MTS Offering Free Movies to Data, Smartphone Customers

Telecom operator Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), which provides services under the MTS brand, will offer free movies to customers as it looks to ramp up revenues from affordable and customised data services.

MTS Movies, which has been launched in partnership with short films aggregator Shotz7, will be available to MTS' data and smartphone customers, SSTL said in a statement.

An online gallery of short films, MTS Movies will include content featuring Parineeti Chopra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raj Kumar Rao and Jackie Shroff among others, it added.

"This launch is our response to engage and connect with data and smartphone customers. The offering is bound to become an instant hit amongst our customers, who are looking for a buffer-free, content-snacking experience," MTS India Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Leonid Musatov said.

He added that industry studies suggest that 8-10 minute video content is one of the most viewed, especially during travel, office breaks, which is a growing phenomenon called "content snacking".

At present, MTS Movies showcases films in Hindi and English with plans to bring content in Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and Gujarati as well, SSTL said.

The service has been supported by filmmakers and Bollywood personalities such as Anurag Basu, Shoojit Sircar, and Sanjay Misra, it added.

"As a telecom service provider, we see three drivers for data consumption -- strong network, affordability of services and customised content. We have been working on this in a holistic manner to ensure we provide our customers a complete package," Musatov said.

He added that data services are contributing significantly to SSTL's revenues and the firm is looking at various opportunities to further propel growth in the segment.

For the second quarter ended June 30, MTS narrows its net loss to Rs 402.5 crore against Rs 844.7 crore helped by growth in data service revenue.

Non-voice revenues, from both data and mobile VAS, stood at Rs 129.1 crore against a total revenue of Rs 334.8 crore for the April-June period of 2014.

SSTL's data card subscriber base for the second quarter grew by 8.5 percent to 1.4 million subscribers. Non-voice revenue contributed 38.6 percent of the total quarterly revenues.

SSTL and Shotz7 have also announced a 72-hour film making contest to give budding film-makers 72 hours to make a short movie. The winner will get a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh and mentorship of one of the jury members.

The jury members includes film makers like Anurag Basu, Shoojit Sircar, Pradeep Sarkar, Tinnu Anand, Harsh Chhaya, Sanjay Misra and Vineet Kumar.