Eros Now launches Dolby support

Leading Indian OTT platform Eros Now has announced support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

At launch, the service will stream several films in Dolby Atmos including historical romance Bajirao Mastani, romcom Manmarziyaan and action thriller Action Jackson. Original series available in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are promised in the near future. 

Eros Now charts more than 166 million registered users in India, and in August became the first Indian OTT provider to secure distribution in China. 

India is set to become the second largest OTT market over the next five years. A recent study from Eros Now and KPMG in India projects that the country will have more than 500 million online video subscribers by 2023. This would make it second only to China in terms of subscriber numbers.

Ali Hussein, CEO of Eros Now said: “We are delighted to partner with Dolby to bring quality content and technology within the premises of all our subscribers across the world. Eros Now is India’s first true subscription VOD OTT platform and we will continue to invest in superb content and technology experiences for our paid subscribers on the mobile device and specifically for the large screen in-home viewing. 

“This festive season is going to be a bumper one for our users and subscribers as we are dedicated to increasing our content offering in Dolby Atmos and to bring our Originals in Dolby Vision in the near future.”

Pankaj Kedia, managing director for emerging markets at Dolby Laboratories said: “We are excited to work with Eros Now to bring Dolby Atmos, our immersive audio technology, onto their platform. We’ve seen strong adoption of Dolby Atmos in films in India, and in partnership with Eros Now, we are providing movie fans the ability to enjoy these titles through the comfort of their home. We are also excited that Eros Now subscribers will soon enjoy their favourite content in Dolby Vision once Eros Now releases their planned Original content in the near future. This collaboration between Eros Now and Dolby will bring spectacular entertainment experiences to the subscribers of Eros Now.”

While this focus on Dolby technologies is certainly a milestone for Eros Now, it is worth noting that the vast majority of Indian video consumption takes place on mobile. The previously mentioned study from Eros Now and KPMG in India found that 87% of users in India consume their content on mobile phones and spend an average time of about 70 minutes per day on OTT platforms.