MUMBAI: Eros International PLC (NYSE: EROS) (“Eros”) announced today that Eros Now’s cutting-edge digital over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform has reached 80 million registered users and five million paying subscribers worldwide as of 31 December 2017, over 150 per cent growth, up from two million at the end of CY 2016.

Eros International Plc’s Eros Now is a leading on-demand South Asian entertainment network accessible anytime, anywhere, on the most Internet-connected screen including mobile, web and TV. It provides one of the largest libraries of music videos and audio tracks along with movies and premium television shows.

Thriving on its platform-agnostic strategy, Eros Now has partnered with leading players worldwide to expand its offerings, including Amazon Channels across the US and UK, Roku in the United States, Canada and UK and T-Mobile in the United States. The Company most recently partnered with LG for its Smart TVs worldwide.

With exponential growth and data consumption in the Indian telecom industry, combined with huge investments made in the sector, India is now the second largest telecom industry in the world. Eros Now, through its partnership with major Indian telecom players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and others, continues to be one of the fastest growing OTT entertainment platforms capturing an increasingly connected consumer audience in India.

The existing partnership deals with the leading telecom operators, mobile wallets and OEMs all serve to underpin the company’s paying subscriber targets at an expected average annual ARPU of $5 in India and average annual ARPU of $35 internationally. Eros Now is on track to achieving its FY18 target of 6 to 8 million paying subscribers and expects to double that base by FY19.

Commenting on the occasion, Eros Digital CEO Rishika Lulla Singh says, “Our dual strategy of direct-to-consumer offerings and distributing Eros Now through leading apps across telecom operators and OEMs continues to drive our exponential growth. With the launch of 4G in India, Eros is uniquely positioned to capture the growth given its premium content offerings.  I am also excited as our originals go live soon, which will not only aid our subscriber growth but also further consolidate our leadership position.”