Vi Launches Movie Rental Service in Collaboration With Hungama

Vi (Vodafone Idea) on Monday announced its partnership with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment to launch its premium video on demand (PVoD) service on the Vi Movies and TV app. With the new tie up, Vi subscribers will be able to rent a movie for 48 hours. The Vi Movies and TV app also comes with the option to cast movies to a large screen. This means that apart from watching movies under the pay-per-view model on smartphones, Vi customers can watch their favourite titles on their TVs.

As a result of the latest development, telecom subscribers on the Vi network will get access to over 380 movie titles. These include one of the most popular sci-fi movies of 2020, Tenet, that got released in theatres globally in August and arrived in India in December.

In addition to highly acclaimed English titles, the PVoD service offered by Vi and Hungama will bring movies in three Indian languages, namely Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Tenet — along with other popular movies of 2020 — will be available at Rs. 120 for 48 hours. However, other movies will be available at Rs. 60.

Some of the movies that will be available through the partnership will include Aquaman, Birds of Prey, Joker, and Scoob!, alongside Tenet and other known names.

The PVoD model will be available alongside the existing entertainment offerings featured on the Vi Movies and TV app. However, those offerings, unlike the latest model, are available for free as per the recharge packs or postpaid plans opted by Vi customers.

“With the opening of the economy and entertainment business, new content consumption models are emerging that allow users to watch single content for a specific price. Our innovative and partnership led content strategy has helped us adopt a telco-first approach for content monetisation in this hugely untapped market,” said Vi CMO Avneesh Khosla in a prepared statement. “We look forward to working with like-minded partners like Hungama Digital, to grow this segment.”

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