DistroTV, a division of the California-based media technology company DistroScale and that claims a prominent stake in the free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) revolution, is partnering with Mumbai-based House of Cheers, founded by former Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak, to onboard South Asian TV channels on its platform.

DistroTV plans to revolutionize distribution and monetization of content for broadcasters and creators globally, the company claimed in an official statement issued in California, US. It also said the free-to-air OTT platform, which predominantly caters to US, UK, and Canadian audiences, makes it easier than ever to distribute, market, and monetize content at no cost.

Its latest move is to offer premier Indian channel content through a free bundle service called DistroTV Desi. This bundle offers a variety of diverse content focusing on entertainment, lifestyle, and news geared toward the South East Asian population abroad and airs in their native languages including Punjabi, Hindi, and Gujarati among others.

The DistroTV Desi Bundle would be an easy pathway to reach the 20-million, strong South East Asian diaspora across North America and the EU, representing a large revenue opportunity, a company statement claimed.

Recently onboarded channels include Times Now, Mirror Now, Wion TV, Zoom, Times Navbharat, Republic World, Republic Bharat, and Mastiii TV. The company is also in advanced discussion with a further 15 to 20 channels that include those regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

“Today’s broadcasters and content creators face a few critical challenges,” said Navdeep Saini, co-founder, and CEO of DistroScale, the parent company of DistroTV.

“They struggle with the cost of content delivery, with understanding how to best drive viewership, and with how to effectively market and monetize their content. At DistroTV, we aim to address all of these issues so that content creators can focus solely on their craft: producing meaningful content that will resonate with viewers,” Saini added.

DistroTV ensures that all content is aggregated into one OTT platform, with the flexibility of having both linear TV and VOD. The platform absorbs all associated costs for content delivery, streaming, and marketing so that broadcasters and content creators do not pay any upfront investment or infrastructure costs. Leveraging its vast network and deep relationships with advertisers, DistroTV also monetizes content for all clients, the statement explained.

“DistroTV makes it easier than ever for Indian content creators and channels to distribute and monetize their content globally, without worrying about the setup, infrastructural, and ad costs, which is a huge saving on their bottom line,” said Raj Nayak, Managing Director House of Cheer and an advisor to Distro TV.

“The channel owners can simply focus on producing engaging content, and we will host and monetize their content, as well as syndicate their channels to other large streamers to widen their international distribution, income and revenue opportunities,” said Rajesh Nair, Vice President of Business Development & Content Acquisition at DistroScale, the parent company of DistroTV.

Unlike other streaming providers, DistroTV also offers transparency to content owners through its live dashboard, which allows for direct, real-time access to key viewership and revenue metrics at any given time. Metrics in the live dashboard include viewer location, time of day shows were watched, the frequency of watching a show, and even how many ads a particular viewer saw during episode breaks. With access to key viewership metrics, broadcasters and content owners can make informed decisions and tweak strategy in real-time to drive maximum viewership and increase monetization.

DistroTV has already successfully onboarded more than 150 channels, including Bloomberg, EuroNews, US Weekly, and more.

DistroTV plans to scale this operation over the next 12 to 18 months in other international markets.