UTV Motion pictures ties up with three portals

Mumbai, Aug 4 (UNI) As part of its effort to redefine the landscape of film distribution by aggressively leveraging generation next technology, UTV Motion Pictures has announced tie-ups with three portals that will release its two forthcoming films online, along with treating the audience to the rich and varied fare of UTV's library of movies.

Vikram Bhatt directed 'Fear' premieres on Aug 10 across three portals, www.rajshri.com, www.bigflicks.com, www.indyaondemand.com.

This film will be released online without a theatrical release, a first for an Indian film. Further, Vishal Bhardwaj's 'The Blue Umbrella' also releases online on Aug 10, the same day as its theatrical release in India.

Each online movie download is priced at USD 9.99 for a standard download and USD 19.99 for a higher resolution download. This is targetted at audiences in markets like US, UK, South East Asia and the West Asia.

Says Siddharth Roy Kapur, Executive Vice President - Marketing, Distribution&Syndication, UTV Motion Pictures, ''Our audiences overseas have lesser ease of access to our films as compared to audiences here in India. Using the Internet as a medium of distribution is the way forward for content owners to combat piracy; which is to have movies available for viewing legitimately online.'' All UTV Motion Pictures productions and releases will be available online, on the above-mentioned websites for free streaming and/ or paid downloads.

There are also options of viewing experiences online, where the customer can choose either higher resolution versions or the standard resolution economical version. Some UTV films you can see online include: Swades, Rang De Basanti, Taxi No 9 2 11, Bluffmaster, Chup Chup Ke, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Hattrick and Life in a Metro, he said.

As of now, this paid for content is being consumed primarily by the overseas audience and the revenue stream thus generated has a limited impact on the overall revenue of films. However, the next generation of film distribution will see online and iptv contributing much larger ratios to overall film revenues, he pointed out.

UNI