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Film DVDs at low price-point
NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 12:
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of Moser Baer DVDs in Chennai. Also seen are company's managing director Ratul Puri, chief executive Harish Dayani and chief operating officer G Dhananjayan. |
In a path-breaking initiative, Moser Baer, the manufacturer of optical storage devices, has forayed into the home video market in Tamilnadu with the release of a catalogue of 101 Tamil film titles in VCDs and DVDs. The company is planning to release over 1,000 film titles in a phased manner.
At a glitzy launch function on Wednesday, actor Kamal Haasan said the release of film content on VCDs and DVDs by the compact discs manufacturer itself would auger well for the Kollywood as this initiative would clamp down on piracy, besides tapping the huge revenue potential of the home video market, primarily driven by the film industry in the State. He unveiled the entire catalogue of digital library launched by Moser Baer on the occasion.
As against the current market price of Rs 250 - 350 for a Tamil film DVD, the company's products would be available at price points of between Rs 28 and Rs 35 for both VCDs and DVDs. Moser Baer would leverage its strength in producing compact discs for digital content through a patented and proprietary technology. With a capacity to produce one crore discs per day, its foray into home video would drive down costs in commercial VCDs and DVDs which would bound to open up market for a stiff competition, thereby resulting a win-win situation for consumers, film industry (as it would curb piracy) and the video retailers, said Ratul Puri, managing director, Moser Baer India. 'The price points of our DVDs will redefine the home video market in India. This initiative to launch Tamil film catalogues will bring a paradigm shift in Chennai market. We believe this will lead to much higher consumption of content on home video and encourage people to build libraries. We have planned distribution to reach virtually every town where there is movie loving family. The unbeatable value propositions from Moser Baer will propel our new venture to the top end of the market in a short time,' he explained.
According to a study, the India home video has not grown at the pace it should have considering the fact the country was the largest producer and consumer of films. Rampant piracy and highly fragmented business in the distribution of film titles in VCDs and DVDs have had detrimental impact on the industry. Currently, India has over 26 million VCD users and the market was growing at 25 per cent rate. Despite the huge potential in the home video segment, this industry accounted for a mere 7 per cent of the total film revenues of Rs 7,900 crore. Whereas in the US, the home video market almost had the same revenue as that of thea-trical market for commercial films.
In the Indian context, Moser Baer would be able to drive down the prices of DVDs as the manufacturer uses its proprietary technology with a huge scale of operations to produce and distribute its digital content across the length and breadth of the country. In Tamilnadu, the company has already 41 distributors and stocks would be available immediately in nearly 7,000 retail outlets in the initial phase of its expansion programme.
'We would buy original rights of Tamil films and come out with titles which would be distributed across the State. As our VCDs and DVDs are priced at a much lower price, our foray into home video would abolish film piracy, besides opening up the nascent market,' said G Dhananjayan, chief operating officer, Moser Baer India.
Moser Baer is the second
largest manufacturer of optical storage devices with multiple production
sites in the world. Having a global share of 16.5 per cent in optical storage,
the Indian arm of the company was formed a few months ago in Delhi. The
group has four business units, namely optical storage discs, photovoltaic
cells, content business and finally, distribution and servicing of digital
content.