Eros Plc CEO Jyoti Deshpande is bullish on the online video space, having seen the company cross its target of 2 million paying subscribers for its Eros Now service, a quarter earlier than expected. So new targets have been set. Deshpande has now set a conservative target of 5-6 million paying subscribers in fiscal 2018, "which is triple our current base," and, "It would be a dream come true to revise up that target during the course of next year as we continue to grow the platform." Last quarter, Eros Now had set a 5-year target of at least 15-20 million subscribers worldwide with a blended annual ARPU of $5 from India and $30 internationally with 80% of the target subscribers from India and the remaining 20% internationally. According to Eros Now, a paying subscriber is someone who has made a valid payment to subscribe to a service that includes the Eros Now service either as part of a bundle or on a standalone basis, either directly or indirectly through a telecom operator or OEM in any given month be it through a daily, weekly or monthly billing pack, as long as the validity of the pack is, for at least one month. For growth, Eros is relying on telecom operators for distribution. It is live on Airtel, Jio, Vodafone and Idea, and the company saw "six digit contributions" from Idea Cellular and Vodafone, "within weeks of launch", with Idea going live only in January 2017. Eros reported digital and ancillary…
