MUMBAI: India’s leading DTH player Tata Sky has entered into a partnership with a London-based television channel Shorts TV for its new platform Tata Sky ShortsTV.
The newly launched platform is one of a kind in the country, dedicated to curated short stories and films. The subscription price for this service has been fixed at Rs. 75 per month. Along with availability on the telly screen, the service is also available on the mobile app as well as the DTH operator’s website.
“We were always keen to bring beautiful short form content on our platform, but we needed to find the partner who did it right. That’s how we found Shorts TV team who really knew how to curate short films properly,” Tata Sky chief content officer Arun Unni said, announcing the launch of the new service here yesterday.
Shorts International Ltd chief executive Carter Pilcher, who mentioned they had scouted for other Indian partners, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata Sky. They’re India’s cutting-edge content distributor and as their launch of Tata Sky ShortsTV proves, they’re way ahead of the crowd.”
Pilcher added that the new Tata Sky ShortsTV service was a good addition to the DTH operator’s value-added services portfolio and will be a “huge success with millennial audiences”.
ShortsTV has also partnered with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films to bring a flood of India’s most original and powerful short films to the Tata Sky platform.
The curated platform will feature a line-up of ,2000 premium titles, including the best of Oscars, Cannes, etc. apart from a comprehensive collection of recent Indian short stories and films. There will be original content in regional languages also. Interestingly, there are also collaborations with some of the Indian film schools, including Hindi film director-producer Subhash Ghai-promoted Whistling Woods.
“Tata Sky ShortsTV aims to be that destination where a curated selection of 2000+ of the world’s best short films can be enjoyed on a 24x7 basis. Our partner has worked hard for more than a year to localize the proposition with 500+ Indian short films,” Unni explained.
Though Unni did not mention the targeted subscriber number, he did admit a good service goes to 10-15 per cent of the relevant base as experience has shown them. “Hence, these statistics guide us for this particular service and its growth potential,” he added.
For promoting the content, Tata Sky will use every available medium to talk to consumers.
Some of the international offerings include God of Love, Bear Story, Atlantic, Henry, Borrowed Time, Curfew, Blood Money, A Sense of History, Neighbours, Walls, Blue Season, Midnight of My Life and Picture Paris. Also featured will be the likes of Chutney, Ahalya, Shunyata, Aamad, Kheer, Arre Baba, Urmi’s Cat, Naughty Amelia Jane, all critically acclaimed films.
Shorts International is headquartered in London and is represented in the US by Shorts Entertainment Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary located in Los Angeles. The company is led by CEO Carter Pilcher, and is owned by Shorts Entertainment Holdings with AMC Networks as a significant minority shareholder.
