Stockholm based Video on Demand (VOD) provider, Voddler and Zee Entertainment Entertainment Limited's* JV Bollyvod has started its US rollout, reports WorldScreen. Bollyvod, which has both free and subscription offerings, offers only Bollywood content and appears to be targeting the Indian diaspora in US. Asia Today (Mauritius), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), had formed the JV with Voddler last year. According to the report, Bollyvod has secured licenses for streaming over 100,000 hours of programming internationally, from media companies such as Zee Entertainment, Reliance, Eros International, UTV Motion Pictures and Sony Music. It is not clear how much the company plans to start for the service, after one month of free trial. The company has not stated which other country it is targeting with the service. It is worth noting that Zee already owns Ditto TV which is a mobile based VOD service. However, the company has also invested in a web based VOD service provider. Voddler also has a patented streaming solution VoddlerNet which is based on a server-less peer to peer distribution system. This OTT solution is supposed to optimize the cost since the company streams movies from other Voddler customers who have finished watching the movie instead of streaming it directly from their own servers. Voddler offers two services LiveShelf and ViewShare, powered by VoddlerNet. LiveShelf is a video streaming service that allows users to purchase or rent movies from Voddler’s content partners, while ViewShare allows users to create a limited group of friends and family (max 10 people) and legally share viewing rights of content purchased. One can…
