Streaming and gaming: AyeVee's offering bridges two fast-growing markets

An Indian firm has become the first to offer viewers the chance to play a game within a streaming show. Can it work?

This report has been updated
Kavitha has been murdered. Her body lies in her office when the police led by Inspector Dev walk in. Over the next 45 minutes, his investigation is a show you watch. It is also a game you play. There are clues, suspects, handwriting samples as you build up a case. Before you know it you have seen and played ‘Who Killed Kavitha’ on Asiaville’s app AyeVee. ‘Let Me Out’ is another story where you are trapped with four friends and need to play to escape. Since their launch in 2023 these ‘shows’ have been watched and played in either Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi by 110,000 users who spent an average of 55 minutes on them. 

“We are building a platform for gaming entertainment. Interactive content is the natural evolution of content,” says Tuhin Menon, co-founder and chief executive officer of Chennai-based Asiaville Interactive. It has just patented AIGE or AyeVee Interactive Gaming Experience, the technology behind this marriage of gaming and fiction; also known as an ‘immersive gamified experience’.

“The two closest matches (to what AyeVee is doing) would be ‘Bandersnatch’, an episode of the Netflix series ‘Black Mirror’ (an interactive film within the series) in 2018 and ‘Rival Peak’ (a three-month interactive experience on the eponymous show), from 2020,” says Dom Tait, research director, games, music, consumer platforms, AI, (Media and Entertainment, M&E), Omdia. 

“Interactivity is here to stay and it will go far as connected TVs (internet-enabled smart TVs) take off,” says Ashish Pherwani, M&E sector leader, EY India. He points to second screen-interactivity, a trend that has been alive since 2017. On ‘KBC’ (Kaun Banega Crorepati), ‘Indian Idol’, ‘Singing Star’ or the Indian Premier League among others, broadcasters have been using gaming to propel reach and revenues. Then there are the dozens of instances of games becoming movies (‘Fallout’ on Amazon Prime Video) or movies becoming games (‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’). 

This, however, is about watching a show or a film and gaming within it, on the same screen. “Television is a lean back medium; video gaming is about leaning in. If you can make television (smart TV) about lean in, there is huge potential,” reckons Tait. That is because it combines two very high growth areas – gaming and streaming video. According to Omdia data, gaming made a massive $238 billion globally in advertising and pay revenues in 2023. It is second only to online video which got $330 billion in (ad and pay) revenues in the same year. In India, streaming video made Rs 30,000 crore in ad and pay revenue last year and online gaming did about Rs 22,000 crore. Both are growing in double digits. “AyeVee is positioned to address both cohorts,” says Menon. 

What’s the game

Sashi Kumar, a journalist, filmmaker and TV anchor, is better known for setting up the Asian College of Journalism. In 2018 he along with Menon, a veteran of BBC and Disney among other firms, set up Asiaville. The digital media venture, funded by high net-worth individuals that Menon does not name, has been making Malayalam and Tamil videos targeted at the young on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube since 2019. Asiaville reaches 120 million users every month across these platforms. Then there is a whole range of audio series– ‘Death, Lies and Cyanide’, ‘The Nanda Devi Mystery’ among others – that have been made for Spotify and Audible. And it is also working on two fiction shows, one each of Disney+Hotstar and SonyLIV. Menon claims Asiaville has an ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of 25 per cent. 

Early in 2023 the New York-based Media Development Investment fund put in $1.25 million into Asiaville, taking the total it has raised so far to $3.5 million (Rs 28 crore). That is also the year AyeVee was launched. 

AI plot

“We want to be the Netflix or Amazon Prime Video of this space,” says Menon. To reach there Asiaville needs capital to make shows at volume, across markets, genres and languages. A show like ‘Who Killed Kavita’ using AIGE takes a month to make and can have only one ending, as it is shot like any live stream show. The firm is experimenting with using artificial intelligence (AI) to create interactive stories with virtual characters and different storylines depending on how you play the game. With AI, “we could be doing 50-100 stories a month with the AIGE shows being the premium offering,” says Menon. To scale up on content production, Asiaville will be raising anywhere from $5-10 million (Rs 41-82 crore) in its series A funding.

The firm is looking at three monetisation streams. ‘Who Killed Kavitha’ is sponsored by Belkin, a mobile and computer accessories firm. ‘Let Me Out’ by IFI Homes (a home décor firm) and Oxygen Mobiles. All future shows will seek a sponsor which helps pay for the production and marketing costs. Second is the plan to put some parts of the service behind a pay-wall ranging from Rs 10-50 per user to watch/play a show. “We are at 110,000 monthly active users. If we reach a million and even if 10 per cent of those pay Rs 50 each, that is Rs 50 lakh. (And third) there is branded content,” says Menon. Asiaville makes AIGE-based games for several brands, giving it another revenue stream on the side. “We see AyeVee operationally breaking even by the first quarter of FY26,” he says.