Spuul, an aggregator of Bollywood movies providing content to Indians globally, has announced strategic investments in key areas like UI with the objective of enhancing customer satisfaction and growing viewership across geos.
In line with this, Spuul is presenting itself in a new avatar with its mobile & web applications with a redesigned interface created to facilitate easy content discovery, quick & easy modes of payment with pocket friendly pricing, and tweaks that will allow users to stream content over low bandwidth networks. The update is currently available for Android & the web, with an update scheduled for iOS devices in the coming weeks.
With a revised pricing strategy, Spuul will be offering premium subscriptions at sachet prices ranging from Rs. 30 for 5 days to Rs 150 for 30 days. The OTT service provider has tied up with telecom operators to provide carrier billing for payment options from within the app, allowing users to pay for their subscriptions through their mobile operator.
Keeping in line with its commitment to offer its viewers a complete experience, Spuul has also launched the ‘Tiny’ download option – which will help combat slow data connections and erratic network issues.
“India has typically been a single TV household - it is now transforming into one where ~650M people will have a TV in their pockets by 2019. 90% of all consumption on Spuul already comes from smartphones. With this update we aim to increase consumer engagement and enhance their overall experience. Furthermore, India is a growing market where a device’s network often creates a hindrance for a user trying to consume content in any form, especially when one is outside a wi-fi zone. We’ve kept this in mind while trying to present a seamless experience to the user, by introducing certain features that will allow him to consume content, even in poor network areas. With this update, we are very excited to present our users with immense flexibility to pay and stream their favorite content.” says Subin Subaiah, CEO, Spuul.
New UI
Spuul’s UI for the website and mobile apps has undergone a complete overhaul, with increased browsing options that make content discovery easier. The update comes with an improved search experience that will help the user to search by language, genre, actors & directors. The app’s Instant Play feature allows the user to resume the video right where he paused it, and also throws up recommendations of unwatched content based on the users’ viewing history.
“With our growing content library, aiding the user with the discovery of untapped content is essential to engagement. With these new features, we are confident that the viewing experience will only be further enhanced.” says Subaiah
Tiny Downloads And Offline Viewing
Spuul was one of the pioneers to allow encrypted downloads on mobile devices. Taking this to the next level, they have now introduced a feature called ‘Tiny’, which allows a user to download an entire movie onto his mobile device in under 70 MB at a 144P resolution, with the right resolution for a mobile screen. Keeping erratic network behavior in mind, the app has also been designed to work offline. That is, all images and downloaded videos will load in low or no network zones to enable offline viewing.
New pricing & payment
Spuul has introduced completely new price points to suit the wallet of users in India. “We took the Consumer Goods model of sachet pricing and exported it to the VOD space. Our new price points for recurring subscriptions are Rs. 30 for 5 days, Rs. 60 for 10 days, Rs. 90 for 15 days, and Rs. 150 for 30 days. You can pay using your debit or credit card, iTunes & Google Play or operator billing for which we have partnered with Vodafone & Idea. By March, we will have all the major telecom operators covered. In addition to the tech updates, we are adding a ton of content this quarter, which will surprise and delight viewers”, says Subaiah.