After amassing more than 16 million subscribers on YouTube alone apart from clocking thousands of minutes of viewing time in the television, one of the leading Indian animation production house Ssoftoons launched its own App and OTT Platform, SSOFTOONS PLUS at Animation Xpress’ Kids, Animation & More (KAM) Summit and Ann Awards 2022. The glimpse of the mesmerising content based on Indian mythologies, fables and folktales was received with a huge round of applause during the launch.
Ssoftoons CEO Sourav Mondal and COO Hansa Mondal attended the third edition of KAM Summit held on-ground on 26 August at Hotel Sahara Star, Mumbai. The Kolkata-based production house is currently targeting Bengali and Hindi consumers, but will soon expand. Their videos have clocked in more than billion views on YouTube which has earned them four YouTube Gold Awards and 10 YouTube Silver Awards.
“The industry is going through massive change. There is a shift in programming from a majority of foreign content to locally produced content. The central aspect of Ssoftoons Plus OTT is to capture regional markets, which implies more diversified online content libraries with relatability and local flavour,” they said.
They shared the brief of some of their series:
Dadi Maa ki Kahaniya: The series is based on fairy tales and folk tales from around the world. These stories have been Indianized and have been incorporated with some morals, but not in a peachy way.
Choti Moti Kahaniya: The series is based on comedy stories and fairy tales in modern times. These stories are unique and created by the team to capture Indian families who love innocent entertainment.
Darna Jaruri: This series is all about ghosts. Funny, intelligent, silly, helpful or scary ghosts to entertain your family. They are sweet, not ugly. And, of course, they are Indian ghosts.
Bewkuf Naukar: Buddhuram, is ready with all his mischievous activities. He claims he is a little stupid, but the Ssoftoons team argue that he is the STUPIDEST MAN IN THE WORLD. So now it’s your turn to decide. If you want to laugh with your kids and parents while watching a single show, this is perfect.
Do Budhiya: Where the body is old, but the mind is kiddish, there comes the story of these two old sisters. They are like children, always chasing after each other, trying to seize. And this creates a pure comedy. The story of these two old ladies is enjoyable for all the family.
Lullu: Lullu is a ghost who dies young. He has to fulfill his unfinished desires, and for that, he has to regain his human form. The most unfortunate thing is that he rejects the ghost community and humans reject him. He always tries to help people and increase his virtue mark sheet but people always abuse his powers, and so he never gets the pass mark to reincarnate. Here is a full-on comedy waiting for you.
Tuni: Tuni, the little bird, is the hero in this series. She protects her cute chicks and bird friends from evil people, mainly from the evil king, with her intelligence. She consistently proves that brain power is more robust than physical power. BUT!! She is mad about Ornaments. Is it for her feminine instincts?? Let’s check….
Since Ssoftoons videos have a wide range of user demography, their revenue model for OTT platforms is designed from a one-size-fits-all subscription model to a more diverse subscription model, which caters to the populace of different income levels.
“For long-term benefit, OTT service providers must focus on ad delivery optimisation, targeting the audiences and monetisation tactics to drive revenue rather than locking viewers in a subscription-based model. So we are thinking of a hybrid model in our near future, keeping the minimum duration of advertisement in the video. We are also adding merchandising products to gain extra revenue from our customers,” Hansa Mondal said in a statement.
Subscription video-on-demand or Subscription OTT– Only users or viewers who have paid subscriptions can access streaming video content. For the first month of its launch, the offer price is Rs 13 only.
Subscription Plan 1) Ssoftoons Plus Purple :Rs 39/- only for one month
Subscription Plan 2) Ssoftoons Plus Red :Rs 99/- only for three months
The average duration of shows are mostly 11 minutes. The App has launched with 100 Bengali and Hindi shows during KAM Summit 2022. For now they have 500 plus shows in both the languages. There will be four new shows every week. Apart from Bengali and Hindi, the platform will also release content in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Oriya languages.
