Techzone MD and CEO Naveen Bhandari

Eros partnership

The partnership with Eros is a very strategic one, where Eros gets an extended arm into the mobile telecom space instantly by using Techzone’s platforms and relations, and Techzone has a continual flow of content.
 
Eros, a leader in its own space, has its roots in film production, distribution in India and worldwide, and also into web domain. Now with Techzone, it is an instant entry into the mobile VAS space. 
 
Other partnerships
 
All our partnerships are still intact and nothing has been hampered. We continue to function as we did before. Our focus is on media houses, music monetisation and expanding in the regional content space. Earlier, only a portion of it was regional, but with Eros going regional, we will get stronger in that space. We will also be monetising the music and movie content too. 
 
Content
 
We continue our association with large audio labels like Sony Music, Muzik 247 and others. Now Eros has launched its own music label and has made a strong presence in the music space through the acquisition of more movies in Bollywood and regional domain. It had recently acquired the music of ‘Lingaa’, which is a Rajinikanth film, and this was digitally exploited by Techzone at the start of this strategic partnership. 
 
Film Apps
 
As always, Techzone continues to develop film based apps for its partners. In the case of Eros, they already have their own app (Eros Now) and most of the newly acquired film music is updated on this app. Plans for this app include revamping end to end, which is close to completion, and will soon be re-launched.
Our aim is to monetise our partners’ content through various new initiatives, methods and channels. We now also offer our expertise and strength to Eros for unique promotions and marketing of films.
 
2014 for Techzone
 
2014 witnessed a fairly decent growth, despite a slump in the industry which is quite an achievement. 
 
Trends that started in 2014 and continued to 2015
 
After the double consent processes implemented by TRAI, we have planned our promotions and offerings to subscribers in order to reduce the impact on our revenue. As always, our offerings and innovations have continued to ensure subscribers continue to stay with the service.  
Techzone is now launching its own full length movie portal on WAP which itself is a breakthrough launch of a new service. The highlight of this service is offering HD quality movies to be streamed on WAP.
 
The Eros Now movie portal on WAP is a first of its kind in India offering streaming of full length movies in HD quality.
 
Moving forward, telcos should launch special data packages for full length movie services, which is an important element to ensure the success of these heavy data driven services. 
 
Regional space
 
Eros has also added to its focus area, regional content acquisition. It has started with Tamil and Malayalam films and music, and plans to enter other domains as well. 
 
Eros is already an established brand in the Bollywood space, and the idea now is to make Eros a pan India relevant brand. Regional movies are an important element for this plan to be a success. 

Trends in Bollywood space
 
Eros continues to offer its expertise in the Bollywood domain, and 2015 looks bright with the slate of films that are lined up. We are looking forward to the same.
 
2015
 
We are looking at an upswing in 2015, and also plan to go international in terms of content distribution and monetisation on digital platforms in overseas markets. We will be expanding to over 15-20 countries this year and adding new teleco partners there. We are already available in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri-Lanka. In the course of the next three months, we should reach 6-9 more countries.
 
This association will help us strengthen our distribution of content on mobile VAS and OTT services. It is strategic to swiftly make this move. 

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Techzone, which was established in 1999 by Bhandari, is an aggregator, developer and distributor of entertainment content via mobile platforms in India. The company has come a long way under his leadership. It is particularly focused on Bollywood films and music markets and has significant region-specific content in Tamil and Telugu.