Voot

Last updated

Voot
Voot website logo.png
Type of business Joint Venture
Type of site
OTT platform
Available in
  • Hindi
  • English
  • Bengali
  • Marathi
  • Gujarati
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Malayalam
  • Kannada
Dissolved 9 August 2023;15 months ago (2023-08-09)
Successor(s) JioCinema
Headquarters
Area servedIndia
United Kingdom (Virgin Media only)
United States (Sling TV only)
OwnerJoint Venture between Network18 86.92%
Viacom 18 13.08%
(2016–2023)
Industry
Products
Services
  • Film production
  • Film distribution
  • Television production
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Launched29 March 2016;8 years ago (2016-03-29)
Current statusDiscontinued

Voot was an Indian subscription based video-on-demand and over-the-top media streaming service that was a joint venture between Viacom 18 with Network18, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Network18 was the majority share holder in the joint venture. The service was initially launched on 4 May 2016. It initially launched as an advertising-supported service, before introducing a subscription tier in 2020 under the Voot Select banner.

Contents

History

Launched in March 2016, Voot initially operated as an advertising-supported service. [1]

In February 2020, Voot introduced a paid subscription service known as Voot Select, offering exclusive original series, and early access to selected programmes before their television premiere. [2]

In April 2022, Reliance Industries and Paramount Global announced additional financial backing from Uday Shankar and James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree Systems to expand their streaming business. This would include Reliance's competing JioCinema service being brought under Viacom18. [3] [4] The agreement was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in September 2022. [5]

The two services initially co-existed, but Voot began to wind down and migrate its content to JioCinema in August 2023, beginning with sports rights such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and upcoming rights to the Indian Premier League. [6] New series of Voot originals began premiering on JioCinema in June 2023. [7] [8]

In August 2023, Voot was shut down in favour of JioCinema.

Programming

Voot had content from Colors TV, MTV, Nickelodeon, and other Viacom18-owned television channels. It also hosted Bollywood films for streaming. [9] It had produced several 'Voot Originals' shows for streaming as well. In the children's segment, it worked on shows in Malayalam. [10]

In March 2021, it was announced that Voot Select would add original programming from U.S. parent company Paramount Global's upcoming global streaming service Paramount+, as well as selected CBS and Showtime original series. [11]

Original series

TitleGenrePremiereCast(s)
Chinese Bhasad Comedy 1 May 2016 [12] [13]
Soadies Comedy drama 2016 Baba Sehgal, Anju Mahendru, [14] Raghu Ram, and Rajiv [15]
SinskaariSex related

web-chat Show

18 May 2016 Alok Nath [16]
Badman Mockumentary 8 July 2016 [14] [17] Gulshan Grover, Chunky Pandey
Shaadi Boys Satirical

comedy-drama

22 July 2016 [18] [19] Aakash Ahuja
It's Not That Simple Drama 6 October 2016 [20] [21] Swara Bhaskar, Akshay Oberoi, Karan Veer Mehra, Vivan Bhatena
Untag Comedy drama 1 January 2017 [22] Meiyang Chang, VJ Andy, Dipannita Sharma and Shiv Panditt
Yo Ke Hua Bro Comedy 18 August 2017 [23] Aparshakti Khurana, Gaurav Pandey, Ridhima Pandit, Sumeet Vyas and Shamita Shetty
Stupid Man Smart Phone Travel show 20 September 2017 Sumeet Vyas
Time Out Drama 27 November 2017 [24] [25] [26] Tahir Raj Bhasin and Sarah-Jane Dias
Its Not That Simple 2 Drama 14 December 2018 [27] Swara Bhaskar, Akshay Oberoi, Karan Veer Mehra, Vivan Bhatena
Shortcuts Anthology

Thriller

8 February 2019
Fuh Se Fantasy Anthology

Romance

5 April 2019
Marzi Psychological thriller 2 March 2020 Rajeev Khandelwal and Aahana Kumra [28]
Asur Thriller 2 March 2020 Barun Sobti, Arshad Warsi, Anupriya Goenka, Ridhi Dogra, Sharib Hashmi, Amey Wagh [29]
The Raikar Case Crime Thriller 9 April 2020 Ashwini Bhave, Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Karan Kapoor, Lalit Prabhakar, Neil Bhoopalam, Parul Gulati
Illegal - Justice, Out of Order Political Thriller12 May 2020Neha Sharma, Akshay Oberoi, Deepak Tijori, Piyush Mishra
The Gone Game Crime Thriller 20 August 2020 Sanjay Kapoor, Shweta Tripathi, Arjun Mathur, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Crackdown Action Thriller 23 September 2020 Saqib Saleem, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Rajesh Tailang
Candy Thriller September 2021 Richa Chadda, Ronit Roy, Manu Rishi, Gopal Datt [29]
Bigg Boss OTT Reality Show August 2021 Karan Johar, Divya Agarwal, Nishant Bhat, Pratik Sehajpal, Shamita Shetty
Ranjish Hi Sahi Drama January 2022 Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amala Paul, Amrita Puri
Apharan 2 - Sabka Katega Dobara Action Drama18 March 2022 Arunoday Singh, Mahie Gill, Monica Chaudhary, Nidhi Singh, Varun Badola
London Files Crime, Thriller21 April 2022 Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Gopal Dutt, Sapna Pabbi, Medha Rana, Warren Palmer
Baked - The Bad Trip Comedy 2 May 2022Pranay Manchanda, Shantanu Anam, Manik Papneja, Kriti Vij
Aadha Ishq Romantic, Thriller12 May 2022 Gaurav Arora, Aamna Sharif, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Pratibha Ranta
Code M Season 2 Crime, Thriller9 June 2022 Jennifer Winget, Tanuj Virwani
Cyber VaarCrime, Thriller10 June 2022 Mohit Malik, Sanaya Irani
The Great Weddings of Munnes Comedy Drama4 August 2022 Abhishek Banerjee, Barkha Singh, Paresh Ganatra, Sunita Rajwar, Aakash Dabhade

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reliance Industries</span> Indian multinational conglomerate

Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the largest public company in India by market capitalisation and revenue, and the 100th largest company worldwide. It is India's largest private tax payer and largest exporter, accounting for 7% of India's total merchandise exports.

Network18 Group, is an Indian media conglomerate, based in Mumbai. It is owned by Reliance Industries. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief of Network18 Group, and Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of its board of directors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JioSaavn</span> Indian music streaming service

JioSaavn is an Indian music streaming service and a digital distributor of music in Hindi, Marathi, English, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Chhattisgarhi and other regional languages of India. owned by Jio Platforms a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Since it was founded in 2007 as Saavn, the company has acquired rights to over 80 million music tracks in 16 languages. JioSaavn is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality and music downloads for offline listening, are offered via paid subscriptions.

Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an independent Indian media conglomerate Joint Venture between Reliance Industries, Network18 and Bodhi Tree Systems. The Joint Venture had various channels and content production studios in India. Following merger of its assets with Disney Star, it continues to be largest shareholder in the newly formed merged entity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viacom18 Studios</span> Indian film studio

Viacom18 Studios is an Indian film distribution and production company. It is a subsidiary of Viacom18 based in Mumbai and it is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in India, with an operation that involves acquisition, production, syndication, marketing and worldwide distribution of full-length feature films as well as digital only films, web series, short films.

The Walt Disney Company India, also known as Disney India, is the Indian subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reliance Retail</span> Indian retail company

Reliance Retail is an Indian retail company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel, footwear, toys, home improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. As of 2023, it has over 245,000 employees at 18,000 store locations in 7,000 towns. Apart from physical stores, the company also sells products on its e-commerce channels.

JioStar, registered as Star India Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture. Reliance Industries owns 16.34%, Viacom18 holds 46.82% of the joint venture, while Disney India retains 36.84%. In November 2024, assets of Viacom18 merged with Disney Star, to form JioStar. It is the largest television & entertainment network in India and operates more than 100 TV channels and it owns two major streaming platforms Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney+ Hotstar</span> Indian streaming service

Disney+ Hotstar is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Viacom18 and Disney India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount+</span> American video streaming service

Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures, CBS Studios, Paramount Media Networks, and Paramount Pictures, while also including original series and films, live streaming sports coverage, and in the United States, live streaming of local CBS broadcast stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jio</span> Indian multinational telecommunications company

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. Jio offers 5G, 4G and 4G+ services all over India. Its 6G service is in the works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nita Ambani</span> Indian philanthropist and businesswoman (born 1964)

Nita Ambani is an Indian philanthropist and businesswoman. She is the chairperson and founder of the Reliance Foundation, Dhirubhai Ambani International School and a director of Reliance Industries. She is married to Reliance Industries Limited's chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani. With a family fortune estimated in excess of US$117.8 billion, the Ambanis are among the richest in the world. She is also an art collector and the owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Mumbai Indians.

JioTV is an Indian streaming television service owned by Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. JioTV offers about 1000 live channels with 7 days of catch up content, as per the website.

Bigg Boss is an Indian reality show franchise based on the Dutch reality show Big Brother. It is produced by Endemol Shine India through Viacom18 and Disney Star Networks. Subsequently, the various versions of the show are made internationally available through the OTT platforms JioCinema, and Disney+ Hotstar with 24/7 live stream.

Star Sports Network is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by JioStar, that is a joint venture between Reliance Industries through its subsidiary Viacom18 and Disney India. that was formed in November 2024. The network currently holds rights of flagship tournaments like Indian Premier League, ICC Events, Premier League, ONE Championship, Wimbledon, Nepal Premier League etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jio Platforms</span> Indian multinational technology company

Jio Platforms Limited is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator, Jio, and other digital businesses of Reliance. Since April 2020, Reliance Industries has raised 152,056 crore (US$18 billion) by selling a 32.97% equity stake in the company. In August 2021, it was ranked 155th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JioCinema</span> Indian video streaming service

JioCinema is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Viacom18 and Disney India. the service was initially launched on 4 May 2016 alongside the public launch of the Jio mobile carrier.

<i>Bigg Boss OTT</i> (Hindi Digital series) Indian Hindi-language digital reality series

Bigg Boss OTT is a digital spin-off of the popular Indian Hindi-language reality show Bigg Boss franchise, streamed first on Voot for its initial season and later on JioCinema for the second season and JioCinema Premium for the third. Following the format of the Dutch reality game show Big Brother, developed by Endemol, Bigg Boss OTT has launched three seasons to date. The first season premiered on August 8, 2021, and was hosted by Karan Johar. The second season saw Salman Khan take over as the host, while Anil Kapoor hosted the recently concluded third season. As of now, 45 contestants have participated in Bigg Boss OTT, with 5 of them having also appeared in the main Bigg Boss seasons.

Jyoti Deshpande is an Indian businesswoman and film producer and former CEO of Viacom 18. She was formerly the Group CEO and managing director of Eros International. Jyoti is also the former co-chair of the Media & Entertainment Committee, FICCI.

References

  1. "Viacom18 launches video-on-demand platform Voot – The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  2. "Viacom18 launches Voot Select, a subscription-based video streaming service". businessline. 4 March 2020. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  3. Ramachandran, Naman (27 April 2022). "James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree, Reliance, Viacom18 Strike $2 Billion Deal to Create Giant Indian TV and Streaming Company". Variety . Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  4. "Bodhi Tree-Viacom18 deal: Why the new deal points towards Reliance's aggressive push in broadcasting business". Business Today. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  5. "CCI approves merger of Jio Cinema OTT platform with Viacom18". Business Today. 22 September 2022. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  6. Laghate, Gaurav (6 October 2022). "Viacom18 to shift sports content to JioCinema". The Economic Times. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  7. Jha, Lata (9 August 2023). "Voot folds into JioCinema; users now free to migrate". mint. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  8. "Viacom18 completes merger of JioCinema and Voot OTT platforms, majority subscribers transitioned". BusinessLine. 15 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  9. "Viacom18 launches video-on-demand platform Voot". Money Control. 29 March 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  10. Bansal, Shuchi (11 October 2017). "Digital platforms mainstream regional content". Live Mint. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  11. "Paramount Plus Content Finds Home on India's Voot Select (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  12. "TV writer makes directorial, web debut with 'Chinese Bhasad' – Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  13. "Chinese Bhasad". Voot. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Ready for Badman and Soadies? – Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  15. "Soadies". Voot. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  16. "Sanskari 'Babuji' goes 'Sins-kaari': Alok Nath to discuss sex online". Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  17. "Badman". Voot. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  18. "Web series Shaadi Boys a satirical take on extravagance in Indian weddings, say writers". The Indian Express. 24 July 2016. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  19. "Shaadi Boys". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  20. "VOOT launches its sixth original web-series". www.afaqs.com. 6 October 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  21. Gaekwad, Manish. "Swara Bhaskar glams up for web series 'It's Not That Simple'". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  22. "Life is all about untag-ging yourself!". Times of India . 8 January 2017. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  23. "Aparshakti Khurana relates to his character in the new web series Yo Ke Hua Bro". The Indian Express . 30 August 2017. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  24. "Voot's new original 'Time Out' out on November 28". Exchang4media. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  25. Khateeb, Almas (3 January 2018). "'Time out' Review: The Unrealistically Realistic Life in a Metro". TheQuint. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  26. "Time Out on Voot". Voot. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  27. Scroll Staff (5 December 2018). "'It's Not That Simple' season 2: Swara Bhasker is back to questioning gender bias". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  28. "Marzi first impression: An engaging thriller owned by Aahana Kumra and Rajeev Khandelwal". The Indian Express. 6 March 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  29. 1 2 "All You Need to Know About Voot Select: Price, Originals, Exclusives". NDTV Gadgets 360. 3 March 2020. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.