MUMBAI: Dish TV India Limited, the world’s largest single-country DTH Company, forays into the digital video content segment and announces the launch of its new OTT app ‘Watcho’. Dish TV’s new venture is a testimony to the company’s strategic intent of becoming a complete digital entertainment provider alongside its DTH service. Watcho aims to offer engaging and differentiated content catering to young audiences across the country and not just Urban India. The new platform brings in a plethora of new-age content- from original series, short films, on-the-go snackable video content and celebrity collaborations to infotainment videos, making Dish TV the first-ever DTH Company in India to launch a dedicated OTT platform with its own original content.
Watcho marks its entry into this segment with an original comedy show, ‘Vote The Hell’ featuring prominent comedians and their satirical take on the Indian elections. In addition to this, Watcho also offers many other original fiction shows like Mission Breaking News, Chhoriyan, Rakhta Chandana and original influencer shows like Vote The Hell, Look I can Cook, Bikhare hain alfaaz and many more. Watcho makes its debut in the OTT space with over 20 shows with several hours of original engaging content in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada.
Watcho also offers 1000+ hours of library content including movies and short films. Subscribers can also enjoy their favourite TV shows and popular drama series through live or catch-up TV. Watcho is focused on Short format storytelling apt for Digital consumption, with content strategy focused on youth audience across India and not just Urban Millennials. Watcho content cuts across all genres like Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Romance, Food, Fashion and Poetry. As an introductory offer, the existing and new users will have a free subscription to Watcho.
Commenting on the launch of Watcho, Mr. Anil Dua, Executive Director & Group CEO, Dish TV India Limited, said “We are excited to announce the launch of our unique digital content platform ‘Watcho’, which is an important step towards Dish TV India becoming a unique destination for entertainment in the country. With this, both our brands, DishTV and D2H have the advantage of being able to offer content through both traditional and streaming medium. We aim to reach over 10 million users in the first year itself.”
Watcho will also provide a creative platform for creators to upload videos showcasing their talent, win rewards and stand a chance to feature in an exclusive original show. The Watcho app is available to download and view on the Web, Play store, App store and has already crossed hundred thousand downloads over the past few days across platforms.
Mr. Akash Tyagi, Head OTT, Dish TV India Limited, said, “Our original comedy series “Vote The Hell” in collaboration with popular Indian standup comedians, will explore the funny side of us Indians and how we plan to vote during elections. We are confident that the show will be immensely entertaining, while delivering a strong message on the importance of voting wisely.”
He further added, “Our another big differentiator for Watcho is its user generated content capability which allows users to showcase the content and become an online celebrity. We will also promote these talented individuals through DishTV and D2H platforms in the coming months. We aim to make Watcho the largest independent storytelling platform which offers digital auditions, fan engagement and many more features in the roadmap.”
Dish TV believes that India is a land of billion stories and millions of talented individuals are keen to showcase their talent, however they have limited avenues to do so. Watcho as a platform leverages this insight. With this objective, Watcho has collaborated with IFP Campus Connect for a short-films contest in over 25 colleges across India. Several thousands of creators participated and over 1500+ short films made by them are also being showcased on Watcho.
Watcho’s original comedy series, ‘Vote The Hell’, features upcoming comedians Jeeveshu Ahluwalia, Sundeep Sharma, Ankita Shrivastav, Abhijit Ganguly, Ravi Gupta, RJ Vignesh and Jabardast Bhaskar. It will feature short videos of 5-6 minutes depicting humorous situational comedies with a back-drop of general elections.
