Updated: Bollywood Betting Heavily On Internet, Gaming For Promotions

An overview of Bollywood using the Internet to engage new audiences, and probably prevent the youth from tuning off can be read here, at the Financial Express. A few excerpts:
– People using the Internet are twice as likely to watch movies in multiplexes, according to Rajnish R, Head of Digital Marketing, Revenue & Strategic Business, MSN India. The message remains longer than a 30 second TVC.
– “…according to recent research, visitors spend an estimated 14-32 minutes on a movie site.” Nikhil Panchamiya, producer of Anthony Kaun Hai says that it’s a medium for reaching out to an urban audience.
– Means of engaging the audience include activities online like games, contests, chats and blogs.
– Depending on traction, Rajshri may consider a subscription based model
– Film websites like http://www.indiafm.com are useful for creating a buzz by releasing trailers, since they have a loyal audience.
http://www.wahindia.com, a US based website offers legal downloads of Bollywood films with download to rent (72 hrs licence) and download to own says that there is a market for legal downloads in spite of the movies being available on p2p networks.

I just think that after a while, producers will have to come up with new ways of engaging the audience. While they’re willing to pay for a website, online promotions and contests – after a while these will become the norm, and differentiation difficult. They might have to increasingly look at social networking portals then for engaging communities, or, as mentioned above, film related websites. Also, doesn’t the exact opposite situation exist in mobile gaming? While producers pay to reach out to engage an online audience, game-creators have to pay producers for making movie related games.

Update:
A separate article in the Financial Express covers gaming as a source of revenue for Bollywood:
– The mobile gaming market in India is pegged at Rs 100 crore.
– The average cost of game development is Rs 5-25 lakh according to Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO Hungama Mobile.
– The biggest challenge faced by the mobile gaming industry is slow networks,

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