India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has commissioned OTT solutions provider Visual Unity to help build a VOD service.
NFDC is currently building its Cinemas Of India distribution label across theatrical, DVD and online platforms. The label aims to showcase the diversity of Indian cinema across multiple genres, languages and filmmaking regions.
Visual Unity will provide the NFDC with technical infrastructure based on its award-winning vuMediaTM integrated content management and delivery platform, which enables broadcasters to manage, monetise and monitor multiscreen delivery.
Visual Unity CEO Tomas Petru said: “Visual Unity won this contract on the basis of our proven expertise in multiscreen integration. With over 20 years’ experience in delivering and technically supporting linear to multiscreen solutions, we were able to demonstrate to the NFDC that we have successfully handled similar VOD projects for customers like Calinos Entertainment in Turkey, CME in Central Europe and TopFun in the Czech Republic.”
Visual Unity will help build a VOD portal that will contain hundreds of “parallel cinema” films alongside more conventional Bollywood fare. The cloud-based service will allow the NFDC to publish its content online, thus alleviating the need to build an expensive, in-house and resource-intensive media library.
“Monetisation is not just about selling content – it is about building business awareness and a communication strategy around it,” said NFDC general manager Vikramjit Roy.
“We expect that by using vuMedia’s proven technology, the NFDC will be able to deliver a cutting-edge viewing experience to our audiences on any screen or connected device, which in turn will contribute to the expansion of both domestic and global appreciation of independent Indian cinema.”
Visual Unity is based in the Czech Republic, with offices in Ottawa, Los Angeles, Munich, Dubai, Nairobi, Bangkok and Hong Kong.