QYOU Media Expands in India

Following the launch of QYOU India, QYOU Media (TSXV:QYOU) is adding a block of new content partnerships as it seeks to grow its operations in India, the company announced on Tuesday (April 17).

QYOU Media, a leading curator of premium “best-of-web” video for multiscreen distribution, was founded and created by industry veterans from Lionsgate, MTV and CinemaNOW. It has now signed new content partnerships with Power Drift, 101 India, Arre, The Comic Wallah and POPxo.

These new additions follow a number of content partnerships signed by the company in 2017, including those with Pocket Aces and Culture Machine, amongst others. As part of this expansion, QYOU India will streamline its brand identity to Q India or simply “The Q.” 

The new channel is available on Tata Sky, a DTH platform in which 21st Century Fox has a 30-percent stake. Q India’s service is also made available on Jio TV, which is owned by Reliance Jio, India’s fastest-growing mobile service with 168 million subscribers.

“India is a huge growth market with lots of young and upwardly mobile audiences hungry for new content and programs from their favorite service providers,” said Curt Marvis, CEO and co-founder of QYOU Media. “Over the past year, we’ve been working hard to establish a presence in India by collaborating with premium local content creators and service providers to deliver a localized version of our programming available to millions of viewers in other countries around the world.”

In its press release, QYOU Media mentions that the average Indian user watches 8.5 hours of YouTube and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) short-form video content each month. As a result, there is an abundance of talented creatives producing culturally relevant bite-sized shows that appeal to local audiences.

According to a report published in June 2017 by Culture Machine and Kantar IMRB, the video-streaming landscape in India is being radically transformed due to the advent of 4G services and the subsequent reduction in mobile data costs. It was revealed that one in three mobile smartphone video viewers accesses an over-the-top (OTT) video platform with 80 percent of OTT consumers considering paying a premium to access exclusive content.

OpenSignal’s April report reveals that Reliance Jio, the 4G only network on which Q India’s service is accessible, is available to users 96.41 percent of the time as compared to nearest rival Vodafone’s availability of 68.83 percent.

In March, QYOU Media reported its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2017, reporting that its revenue increased to $1,574,393 as compared to revenue of $889,627 in the previous year. Its revenues in the first half of FY2018 saw an increase of 73 percent and stood at $3,089,331.

“QYOU completed 2017 with investment into building a world class foundation of distribution and content partnerships that we expect to drive our growth in 2018 and beyond,” Marvis said.

“2018 has leveraged further localized content development to drive growth internationally in India and via our recently announced iflix agreement. Collectively we continue to expand a growing list of blue chip global distribution partners thus adding to our efforts to bring compelling content to millennials and gen-z consumers worldwide,” he added.

Following the announcement on Tuesday, shares of QYOU Media jumped up 8.77 percent to close the trading day at $0.31.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.