Celebrities forge new media ties

Companies like Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and UTV New Media, which provide new media services, are signing exclusive deals with celebrities to develop websites, applications and interactive platforms for the mobile space.

Hungama, for instance, has signed a deal with Bipasha Basu. “The company will provide technology and the distribution platform for the content created by Bipasha Basu. We have designed a website around the proposition on fitness,” says Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO Hungama.

Users will also get access to some exclusive trivia and personal information about Basu if they choose to subscribe to offerings on mobile internet, SMS or her voice blogs. These are value-added services (VAS) and unlike following a celebrity on the Internet, are available for a subscription. Hungama is offering a subscription pack of Rs 30 per month where fans can choose SMS packs on fitness or subscribe to Basu’s voice offering.

UTV New Media, which is also in the business of managing celebrities’ digital presence, has signed exclusive deals with 17 celebrities and is developing websites, applications and interactive platforms for cellphones. “With around 550 million mobile users in the country, we aim to have 10-15 million subscribers across a variety of products over the next two years,” says UTV New Media CEO Manish Agarwal.

Roy, who also chairs the Mobile Entertainment Forum-Asia, says the size of the VAS market in India is around Rs 5,000 crore (excluding SMS). “Around 850 different VAS products are offered by telecom operators and celebrity offerings are too niche, but definitely have a potential to catch on,” he says.

Hungama already has a tie-up with cricketer Yuvraj Singh and has developed a website for him. Apart from subscriptions, the company also earns from the advertisements on the website. “In future brands that these celebrities endorse might decide to advertise on the mobile platform to reach out to the followers of the celebrities. That will be an added revenue stream,” says Roy.

Both Roy and Agarwal affirm that the content to be available on their platforms will be exclusive and distinct from what the celebrities choose to write in their blogs and tweets. The potential is huge. At last count, actors Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan had over half million and over quarter million followers respectively on Twitter alone.

So will celebrities who sign up with these companies now slow down on their blogs and tweets? UTV Group chairman Ronnie Screwvala says, “They will eventually cut down on their interaction on social networking sites as it will help us monetise our offerings.”

Since celebrities earn along with the companies, they might see the logic in numbers and cut down their exposure on Facebook or Twitter.