NAB: Indian Content Site Partners in Prep for Summer Launch

Focused content provider GluTV, which has created a Web site with Indian television, music videos and Bollywood movies, has partnered with the Platform, Spotxchange and Akamai Technologies Inc. to ensure a smooth upcoming launch later this summer.

The partnerships were detailed and discussed at the NAB conference.

The entertainment destination’s choices highlight the importance of streamlined video publishing, targeted online advertising and content delivery integrated to streamline core operational and business processes and call attention to what’s required to bring content to a Web site and monetize it.

“To achieve our goal of bringing high-quality Indian movies and television to the 20 million Indians living outside of India, we needed best-in-class infrastructure solutions that were scalable, flexible and reliable,” said S. G. Sangameswara, co-founder and CEO of GluTV. “Our partners have helped us set a new standard in Internet video delivery and create a powerful entertainment and advertising platform.”

Sites such as GluTV present direct and dangerous competition too service providers, especially newer telco entrants that are still looking to evolve their business models beyond a subscription and pay movie base to include targeted ads for companies that are increasingly looking to take more dollars to the Web world.

GluTV claims to be the first Internet site to offer licensed, premium Indian programming, with thousands of full-length shows available on a high-quality full screen, without pop-ups, downloads or the risk of computer viruses.

The service does not require long-term contracts and will be offered at a fraction of the price of cable or satellite, according to the company. GluTV's currently accepting a limited number of beta subscribers.

The site’s programming service provides an alternative to telco TV, cable and satellite-delivered content service, essentially bypassing them with focused content, raising the question of whether GluTV will keep viewers away from the content aggregators’ video services or look to syndicate its content to them.

While these network operators constantly emphasize the need for and importance of what they call “niche content,” precious little online video has made it onto their programming menus. A sizable and focused demographic should also prove quite alluring to targeted advertisers.

The site benefits from focused content and a focused demographic, while previous Web video sites have struggled with pure ad-based models from only having the former, forcing them to turn to content syndication to larger sites for the bulk of their revenue.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines