India's ALTBalaji selects Fortumo to enable direct carrier billing

ALTBalaji, the digital platform of Balaji Telefilms Limited is partnering with global mobile payments company Fortumo to enable carrier billing.

ALTBalaji users, from India and other parts of the world, will now be able to subscribe to the streaming service by conveniently deducting the charge from their prepaid SIM card or charging it to their monthly phone bill.

“We at ALTBalaji are always at the forefront of creating better consumer experiences and carrier billing is one such initiative for frictionless platform-consumer relationship. We are entering this partnership to enable and strengthen a seamless payments experience on ALTBalaji using Fortumo’s reach and telecom relationships. We have found Fortumo to be a great service partner enabling ALTBalaji to tap into the huge smartphone and telecom user base in India and overseas market.” said Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO of ALT Digital Media Entertainment Limited.

“India’s digital ecosystem has in a way grown up, meaning users have become accustomed to paying for content that they see valuable. This means that digital content merchants are also switching their focus from user acquisition to monetization. Here carrier billing through Fortumo is invaluable as we provide the payment solution with the largest coverage in the market. We are very happy to work with ALTBalaji and our carrier partners to increase revenue for all the involved parties,” said Sanjay Sinha, Head of Fortumo India.

Fortumo’s carrier billing platform covers around 870 million active connections of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance, Aircel and Tata Docomo; as such, it is the mobile payments provider with the largest coverage in the country. While there are already more than 250 million smartphone owners in India, less than 25 million people in the country have a credit card. This means carrier billing gives digital merchants like ALTBalaji a 10 times bigger payment reach in the country.

In addition to ALTBalaji, Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is used by app stores (Google Play), digital media providers (Spotify, Sony, Gaana) and gaming companies (EA Mobile, Gameloft, Kinguin, Rovio). In order to enable global carrier billing for these merchants, Fortumo has partnered with more than 350 global mobile operators, including the groups Telenor, Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Singtel, as well as leading mobile operators in India.

ALTBalaji app will be launched with 6 new shows and will be followed with a new show every 15 days for its viewers to binge watch. The content is created by some of the best talent of the Indian Entertainment industry including critically acclaimed directors and actors.

The long illustrious list of artists comprises of Nagesh Kukunoor, Juhi Chawla, Nimrat Kaur, Rajkumar Rao, Hansal Mehta, Sakshi Tanwar, Ram Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sameer Soni, Yudhishtar Urs, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, and more.