Crown Media sees a market in India for sappy romantic dramas frequently packaged around American country music stars.
The company's Hallmark Movies Now subscription streaming service will now be offered by local entertainment review and recommendation platform OTTplay.
“Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said Francisco Gonzalez, senior VP of international distribution for Crown Media. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”
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The Hallmark-branded niche SVOD service passed the 1 million subscriber mark domestically back in fall 2020, and Crown hasn't seemed to offer an update since that time.
Regardless as to how customer growth is going, Crown Media seems intent on competing in the huge, largely unsaturated Subcontinental market, which has 1.38 billion potential customers, many of whom haven't yet started streaming video.
“Through OTTplay Premium subscriptions, our aim is to take a leap in our journey of democratizing the OTT watching experience, and bring some of the best global content out there to the screens of Indian viewers," added OTTplay’s co-founder, Avinash Mudaliar. "Hallmark Movies Now's wide collection of feel-good, rom-com and family movies and dramas has a large and ready viewer base with India's love for romance and drama that spans generations and languages. We are delighted to partner with Hallmark to launch it for the first time in India for OTTplay Premium subscribers." ■
