Reliance Entertainment sharpens focus on mobile business

Company wants to cash in on ubiquitous nature of mobile phones which provides significant opportunity for monetisation of video content

Reliance Big Entertainment has entered into an alliance with FunOnGo Entertainment to create and distribute entertainment content on mobiles.

FunOnGo is a content curator and licenses value-added service content across movies, music, games, and applications.  

Handset vendors are moving from hardware specifications to user experience to improve market penetration. FunOnGo helps handset makers to set up on-device portals that allow users to browse, purchase, and use content and services.

Sweta Agnihotri, COO, Reliance Big Entertainment says, “We see the mobile phone brands as a fantastic gateway to the consumer. Our team will play an active operational role in this alliance wherein FunOnGo could leverage our understanding of content and industry relationships to amplify its value offering to the consumer.”

She adds that having a legacy of production and home video in Bollywood, the company has access to numerous titles from the industry which will be available in mobile-friendly formats to the consumers. While advertising will remain the main revenue stream, paid content is also expected to contribute to the pie as time moves on. The content will be customised to the mobile platform, with shorter slips of movies, music and other content made available.

Also, targeting the OEM clients will help break the company stay away from the clutter in entertainment related applications on the Android, Windows and/or iOS platforms.

FunOnGo started with being an enabler to smart phone manufactures. Speaking about the business opportunity, Vijay Singh, CEO of FunOnGo said “Until recently, the revenues generated through mobile came from on-deck services offered by telecom companies. Globally, the trend has shifted towards growth of off-deck services that are offered directly to consumers.”