SINGAPORE, June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Xfinite and Eros
Now, a leading over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment
platform owned by global entertainment company Eros STX Global
Corporation (NYSE: ESGC), announced it has deepened its partnership
with Xfinite's Mzaalo platform, a gamified video streaming service
on track to have 10M users by year
end. The partnership further establishes Eros Now's footprint in
advertising video on-demand (AVOD), a still-developing segment of
the India streaming market that
has significant growth potential, while allowing Eros Now to
continue building its core subscription video on-demand (SVOD)
service. This partnership also adds to the 25 premium linear TV
feeds and VOD platforms and plans to expand further to reach 200
content partners This agreement, given Xfinite's innovative
business model, also puts ErosSTX in a leadership position
regarding digital asset growth and the use of blockchain
technology. Algorand will serve as the foundational blockchain
infrastructure as Xfinite selected the scalable blockchain in order
to accommodate its accelerating adoption.
Commenting on the announcement, Ali
Hussein, CEO of Eros Now, says: "One of our strategic
imperatives is to fully monetize the Eros Now platform. A key
aspect of our strategy is to expand into ad-supported streaming and
this partnership with Mzaalo does just that. We have an opportunity
to monetize the more than 224 million Eros Now
registered users who are fans of our content offering but are also
price conscious. Mzaalo joins our already-substantial ecosystem of
Eros Now distribution partners, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone
Idea, BSNL, Tata Sky, Apple, Amazon and Roku – just to highlight a
few. The Mzaalo agreement is purposefully structured to provide
ErosSTX with an appropriate mix of fixed and guaranteed cash
payments and variable revenue participation as Mzaalo scales. We
are excited about the growth opportunity this new partnership
represents."
"Xfinite aims to revolutionize digital media by bringing
forth innovations to customer experience, data driven engagement,
and ecosystem economics for the benefit of the community," said
Mr. Swaneet Singh, CEO of Xfinite Global Plc. "We offer
a blockchain-based solution, powered by Algorand, to
ensure transparency and re-establish trust in the digital world. We
are extremely excited to be partnering with ErosSTX as part of our
journey."
"Eros has a visionary understanding of how blockchain can be
leveraged for new opportunities in the media space. Broad
blockchain adoption can only be achieved through the creation of
products that are tangible and inclusive for any consumer, no
matter what region they are in or what their background may be,"
said Sean Ford, COO of
Algorand. "With major partnerships with organizations that have
millions of users, we are excited to support Mzaalo's new
applications and welcome them to the Algorand community."
Mzaalo is a decentralised application ("dApp") built on Algorand
blockchain technology which operates a gamified streaming service
offering more than 15,000 hours of premium content, as well as new
mechanisms for engaging with content and other consumers. The
Mzaalo dApp provides consumers with free access to premium content
including films, original series, short form content from Eros Now
and other media platforms, as well as a range of interactive
features. Mzaalo consumers are rewarded for their engagement via
enhanced social engagement features and innovative incentivisation
mechanisms including a digital token – the XET token.
Xfinite is an entertainment platform built around the digital
token, XET, an Algorand Standard Asset. The XET token serves as the
native currency of the Xfinite ecosystem and functions as a unique
value exchange and governance mechanism for all stakeholders
including users, brands and influencers, and content producers. The
XET token will offer its holders many benefits including unique
value exchange and the ability to tap into economic incentives the
Xfinite platform has to offer. Mzaalo, Xfinite's first
entertainment application, provides consumers with free access
to premium content including films, original series, short form
content from Eros Now and other media platforms, as well as a range
of interactive features. Mzaalo consumers can earn rewards for
their engagement that can be spent across fan tokens, merchandise,
games and charitable giving through over 500 brand partners.
By "tokenizing" attention and engagement, consumers will be
rewarded for their increased viewership and brands and influencers
are given new ways to engage with their audiences. In this new
ecosystem, consumers are treated equitably as partners in the
relationship, and brands and influencers can vastly increase their
ROI through hyper-targeted and measurable user engagement. The
ErosSTX partnership with Mzaalo is the first of its kind anywhere
in the OTT space globally.
India and emerging markets
worldwide are characterised by a crowded digital marketing space
which is growing exponentially as brands shift away from
traditional media such as print and television to capture the
digital growth. In 2020, India
had nearly 700 million internet users across the country. This
figure was projected to grow to over 974 million users by 2025,
indicating a big market potential in internet services for the
South Asian country. India is now
on the cusp of a massive revolution with digital marketing making
inroads and brands looking to go beyond urban markets. The
tokenization approach offered by Mzaalo to monetizing
engagement is uniquely suited to the Indian digital consumer who
currently has a plethora of content choices available.
About Eros STX Global Corporation:
Eros STX Global
Corporation, ("ErosSTX") (NYSE: ESGC) is a global entertainment
company that acquires, co-produces and distributes films, digital
content & music across multiple formats such as theatrical,
television and OTT digital media streaming to consumers around the
world. Eros International Plc changed its name to Eros STX Global
Corporation pursuant to the July 2020
merger with STX Entertainment, merging two international media and
entertainment groups. The combination of one of the largest Indian
OTT players and premier studios with one of Hollywood's fastest-growing independent media
companies, has created an entertainment powerhouse with a presence
in over 150 countries. ErosSTX delivers star-driven premium feature
film and episodic content across a multitude of platforms at the
intersection of the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing global
markets, including US, India,
Middle East, Asia and China. The company also owns the rapidly
growing OTT platform Eros Now which has rights to over 12,000 films
across Hindi and regional languages, and had over 19 million
premium paid subscribers as of March
31, 2021. For further information, please
visit ErosSTX.com.
About Eros Now:
Eros Now, a division of Eros STX
Global Corporation, is the world's leading Indian OTT platform with
over 19 million premium paid subscribers and 224 million registered
users from over 150 countries across the world. It offers endless
entertainment hosting one of the largest movie libraries (over
12,000 digital titles), as well as premium original episodic
series, music videos, unmatched in quantity and quality. Eros Now
also has a deep library of short-form content, totalling over 4,400
short-form videos including trailers, original short exclusive
interviews, and marketing shorts. Eros Now was named as the 'Best
OTT Platform of the Year 2019' at the British Asian Media Awards.
The platform has also won awards for original content and marketing
at the SCREENXX 2020. To access Eros Now please go to:
www.erosnow.com or download the application.
About Xfinite:
Xfinite is a blockchain-based
platform designed to re-establish trust between consumers, content
creators, and publishers. Through the use of viewer-based rewards,
the Xfinite ecosystem helps the media and entertainment industry
combat advertising fraud by increasing transparency and creating a
new habit of engagement. Xfinite has established various
partnerships with global corporations in order to drive innovation
and create new use cases for blockchain technology. Recent
partnerships include those with: Dailyhunt, which has 280 million
active users; SpiceJet which annually flies +60 million passengers
across India; and Eros Now which
has 36.2M paying subscribers and
216M registered users.
About Algorand:
Algorand Inc. built the world's first
open-source, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain
protocol for the next generation of financial products. This
blockchain, the Algorand protocol, is the brainchild of Turing
Award-winning cryptographer Silvio
Micali. A technology company dedicated to removing friction
from financial exchange, Algorand Inc. is powering the DeFi
evolution by enabling the creation and exchange of value, building
new financial tools and services, bringing assets on-chain and
providing responsible privacy models. For more information,
visit www.algorand.com
Contact: algorand@dittopr.co
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