Television serials online – started probably with Hulu and have now reached India with sites like Star TV and Zoom streaming complete programs online.
Star TV has introduced Star Player on their site (www.startv.in) – a great online video entertainment tool that streams shows of the Star Network (channel V included). Though I have accessed the site from home broadband only (I work in office 
), its interesting to see quick streaming, good quality video along with social media networking elements – allows you to rate/comment/chat/search similar shows.
What also adds to their advantage is the fact that they have created small capsules of the programs with mouse-over write-up. So, if you have missed or want to view a part of the program, this helps.
And best is that the site is not overcrowded with ads! That gives a clutter-free and premium look to the site.
Overall, I found this very impressive!
What can they do better? Well – few things for sure. Instead of using the main area on homepage for one program promotion, they can create a small video/slideshow of new programs – that could help them promote more than one program. All genres would find interesting programs being introduced and so, pardon my saying, but Star TV’s ”saas-bahu” serial image could be improved.
Startv.in
Compared this to Zoom – I think they are in different space all together. While Zoom is a channel website – showcasing schedule, image gallery, news and gossip, celebrity pics and video as well, startv site is focused towards online video entertainment.
Both have their niche defined, but if you ask me, I liked startv website more.
Filed under: B2C Marketing, Social Media Marketing, online marketing | Tagged: B2C Marketing, Brand association, Brand experience, Brand marketing, Entertainment, Social Media Marketing
NIce Post but i have certain apprehensions on the same, 1) comscore shows very less traffic from tier 2 cities and female audience (who religeiosuly ) follow kind of serials which have been uploaded.
2) As pointed by you, 1st reaction on star channel are tht saas bahu saga’s creating lot of doubt on kind of traffic they would receive.
Infct other day , their was article about rajshri films creating a youtube channel, cost effective, wider reach and moreover all kind of movie clippings….
Abhishek
PS : just came across this blog on linkedin and really fond it interesting!!
Less traffic from tier 2 cities might be due to lower broadband penetration and hence videos not opening that easy to give a good experience. Also, as you rightly mentioned, female audience might be hooked on to TV to ensure they do not miss any episode!
The site has been finally launched. saw some PR around it… http://www.techshout.com/entertainment/2009/02/star-player-premier-online-television-viewing-service-introduced-in-india/
The saas bahu sagas online would be really interesting according to me…maybe it could take a startv.in to dispel the myths about only 25% female surfers..
Over all i think it looks very nice..startv also might be trying to reach a larger audience…already see them on webdunia and oneindia…should not take them long to get into a youtube…it would work for youtube as then they would get some good premium content from the Indian market…but my guess is all broadcasters would jump into the fray..but how good their video viewing experience is…time would decide
hey Thought of sharing a new innovation which has been done for Sony Ericson on http://www.startv.in.
http://www.startv.in/catchingsmiles/
Please do register and also see how one can actually click photographs from the videos itself.
The concept here to get the surfer engage with the product and try out the feature while interacting with our content seems to be very good.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think startv.in is currently targeting its online TV to Indians living abroad such as in the US, UK or Middle East.
Its is repackaging existing content for newer audiences and targeting NRIs mostly.
I am sure, Star must be playing to monetise the Star Player in the future through online advertisments targeted at such audiences!
Well Nishant, am sure Startv will start monetizing it basis geo-targeting. And as far as NRIs are concerned, why do you say this is only for them? Maybe they get more traffic from these countries (Maybe Srinath can answer this if they are tracking it), but even in India, studies have shown that heavy users of television are also heavy users of internet! So “Oh i missed that episode – let me watch it online” is a reality.
Hey, can you point me to the study you referred to? sounds interesting!
.
@Shrinath. Thanks for clarifying that startv.in is only available for Indian audiences at the moment.
Would you happen to have a guesstimate on the number of hits the portal gets and the number of minutes a person is on the portal? That could help to know how popular startv.in really is
@ Nishant..Nice to know that you are following startv.in so I can confirm 3 – 4 uniques here already
Jokes apart…have a look at the video / TV section of the following sites: http://www.oneindia.in, http://www.buzzintown.com, http://www.webdunia.com…these are some sites where the StarPlayer is already running.
The same is also available on Facebook (some work is still going on there)…on the whole we have a reach of over 7 million uniques…we premiered 2 star plus shows (webcast first before the episodes were aired) got over 3 lakh views in about 2 -3 hours. we have over 120 million video views every month. avearge time spent by a person is over 15 minutes….
Now that I have given you all statistics..do I see any business coming my way from you
late but yes following this
to clarify http://www.startv.in is available only in India presently. Already being monetized …got almost 67 brands online doing video advertising. Innovations as the the Sony Ericson site has done pretty good.
Yes the audience is there, otherwise we would have never invested so much into it. The content is all archived ones and also as recent as what has been telecast yesterday. August 5th 2009 we webcast two episodes even before the same was shown on TV. (http://exchange4media.com/e4m/news/fullstory_industrybrief.asp?section_id=35&news_id=35516&tag=31232)
Yes lots of new things to happen…question is if the industry and the consumers look at this change positively…consumers are alreday doing that..industry perception will certainly help us to monetize better
@Nishant – The studies that have mentioned can be found on the AC nielson site, Morgan Stanley Media report and also on comscore.
Thanks Pallavi.. Quite a useful research by Neilson.
@Shrinath, thanks for the statistics.
And i cannot promise you any business, not yet
..
@Nishant: shall await your business
Hehe