By Telecom Lead Team: Mobile TV in India is growing,
as more and more people are opting for high-end handsets. People go online to
watch their favorite content on television, as they get less time to watch
scheduled programming. Zenga TV is one of the mobile TV
providers, which has seen a massive growth in terms of viewership in India.
In an interview with Telecom Lead, Shabir Momin, CEO
of Zenga TV said that mobile TV in India is set to
grow further. For Zenga TV there is no limitation of speed for
its users to watch TV online, as they offer uninterrupted services on
2G speed.
Low 3G penetration rate has greatly contributed to
Zenga TV growth.
At the launch of 3G, operators and handset manufacturer
were talking about providing live video on handsets over internet; hence lot of
awareness was created. But, the 3G services didn’t meet the expectations
and Zenga TV being available on 2G become boon for the company,”
said Shabir Momin, chief executive officer of Zenga TV.
Launch of 3G services led to the price reduction in 2G
data plans, which allowed consumers to watch TV at lower prices.
However, if 3G services improve then, the company will be benefitted, as they
will be able to offer TV content in better quality.
2G will remain the base for providing content over mobile
phones because presently every network operator has its 2G services running
smoothly. The company has managed to offer mobile TV content over
20kbps, which is the success mantra of the organization.
The company has developed its own platforms, streaming
engine, encoding engine and add identification system to offer better and
unique services to remain at par with other.
While sharing the company’s performance in 2011, Momin
said that consumption of content on Zenga TV has increased
because the company added more contact.
Zenga TV has got out from the mobile app
concept and offers content through a free and open platform, where there is no
need to install any software to view any content. The company dropped the
mobile app and moves on the server part because it consumes lot of R&D
effort, as it needs to make compatible apps for every newly launched handset.
Last year, the company achieved 6.5 million per month on
an average and grabbed 55 million unique users per month. This year, the
company has already crossed 7 million unique viewers per month.
Recently, Zenga TV announced that it
achieved a phenomenal 421 million video views across different channels
compared to less than 150 million video views in 2010.
Zenga TV has been profitable since its
inception. Last year the company earned revenue of $3 million and this year the
company is expecting around $15 million in terms of revenue.
The company has just introduced its website, which offers
web TV and it is also looking to add more content. The company has
already crossed 100 channels now and looking to cross 200-250 channels by the
end of this year.
The website already has 10,000 movies and looking to
increase the numbers both in terms of bollywood and regional movies. Viewership
of movies on Zenga TV is almost at par with viewership of
channels. Zenga TV offers movies from Reliance and UTV bouquet.
The company is planning to introduce Hollywood movies
along with the content from European, Middle – eastern and Australian region
through Zenga TV. Furthermore, the company is expanding its
collection with old Hindi movies that are not generally available with
websites.
Zenga TV has also introduced its news channel,
in collaboration with Newzstreet.com for its website and
mobile TV services. Newzstreet specifically generate content
for Zenga TV.
In terms of business model, the CEO affirmed that the
company has no competition as such. But, in terms of video viewing it is competing
with all the service providers and at technology aspect Apalya is the
competitor of the company.
The company is looking to acquire more content this year,
which is a part of its expansion plan. Also, the company has its R&D team
that innovate new technology for the website and mobile services.
Globally the company has manpower of 200 people and in
Delhi it has close to 55 personnel working.
Danish Khan
[email protected]
