Bigflicks.com - Anil Ambani’s bet on home video market

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has launched its Video on Demand online service, Bigflicks.com. Initially the website will cater to NRIs around the world and make them access Indian movies for a fee.

By the end of FY2008, Bigflicks will also open 100 retail stores which will rent movies and also sell DVDs and VCDs. In 3 years, the number of outlets would go upto 500 and they would primarily function as neighbourhood stores.

The revenue model is based on downloading on rent or owning a title without advertisement, while the other model offer free online streaming with advertisements. These advertisements would be in two ways – pre-roll where ads are shown at the beginning of movie while in post-roll ads are shown in the middle of the film.

Anil Ambani is investing $100 million on the project, of which 75% is for offline venture and rest for online. In India, the online venture would gain steam once the broadband penetration increases, and may offer great potential as a Hollywood movie generates more revenues through home entertainment than through theatrical distribution.

The titles on Bigflicks would be a mix of TV serials, music videos, Hollywood and other international movies, Bollywood and regional films. Also, Zoom TV and NDTV may show their content.

ADAG would benefit by its presence in entertainment genre and can creat synergy from its ventures in FM radio (BIG FM), film production (Adlabs), gaming portal (Zapak), Big Music and Adlabs Synergy.