Cellcast Interactive, India’s first interactive media company announced the launch of its new platform – MyTV, ushering in the first social TV channel in India. All the interactive programming on MyTV will be free of ad breaks and the content will be created uniquely such that brands are integrated into it. MyTV, a free to air channel, is a path-breaking venture by Pankaj Thakar and funded by Canaan Partners & Vertex Venture Holdings being the first ever fully interactive channel in India. MyTV will bring about interactivity across three platforms – television, internet (including social media platforms) and mobile. Viewers participating in any show will be able to see interactions from other mediums as well in real time – giving a complete social experience.

MyTV will feature more than 20 hours of programming with shows like Bid2Win, My Studio, The Big Deal, Chor Machaye Shor, Laughter Tambola, Glitter Mania, Gold Safe, Cricket Howzatt, One2Many, among others. MyTV has signed on prominent names like Aman Verma, Swapnil Joshi and Sudha Chandran to host some of its properties. The company is also exploring the possibility of collaborating with leading names from the independent music scene to identify and mentor talent on its MyStudio show. Some consumer facing brands have been in talks with MyTV to leverage their platform to reach out to new customers using MyTV’s interactive platform spanning the web, TV and mobile.

MyTV will be available across the western, eastern and northern belts of the country. MyTV would reach over 35 million analog/ digital homes including multiple DTH platforms in the first phase itself. The channel aims at reaching out to varied audiences in the 15+ age group. BAG Network, will be the official distribution partner of Cellcast’s MyTV, especially across the Hindi speaking belt in India.

“Cellcast is a pioneer in the business of interactive television. With a change in the profile of the television audience over the last few years there has been a shift in the way the younger audience wants to interact with content they see on television. MyTV will fill this void by offering viewers an opportunity to connect and interact with content actively rather than just view is as passive participants,” said Pankaj Thakar, Founder & CEO, Cellcast on the launch of MyTV.

Elaborating the thought behind MyTV, Mr. Ashutosh, COO – Television, said, “Our vision of creating MyTV was to offer consumers another interactive platform where the multiple mediums can be integrated to offer an enhanced experience. Our Viewers are our Customers, thus the value delivered by this channel needs to be so much more. Also, by eliminating ad breaks on our MyTV our audience will be more engaged on this unique interactive approach to entertainment. Each of our shows are independent properties with separate online and offline revenue streams”.

Last year, Cellcast provided 4000 hours of content across various channels and is now planning to increase it to 10000 hours this year. In the next one year, Cellcast aims aggregate more than 100 million interactions with consumers over the next one year.

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