ShortsTV expands to 60 million homes across India adding Dish TV, d2h and Airtel Digital TV

ShortsTV, a leading next-generation content platform delivering high quality short form content to global audiences, is now available on India’s major DTH platforms after launching new partnerships with Dish TV, d2h and Airtel Digital TV. The service, debuting in 2018 exclusively on Tata Sky, has been one of the fastest growing in its first year of operations in India. With these new partnerships, ShortsTV’s reach in India more than triples to over 60 million households, representing 85% of the country’s satellite TV market.

ShortsTV is pioneering a new type of entertainment in India:  highest quality, entertaining movies from leading Indian and international talent in short form — and audiences have taken note.  ShortsTV’s depth of films is unrivalled, drawing from a growing catalogue of more than 10,000 Indian and international short movies. Top of the list are award-winners from all the biggest international award franchises: Oscars, BAFTAs and Cannes and the biggest Hollywood and Bollywood stars: Benedict Cumberbatch to Jackie Shroff and Judi Dench to Radike Apte.  Furthermore, the ShortsTV India catalogue brings the best of Indian short films from our partners, including Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films, Terribly Tiny Tales, Whistling Woods and Humara Movies.

The ShortsTV service will be available without ads on Dish TV and d2h as ‘ShortsTV Active’ (channel 135) and on Airtel Digital TV as ‘Airtel ShortsTV’ (channel 259). It will continue to be available to Tata Sky subscribers on channel HD 112 and SD 113 as ‘Tata Sky ShortsTV’.

Commenting on ShortsTV’s growth in India, Mr. Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive of ShortsTV, said, “We are thrilled to bring the world’s best short entertainment to 60 million households across India.  We are pleased to welcome Dish TV, d2h and Airtel Digital TV as new partners alongside Tata Sky, our existing partner. This completes a fantastic first year for ShortsTV and for our audiences across India, for whom we are so very grateful.”

He also added, “It’s important to note that Indian audiences and filmmakers are getting behind short films like never before. “The Oscar Nominated Short Films”, which we released in Indian cinemas for the first time, had an amazing run in 9 cities across the country.  And our “ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival”, which qualifies up to 5 Indian short films to compete for an Oscar® by giving the winners a week-long theatrical release in Hollywood theaters, had entries from more than 3000 Indian filmmakers. This isn’t a slight change in ‘audience consumption habits’ we’re witnessing in India, it’s a flat-out revolution.”

Commenting on the launch of the new service, Mr. Anil Dua, Executive Director & Group CEO, Dish TV India Limited, said, “We are delighted to launch the unique short content service ‘ShortsTV Active’ which will offer award winning & international short movies on DishTV & d2h platforms. We, at Dish TV, have always aimed at continuously bringing new engaging content for our audiences. Going further on that route, we have partnered with ShortsTV to offer this unique valued added service. This service is meant for the segment of our viewer base that prefers to consume entertainment in small format. We hope to continue on our path to provide the best of entertainment to our customers.”

Richa Kalra, Product Lead – DTH, Bharti Airtel said, “As a customer obsessed brand, we are always looking for innovative ways to delight our customers. With this in mind, we are constantly adding specially curated content to our wide range of offerings to fulfil the unique preference of our customers. Airtel Shorts TV is the latest addition to our portfolio which will enable our discerning customers to enjoy popular short films from around the world 24X7 on our ad-free channel.”

ABOUT SHORTSTV:

• ShortsTV is the first and only 24/7, linear and OTT HD TV channel dedicated to short form video entertainment, including movies and series
• Distributed globally, the channel is available in 70million homes across the US, India, Latin America, the Netherlands, Belgium and Eastern Europe.
• With over 10,000 titles, ShortsTV has the largest catalogue of quality short form video entertainment, including award-winning and star-studded live action, animated and documentary shorts from filmmakers around the globe
• In addition to the channel, ShortsTV distributes a significant catalogue of on-demand shorts through video-on-demand on iTunes in 92 countries, Amazon Instant Video (UK, US and Germany), Google Play (US and Canada), and Verizon and Frontier (US)
• Since 2006, ShortsTV has exclusively presented the ‘Oscar Nominated Short Films’ theatrical release in cinemas across the US and Canada, South America, Europe, India, Australia and South Africa.
• ShortsTV has developed and is in beta testing in the US with AT&T, the first app to use a similar machine-learning algorithm to Spotify, giving audiences the power to create their own channels in the short form video entertainment space.

• ShortsTV is operated by Shorts International and is headquartered in London, England with offices in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Mumbai. The company is led by Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive, and is owned by Shorts Entertainment Holdings, with AMC Networks as a significant minority shareholder.

Genesis BCW Contacts:

Priya Shetty | M: + 91 8291006279 | E: [email protected]

Alina Zafar   | M: + 91 8960789372 | E: [email protected]