Distribution tie-ups drive DocuBay subscriber growth

New Delhi: Documentary streaming service DocuBay, owned by IN10 Media Network, said its B2B (business-to-business) and D2C (direct-to-consumer) distribution initiatives are helping unlock growth in India which is a market still discovering the documentary space.

“We’re seeing great numbers from our association with Amazon Prime Video and Tata Sky (now Tata Play),” Girish Dwibhashyam, vice-president, strategy, DocuBay said in an interview to Mint. The platform has also signed an agreement with JioFiber, a second telecom service and will be available as part of an OTT aggregator bundle that launches later this month, Dwibhashyam said.

DocuBay is known for titles such as The Dark Side of Green Energies, Inside IKEA, Bitcoin: The End of Money As We Know It, among others. Last September, Amazon Prime Video had turned content aggregator in India with the launch of Prime Video Channels that made eight other subscription-driven video-on-demand platforms available on its app and website. Prime Video customers are now able to access streaming services such as Discovery+, Lionsgate Play, DocuBay, Eros Now, MUBI, Hoichoi, Manorama Max, and Shorts TV with add-on subscriptions, paying for the services they choose. There is a single billing mechanism. Apart from this, DocuBay’s marketing initiatives especially on Facebook and Google are yielding the right results in terms of customer acquisition, Dwibhashyam said.

The company that stuck to its plan of bringing out one new documentary feature daily in 2021 and sometimes delivering even more, is looking to double its slate this year with a significant increase in investments. “We are looking at commissioning originals and exclusives. Even though we’re primarily an English language service, we’ve realized localization is key to reach out to the masses in India and hence, will be looking at programming in local Indian languages too,” said Dwibhashyam. The company that has partnered with distribution players such as France’s Kwanza and UK’s Journeyman is benefiting from growing curiosity among Indian audiences for factual content as they are exposed to information across social media. “Until five years ago, documentary was perceived as a niche genre since television programming often shied away from it. But that has changed now as the customer is much more evolved,” he said.