National Film Development Corporation of India to entrust library of movies to Visual Unity’s vuMedia platform
Over the top (OTT) provider Visual Unity has been commissioned to help India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) deliver a complete video on demand (VoD)service.
Established in 1975 to encourage high quality Indian cinema, the NFDC plans to expand its viewership around the world by distributing its films via VoD under its ‘Cinemas of India’ label, which is currently only available on YouTube. This measure will enable a steadily increasing number of fans to enjoy these films on any screen or device.
Visual Unity will provide the NFDC with the technology it needs to deliver this new service. The technical infrastructure to be used is based on Visual Unity’s vuMedia integrated content management and delivery platform which allows broadcasters to manage, monetise and monitor multiscreen delivery with ease and efficiency.
Visual Unity’s vuMedia platform supports comprehensive VoD services and integrates seamlessly with billing and CRM processes. For this particular project, Visual Unity will provide a content management system with analytics, GUI and API access, links hashing, software to play back and control video content on the web, as well as support for mobile devices with monetization from various business models.
The company will also help build a complex VoD portal that will contain hundreds of parallel cinema films alongside more conventional Bollywood fare. This cloud-based service will allow the NFDC to publish its content online, so alleviating the need to build an expensive, inhouse 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 Vikramjit Roy, general manager of NFDC. “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.”
Tomas Petru, CEO of Visual Unity, commented: “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.”
