Times Internet unveils premium online video service BoxTv.com

Times Internet Limited (TIL) has made a foray into an online video service space with the launch of BoxTV.com. It aims to offer paying consumers a one-stop-video destination for movies, TV shows, documentaries, short films and general entertainment content.

“We wanted to be a first mover in the space of premium video service before global majors such as Hulu and Netflix could come in and establish their presence,” said Satyan Ganjwani, CEO, Times Internet Ltd.

He added, “BoxTV.com is unique in a way that it is the only site that focuses on getting international content to Indian users and taking Indian content (both mainstream Bollywood and regional content) to Indians living worldwide.”

TIL has joined hands with UTV, Sony, Rajshri, Shemaroo, etc. to provide content and is launching the service with a bank of 2,000 television episodes, 3,500 full-length films and 500 short films.

“The service is available for anybody with a good internet connection (over 1 Mbps) - not necessarily 3G or 2G users, but even regular broadband users who connect through laptops, computers, tablets, TV-connected devices and platforms like Roku, etc,” explained Ganjwani.
Primarily targeting English-content enthusiasts as well as viewers looking for easier options to get premium content, BoxTv.com is a ‘free-mium’ service.

“The service is currently invite-only and we're rolling out invites in batches to interested users. That said, we already have over 50,000 invite requests since announcement in February 2012,” added Gajwani.

BoxTv.com is available to subscribers at Rs 199. The revenue model being evolved involves a mix of advertising spot sales and subscription streams