Eros Now is launching a new English-language streaming service, Eros Now Prime, in South Asia and NBCUniversal has signed on to supply some content.
Eros Now already has 26.2 million paid monthly subscribers and 187 million registered users coming from more than 150 countries. Now the company is launching a complementary English-language service and it said that the multiyear deal with NBCU is “only the first step in our Eros Now Prime journey.”
Eros Now Prime will be available on all existing Eros Now platforms, and is scheduled to launch in June 2020. It will be available as a monthly offering priced at INR 49 and annually priced at INR 399 for six months from its launch date. Following this introductory offer Eros Now Prime will be available for a stand-alone price of INR 79 per month and INR 799 annually.
NBCUniversal will provide children’s entertainment, scripted and unscripted television series including “Will and Grace,” “New Amsterdam” and “Suits.”
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Eros Now said that currently about 40% of India’s internet population is based in the Metro and mini-Metros, which essentially constitute 90% of the English-speaking population in the country. Eros Now has previously skewed more towards Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India, but with the upcoming launch of Eros Now Prime, the company said its overall content offering will be more diverse.
Eros Now also said the work it’s doing with Microsoft on dynamic language and voice will allow for Indic audiences in the country to be able to watch Eros Now Prime shows in their native languages, something the company said could increase distribution of Hollywood content in the country.
“With growing focus on regional language and local content to cater to the next billion user market, we are addressing users who increasingly view themselves as ‘global citizens’ and aspire to connect with places, people, and ideas beyond their locale. This will influence the persistence of English-language content, films, music consumption and networking on social media,” said Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh in a statement. “Both entities have created path breaking content masterpieces which have truly entertained our esteemed audiences. This agreement between Eros Now and NBCUniversal plays to each partner’s individual strength and the consumer is the ultimate winner. We are confident that this collaboration will be a fruitful one, supporting our strategy to continue to scale our business and create value for all our stakeholders.”