rajshri for anything between $9.99 and $12 for the entire family. Eros movie download rentals in the US are cheaper: $4-$9.
For advertisers, marketing movies online means reaching an audience that is young, willing to spend and tech-savvy. An online survey of 6,200 Internet users and their media habits by the Internet & Mobile Association of India found that 90% of surfers used the net for information about movies.
In fact, 13% of respondents chose to watch a movie after viewing an online trailer. Pritish Nandy, CEO, Pritish Nandy Communications, says, “The Internet is one of the strongest and most effective means of promoting films worldwide. Indian producers and marketers are also discovering this.
The medium is much more effective than the backs of buses, hoardings and cluttered newsprint. Television, in any case, is a hit-or-miss medium and there is too much fragmentation. On the Internet, you get the audience you want, at an affordable cost.”
In 2003, Indian filmmakers offered Internet movie downloads on Kazaa.com to boost Bollywood revenues. The first ever download was Padamkumar’s Supari, for $2.99 on Kazaa. The file was programmed to self-destruct after being viewed and could not be copied. Film website Indiafm, for example, is planning to offer songs or movies on a pay-per-view basis, besides promoting films and helping create websites for films.
Says Mahesh Ramanathan, CEO, Percept Pictures, “India has almost 3 million broadband connections. Advances in technology will only felicitate the growth of the Internet as a medium, so the potential is huge.”
More than being cost-effective, downloading films online is a convenient option for non-resident Indians and it curbs piracy. “Online movie downloads should be cheaper than watching a film in a theatre, only then will people want to opt for it. Movie downloads online work better for the NRI audience that has less access to movies and might take the pirated option or illegal downloads for want of legal alternatives,” says Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Senior VP, UTV.
Movie companies have started going beyond setting up official websites to offer competitive and interactive offerings. Hollywood earns a sizeable chunk of revenue from movie downloads and online ticket sales. In India, however, film lovers face the problem of low bandwidths, which often makes downloading Bollywood movies from a portal a tedious, time-consuming process.
The Internet, therefore, is still considered a nascent market. Says Thakur of wahindia: “The Internet market will not even be a fraction of what films would make from theatre, DVD, TV and satellite rights, so we are talking about a market that will take 7-10 years to develop if the right dynamics are in place.”