Kolkata: Backed by SVF, digital Bengali content platform Hoichoi has redefined India’s OTT space for regional languages and emerged as the one-stop destination for anyone looking for Bengali entertainment across borders and age groups.
In just one year of its launch, Hoichoi has streamed over 240 million minutes of content. Encouraged by the audience response, Hoichoi declared grand plans to launch 30 original shows and 12 original films equivalent to 100 plus hours of original content in the upcoming year.
It also announced plans to double the overall content library to approximately 2800 hours in the next one year by acquiring 200 Bengali movies, 12 of which will be world digital premieres. The viewers of Hoichoi will be spoilt for choice, as there will be variation of content available across genres including fantasy, dark comedy, musical thriller, sitcom, travelogue, mystery, paranormal drama, kids, treasure hunt, psychological horror, detective, and erotica, which will be created by some of the finest production houses and directorial talent.
Vishnu Mohta, Co-Founder, Hoichoi, said, ‘We launched Hoichoi with the objective of making it the ultimate destination for Bengali entertainment, and we believe we have taken great strides on our way to achieving it. The fact that the average time spent in-app for Hoichoi is 60 minutes per day per subscriber is extremely encouraging, which is way above the industry average.’
‘We had also stated that Hoichoi wants to cater to the 250 million plus Bengalis living worldwide, and expanding our footprint into Bangladesh and Middle East is an important step in that direction. These are markets with a potential of more than 180 million customers. While expansion into Bangladesh through local payment gateways is a natural decision to reach a wider audience, entry into the Middle East is aimed at connecting with the huge migrant Bengali population living in the Arabian Peninsula nations. We will soon launch “Dhaka Metro,” our first web series for the Bangladesh audience, which will be directed by Amitabh Reza Chaudhuri, Bangladesh’s award-winning director. We intend to keep delighting our audience worldwide,’ he added.
Mahendra Soni, Director and Co-Founder, Hoichoi, said, ‘At Hoichoi, we try to keep a finger on the pulse of our audience. With almost 40% of our audience coming from non-urban areas, we decided to emulate the successful telecom model and introduce Hoichoi top-up cards to make it convenient for our customers to subscribe to Hoichoi. This offline payment mechanism has never been heard of in the OTT industry and will help us reach the masses in Tier II and Tier III cities. One can simply purchase the Hoichoi top-up cards available for subscribing to our 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month plans from the nearest retailer and access the largest collection of the best in Bengali entertainment on Hoichoi without having to do any online financial transaction.’
Shrikant Mohta, Director and Co-Founder, Hoichoi, added, ‘At Hoichoi, we have consciously taken a decision to adopt the ad-free SVoD model because we want to provide the best uninterrupted entertainment experience to our audience. In yet another first in the Bengali entertainment space, we are now introducing the “Pay Per View” feature as part of the TVoD model. We will be releasing movies on Hoichoi approximately just two weeks of their theatrical release, and the viewers will have the option to pay for the content on an à la carte basis.’
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