Eros Now Channel Brings Bollywood to British Airways
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Eros International has broadened its Bollywood wingspan with the debut of its Eros Now-branded in-flight entertainment (IFE) channel on board British Airways flights.
With over 142 million registered users worldwide, Eros International’s hugely-popular, subscription-based media platform Eros Now is already giving Netflix and Amazon a serious run for their money in India and beyond. And now the leading on-demand Indian and South Asian entertainment network is expanding its reach even further with the debut of a new Eros Now-branded IFE channel on select British Airways (BA) flights worldwide.
“Hosting one of the largest libraries of movies, originals, short-films, television shows, music videos and audio tracks, Eros Now offers our users worldwide the promise of endless entertainment,” says Prashant Gaonkar, Eros International’s VP Inflight Entertainment. “British Airways was keen on having a popular Indian brand onboard to cater to the passengers from this region [and] Eros Now’s popularity made it the [perfect fit].”
And with BA’s recent codesharing agreement with Indian carrier Vistara opening up a host of new destinations throughout India – and demand for Bollywood content at an all time high around the globe – Gaonkar says the timing for an Eros Now branded IFE channel on the carrier could not be more fortuitous.
“Revenue earned by Indian movies overseas nearly tripled in 2017, with box office collections outside of India […] growing to $367 million” – Prashant Gaonkar, Eros International.
“Global audiences have been huge fans of the Indian film industry for decades, lapping up the song-and-dance sequences, emotional [storylines] and happy endings,” explains Gaonkar. “Revenue earned by Indian movies overseas nearly tripled in 2017, with box office collections outside of India […] especially in China where Bollywood films have been smashing box office records […] growing to $367 million.”
Offering BA passengers a chance to sample some of Eros Now’s 12,000+ Bollywood films and television shows on the bespoke Eros Now channel inflight, Gaonkar says Eros is also offering BA passengers discounted Eros Now subscriptions on the terrestrial front as well.
Although Eros Now subscribers will not be able to log into their personal accounts to binge watch their Bollywood content in-flight on BA’s IFE channel just yet, Gaonkar says the partnership is already shaping up to a be a huge hit for passengers throughout the region.
Richard D‘Cruze, British Airways’ product development manager, Aircraft Cabin Interiors & IFE Content, agrees. “India is a very important market for us and we offer direct flights from London to five major cities in India,” says D’Cruze. “We get a lot of feedback from customers asking for more regional content and so our partnership with Eros Now allows us to offer our customers the latest highly-rated content from India and South Asia in addition to the 1000+ hours of entertainment that we already offer onboard.”
The Eros Now IFE channel was launched by British Airways on April 1, 2019. Three months prior, Eros Now was named “Best OTT Platform of the Year 2019” at the British Asian Media Awards.