RailTel has selected Margo Network, a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment, as the digital entertainment service provider (DESP) for providing content on demand service in trains and stations. Content on demand will be available in all premium/express/mail trains and suburban trains of Indian Railways. The project will be implemented in two years and the provision of content such as movies, shows, educational programs etc. will be made available both in paid and unpaid formats for a contract period of 10 years which includes first two years of implementation.
With an aim to generate more non fare revenue, Railway Board has entrusted RailTel with providing the content on demand service to passengers in trains. In this project RailTel will provide various preloaded multilingual content (movies, music videos, general entertainment, lifestyleetc) in moving trains through media servers installed in trains. Content on demand platform will also provide e-commerce/m-commerce services in various domains, e.g. travel bookings (cab, bus, train) etc. and provide various innovative solutions in digital marketing domain. With content on demand, passengers will be able to enjoy uninterrupted free/ subscription based entertainment service during their train journey despite unstable mobile network in a moving train. Passengers will be able to enjoy high quality buffer free streaming across personal devices. The content will be periodically refreshed. The high-quality buffer free streaming of across personal devices will make the journey more entertaining.
Talking about the Project, Puneet Chawla, CMD/RailTel, said, “The full roll out will be completed within by 2022. The Content on Demand service will not only improve overall passenger experience but at the same time will increase the non-fare revenue through multiple monetisation models. The scope covers all 17 Zones of Indian Railways. The earning from the project will be majorly through three streams e.g. Advt. based monetisation; Subscription based monetization and E-Commerce/Partnership Services.”
A total of approximately 8,731 trains which includes 3,003 trains (premium/mail/express- to and fro) pan India and 2,864 pairs of suburban trains (total 5,728 trains) have been kept in the scope of the service rollout. Also content on demand will be available at all Wi-Fi enabled railway stations which have crossed 5,563 railway stations as on date.
