Intending
to spark a billion imaginations, Star India, one of India’s leading
entertainment broadcasters, selected Accenture to help develop, launch
and deliver its over-the-air programming to India’s online,
digitally-enabled consumers on almost any mobile device. Called hotstar, the innovative service debuted on January 7 through Star India’s wholly owned subsidiary, and when fully deployed will be available to India’s entire population.
The innovative hotstar service,
built on the Accenture Video Solution (AVS) software platform, will be
funded primarily through advertising, using the platform’s new digital
advertising functions. Taking advantage of a fully cloud-based
infrastructure, hotstar will be able to serve the entire country with a catalogue of more than 45,000 movies and television series.
Accenture
helped Star India develop and launch the online video service to
establish India’s largest online entertainment destination by building
on a “mobile first” strategy. Leveraging AVS, Star can deliver
broadcast-quality content to consumers on a wide variety of devices over
Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G and 2G networks, including those with limited bandwidth
resources such as 2G feature phones.
“With
hotstar, our ambition is nothing less than the establishment of a whole
new model for on demand video consumption in the world,” said Sanjay
Gupta, Star India COO. “We will drive dramatic innovation on this
platform with benefits for both users and advertisers. Accenture has
been a valuable partner in this effort. They are walking side by side
with us in creating this compelling platform, bringing the best of their
product and technology expertise to the table. Together, we will
establish compelling new benchmarks in the Over the Top space.”
In addition to service delivery, Accenture is managing the hotstar operations
around the clock utilizing the client’s on-site team in Hyderabad and
Accenture’s Global Video Operations Center in the Philippines. The
service supports more than 7,000 different digital devices with its
mobile-friendly platform, which delivers video streaming and downloads
in any of India’s urban and suburban areas. The powerful AVS analytics
engine will also provide Star with the capability to predict and help
drive user behaviors with personalized content recommendations.
Last Feb. 15, hotstar, along with starsports, its digital platform counterpart, served
more than 25 million video views during an Indian-Pakistan cricket
match to make it the most watched sports event online of all time.
“By
creating a digital video service available on multiple screens, Star
has secured its status as India’s most advanced next-generation content
provider,” said Ashish Khanna, managing director for Accenture’s
Communications, Media & Technology operating group in India. “It is
one of the first services globally to offer entertainment, movies and
sports on a single platform for free while enabling new consumption
models. This provides consumers access to a rich catalogue of content
delivered online with interactive advertising formats that provide
multiple opportunities for content monetization by Star’s advertisers
and we’re excited to be Star’s delivery partner.”
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