While Netflix and other foreign movie production companies try to slide into India’s film market, Eros International (the country’s largest movie production company) has amassed more local content than Amazon and Netflix combined.
The darling of cinema’s capital city
India’s movie production industry is the largest in the world (the US is 3rd, behind Nigeria) — and with 11k videos on-demand, Eros is the biggest fish in the biggest pond.
Eros debuted ‘Eros Now’ in 2004, which now offers cross-device streaming. But, while the 40-year-old company has outpaced foreign rivals in India, Eros is butting heads with America’s mega-studios as it expands into global markets.
The war of volume vs. value
Eros’ global subscriber base (100m) is just shy of Netflix’s (117m), and Eros is available in 135 countries compared to Netflix’s 190.
But despite comparable subscriber bases, the two play in different financial leagues. This year, Eros plans to spend $50m on original content for Eros Now — Netlfix, on the other hand, will spend roughly $8B.
To maintain its lead on Netflix, Eros plans to monetize more of its users (90% of whom use a free version of the company’s app) and double their paid subscribers from 8m to 16m by March 2019.