UTV New Media's Audio Cinema creates a wave

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shivam

02 March, 2010

UTV New Media Ltd, the digital arm of UTV, has announced that they have witnessed an unprecedented growth with their first of its kind movie-on-your-phone service, Audio Cinema, with the overall number already clocking over 1.3 million subscribers.

UTV New Media Ltd announced that they have witnessed an unprecedented growth with their first of its kind movie-on-your-phone service, Audio Cinema, with the overall number already clocking over 1.3 million subscribers in just eight months of launch. Uttar Pradesh is a key market and in the month of January alone, has garnered around six lakh subscribers across operators making this service a phenomenal success in this region.

Audio Cinema is a service which offers movie enthusiasts, an abridged audio version of their favourite movies with dialogues, peppered with narration, along with the gist of the story. At affordable per-minute prices depending on the operator, the service can be availed by mobile phone and landline users by dialing in to 505999555.

Amongst the Uttar Pradesh audiences, the popular Audio Cinema movies’ list includes blockbusters such as Sholay, Hum, Tezaab, Ramayana via capsule based releases (Hindi). Audio Cinema has movie buffs hooked on to their phones with new movies released after every four days.

IDEA Cellular is one of the leading mobile operators which offer ‘Audio Cinema’ to its large base of subscribers in the region.

Commenting on the success of Audio Cinema on their network, Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, IDEA Cellular, said, “Unique and attractive value added services help in building deeper connect with mobile consumers. IDEA has always supported innovation and offers a range of value added services designed around music and cinema. Considering the immense potential for movie based content in this country, we partnered with UTV to offer ‘Audio Cinema’ on our network. IDEA subscribers have shown keen interest in the product and I am confident that the off-take of this service will continue to grow, especially in the Hindi dominated markets.”

Talking about the scope of Audio Cinema in Uttar Pradesh, Manish Agarwal, chief executive officer, UTV New Media said, “India is a Bollywood crazy nation and with the mobile penetration in India witnessing a constantly rise – Audio Cinema is a perfect product to blend both these factors, opening up yet another entertainment avenue for our audiences. Such is the potential of this service, that we have the large telecom players claiming that Audio Cinema the next big thing on mobile after caller ring back tones (CRBTs). We are happy to partner with IDEA to make this service available for its subscribers in the region.”

“There is huge demand and market for this product in the Uttar Pradesh, especially in Lucknow. Releasing movies in this market has yielded amazing results, with movies like Sholay, Hum, Tezaab proving to be undefeated blockbusters amongst the users. With this service, we have successfully managed to reach out to all the movie crazy but busy buffs with their favourite movies, on the go,” he added.

Audio Cinema is available through various service providers including IDEA, Airtel and Reliance. As few of the innovative features associated with this initiative, users can fast forward, rewind the movie and also go back to the menu for the films listing. Listeners can choose their preference from a long list of film titles, coupled with their preferred language option, anytime, anywhere.