Intending to spark a billion imaginations, Star India, one of India’s leading entertainment broadcasters, selected Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to help develop, launch and deliver its over-the-air programming to India’s online, digitally-enabled consumers on almost any mobile device. Called hotstar, the innovative service debuted on January 7 through Star India’s wholly owned subsidiary, and when fully deployed will be available to India’s entire population.
The innovative hotstar service, built on the Accenture Video Solution (AVS) software platform, will be funded primarily through advertising, using the platform’s new digital advertising functions. Taking advantage of a fully cloud-based infrastructure, hotstar will be able to serve the entire country with a catalogue of more than 45,000 movies and television series.
Accenture helped Star India develop and launch the online video service to establish India’s largest online entertainment destination by building on a “mobile first” strategy. Leveraging AVS, Star can deliver broadcast-quality content to consumers on a wide variety of devices over Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G and 2G networks, including those with limited bandwidth resources such as 2G feature phones.
“With hotstar, our ambition is nothing less than the establishment of a whole new model for on demand video consumption in the world,” said Sanjay Gupta, Star India COO. “We will drive dramatic innovation on this platform with benefits for both users and advertisers. Accenture has been a valuable partner in this effort. They are walking side by side with us in creating this compelling platform, bringing the best of their product and technology expertise to the table. Together, we will establish compelling new benchmarks in the Over the Top space.”
In addition to service delivery, Accenture is managing the hotstar operations around the clock utilizing the client’s on-site team in Hyderabad and Accenture’s Global Video Operations Center in the Philippines. The service supports more than 7,000 different digital devices with its mobile-friendly platform, which delivers video streaming and downloads in any of India’s urban and suburban areas. The powerful AVS analytics engine will also provide Star with the capability to predict and help drive user behaviors with personalized content recommendations.
Last Feb. 15, hotstar, along with starsports, its digital platform counterpart, served more than 25 million video views during an Indian-Pakistan cricket match to make it the most watched sports event online of all time.
“By creating a digital video service available on multiple screens, Star has secured its status as India’s most advanced next-generation content provider,” said Ashish Khanna, managing director for Accenture’s Communications, Media & Technology operating group in India. “It is one of the first services globally to offer entertainment, movies and sports on a single platform for free while enabling new consumption models. This provides consumers access to a rich catalogue of content delivered online with interactive advertising formats that provide multiple opportunities for content monetization by Star’s advertisers and we’re excited to be Star’s delivery partner.”
