India’s video streaming service BoxTV.com, which introduced mobile-enabled payment mode in India last October, has now launched mobile-enabled payments for its subscribers in the U.K.
Starting immediately, customers of Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, 3 and O2 in the UK will be able to purchase BoxTV mobile packs online or through BoxTV’s Android application, with the help of its mobile billing partner Fortumo.
Speaking on the announcement, Pandurang Nayak, Business Head – BoxTV.com said: “With a large diaspora of Indians in the UK, BoxTV is glad to offer them an additional option to pay conveniently through their mobile phone for enjoying premium Bollywood and regional content. The success of this payment mode in India has encouraged us to introduce this key feature to more territories. We are happy to announce this new mode of payment for 100% of the UK’s mobile customer base.”
“Many people do not want to pay for digital content using credit cards because it requires sharing personal information. Operator billing removes this problem because no personal data is shared – the user enters his/her phone number and the payment is charged to their phone bill. This provides a faster and risk-free purchasing experience. BoxTV has been a premier partner in India and we are excited to work with them to give U.K.’s Bollywood fans access to their favourite content,” added Gerri Kodres, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Carrier Relations at Fortumo.
With 1.5 million people of Indian origin, the U.K. is the second largest Western country for the Indian diaspora. The Indian film industry releases over 1,000 films a year and less than 10% of them are shown in cinemas in the UK. BoxTV has established itself as an Indian film discovery platform and offers popular content from Bollywood and Regional cinema, having content tie-ups with prestigious studios like Disney UTV, Shemaroo, Rajshree, Balaji motion pictures etc.
BoxTV has more than 14,000 hours of content – primarily Bollywood and regional content – in nine languages for customers outside India. The content includes movies, TV shows and documentaries. Launched commercially a year ago, BoxTV has more than half a million registered users worldwide and has plans to expand aggressively in the coming months. BoxTV can be accessed through its website at http://boxtv.com or through its apps on the App Store, Play Store and Windows Phone Store.
Fortumo allows any merchant to set up payment processing for web and mobile services, games or apps. It supports payments in 80 countries through 300 mobile operators, including a number of exclusive direct carrier billing partnerships. Any developer, regardless of size and location, can sign up for an account and get started with mobile payments at http://fortumo.com.
