Indian movie production house Eros Group is in preliminary talks with Apple and other major content distributors to sell its entire content library of films and music. Eros Group production house is also in talks with Amazon and Netflix.

And the result would be scintillating for the users of Apple Music and TV, as more than 3000 movies and millions of song titles would be available to them, directly from Eros Group’s treasure chest.

Mega Plan of Apple to Buy Eros:

As per reports coming in, Apple and Eros Group are in talks to make a mega-deal of content in India. Reportedly, close to $1 billion would be paid by Apple to acquire exclusive rights of over 3000 Hindi and Regional movies from Eros Group.

Eros Now, which is the digital OTT platform, often referred to as Netflix of India, will be part of the deal. Eros Now has around 2.9 million paid subscribers, and 100 million users as of June 2017.

Eros, Now itself has over 10,000 movies in their database, which includes 5000 Bollywood and regional movies besides third party content and music data base.

Both Eros and Apple have declined to comment on this matter, and there has been no response from Amazon and Netflix as well.

One official who is close to the negotiations said, “Discussions are on to monetize the library. An announcement is likely soon.”

The company would benefit from offering the material on iTunes, as Eros has over 3,000 movies, which might help lure Indian customers into the Apple ecosystem. The iPhone controls just 3 percent of the Indian smartphone market, mostly because of its high cost.

A deal might also increase the appeal of a fifth-generation Apple TV, both in India and for Bollywood fans in general. Eros already offers a subscription service on the set-top (and other platforms) called Eros Now, but hosting on iTunes would mean the ability to rent or buy individual titles.

The Fight to Dominate On-Demand Niche Continues:

Every major player in this sector – Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Voot, Jio, and others are aware of the potential, and this is the reason they are aggressively expanding their hold.

Amazon has already declared an investment of Rs 2000 crore to acquire exclusive right of movies, TV shows, music and web series, in order to expand their Amazon Prime in India. Recently they roped in Salman Khan, to amplify their brand presence.

On the other hand, Netflix has roped in celebrities like Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte for exclusive shows on their platform.