Telecom operators rake in on Slumdog success

Celebrations after India’s Oscar moment refuse to die down. Now, it is the telecom services providers who are laughing their way to banks, thanks to the Slumdog Millionaire’s Oscar sweep. The sudden spurt in demand for the movie’s mobile content, especially the song ‘Jai Ho’, has set the cash registers ringing for telecom operators.

The song, which got music composer AR Rahman awards in the ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Song’ categories, is now high on the top of popular tunes for mobile ringtones and caller tunes.

For instance, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Mobile has already recorded over a quarter million downloads of Slumdog Millionaire caller tunes and ringtones since the film’s nominations and is expecting the download volumes to cross over a million milestone in the next few days.

What’s more in store. Fuelled by the sudden spurt in demand for Slumdog Millionaire’s mobile content, Reliance Mobile is going live with the music of Slumdog Millionaire as well as A R Rahman’s most memorable hits. The company is introducing two special sites loaded extensively with Slumdog Millionaire and A R Rahman content. These two special sites will be accessible through the Hot & New application of R-World. The mobile content on both the sites, called Slumdog Millionaire Zone and A R Rahman Zone, will consist of special wallpapers, ringtones, caller tunes as well as exclusive videos. When contacted, a Reliance Mobile spokesperson confirmed the development.

Similarly, Airtel has so far registered 50,000 downloads of the chartbuster as ringtones. Even as most service providers are opening up new avenues to cater to the latest demand related to the mobile content, subscribers are welcoming them with open arms by downloading, sharing and copying the song since the movie went to the Oscars.

While a Vodafone spokesperson said that the company was still analysing data related to the popularity of the song from Slumdog Millionaire, he said, “There is definitely a spurt in the number of subscribers downloading ringtones and availing caller tunes since the last 3-4 days.”

Airtel’s Hello Tune service comes with a rental of Rs 30 per month. The service is also backed with content, including the latest Hindi and English songs priced at Rs 15 per download. Similarly, Vodafone charges a monthly subscription of Rs 30 for its caller tunes.

According to a survey, value added services (VAS) constitutes 7 per cent of the total telecom revenue of Indian operators. On the other hand, digital music (including CRBT and ringtones) constitutes 35 per cent of the VAS revenue.

The survey further states that operators still dominate the revenue sharing arrangement in VAS.

Of the amount paid by end users, 60-70 per cent is kept by operator, aggregator gets 20-25 per cent and content owner gets 10-15 per cent.