Eros Digital eyes to reach 200 million paying subscribers in 7 years: CEO

Eros Now is the largest subscription driven OTT (over the top) app in India along with Netflix. Last month, the company hit 13 million paying subscribers of 128 million. Eros Now’s parent firm, the $261-million Eros International, India’s largest studio, reported $85 million as revenues from its digital businesses. This includes syndication to other digital platforms. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to Rishika Lulla Singh, chief executive officer (CEO), Eros Digital, on what this means. Edited excerpts:

What is working for Eros?

This is something like the iceberg theory. What you are seeing is only what is rising. We got into film in 1977. There is so much of history and number of years that have gone into building our library. We have the best distributed OTT app in India with 50 international partners and global deals. For example, Amazon is our global partner, we are the most preferred partner for Roku, and we are live and pre-embedded on LG TV. The other set of distribution partners are telcos. We see ourselves taking a large share of the SVoD pie (subscription video on demand) with more distribution in smaller towns. It has taken time to set up this distribution. There is a library of 11,000 films across nine languages at a pricing between Rs 50 and Rs 100. That is what allows us to achieve scale in our niche, which is movies. 

What are the challenges in building an OTT business in India?

In 2011, we realised that we had one of the biggest libraries and wanted to figure out how to monetise it. (Eros Now launched in 2012). Therefore, we shifted to a fully integrated studio. And, became a more technologically-driven company. Now, we have 50 people in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and San Francisco, who are our tech-team. We have built our own backend. About one-fourth of our team is tech. In the early days, there was an issue with infrastructure but after the launch of Jio in 2016, that has changed. So, with a strong tech and library, we could ride the wave. Also, we had to tweak pricing to arrive at Rs 50 and Rs 100. We have a dream of reaching 200 million paying subscribers in seven years. And, we are working towards it. We have had a 200 per cent increase in subscribers annually. Piracy is a challenge, so how do you increase ARPUs in the long run. 

How many of those 13 million paying subscribers are from India?

We don’t share country-wise splits but you could say they are skewed towards India. 

You have a very strong movie library, but is there pressure to diversify? 

Our original cinematic long series Side Hero (September) and Smoke (October) were launched this year. Side Hero is rated 8.8 and Smoke 9 on IMDB. Smoke was chosen for screening at Cannes. Over the next 18 months, we will be doing 100 originals ranging from 200-minute episodic series to 40 minutes and one hour. In addition, there is a lot of other original short form content on the platform. Our studio is the funnel for Eros Now with 50-60 films a year (either produced or acquired). So, we have 52 premieres a year. 

Eros Now and Netflix are the only pay OTT brands with any scale. How do you place yourself in this market? 

Netflix started as a DVD firm and is now trying to become a studio. Eros is a 40-year-old studio. We are investing in infrastructure and technology. Our legacy business is pure content. Eros Now is pure tech. So, we are marrying the two.