Eros Now Leverages Google Cloud for Artificial Intelligence Led Product Enhancements
Eros STX Global Corporation (NYSE: ESGC) (“ErosSTX”), a global entertainment company, announced today that Eros Now, a leading digital OTT South Asian entertainment platform owned by ErosSTX, has collaborated with Google Cloud to use its Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for streaming the entire range of Eros Now movies and originals with automated subtitles. With this initiative, Eros Now becomes the first streaming service globally to automate this previously manual and demanding workflow with the help of Google Cloud technologies.
With the use of AI frameworks and vast amount of pre-existing data, Eros Now’s in-house Data Science team simulated, trained and developed a cutting-edge model which performs equivalent to human level and is capable of generating subtitles in desired languages across movies and originals. It is another milestone achieved by Eros Now to further enhance the viewing experience of users and is expected to drive higher consumer engagement levels on the streaming platform and will create opportunities in “Text to Speech” automation. The use of automated subtitles will allow users to enjoy a vast diversity of content, hassle-free, and without any language barriers. The model can cover variety of genres and modernization of languages. Dealing with gender non-neutral languages and a variety of punctuations used in different languages were just a few of the biggest challenges. The automation process has taken over six months for data scientists to perfect.
The new subtitling feature will first be available in the Arabic language to cater to the massive Arab audiences who enjoy Indian cinema, followed by other significant markets which consume Indian entertainment, globally. In the rich historical context of the Indo-Middle East relationship, Indian cinema, especially Bollywood movies, has acted as a channel for people to connect and improve commercial relationships and ties between the two regions. In addition, the vast Indian audience residing in the Middle East, along with film production and shoots for various movies, events and award functions, have all helped to further boost the demand for Indian content amongst the locals living in the Middle East.
Commenting on the development, Ali Hussein, CEO, Eros Now said, "Eros has always been a pioneer in adopting technology to satiate the demands of audiences and build a deeper connection with them by offering unlimited entertainment. The innovative use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will give customized subtitled content for the global audience, allowing us to target a wider set of subscribers and drive engagement across Eros Now’ rich consumer offering."
Bikram Singh Bedi, Managing Director, Google Cloud India added, "With the power of AI built on Google Cloud, Eros Now can deliver automated subtitles to further enhance the viewing experience of its users."
About Eros STX Global Corporation:
Eros STX Global Corporation, (“ErosSTX”) (NYSE: ESGC) is a global entertainment company that acquires, co-produces and distributes films, digital content & music across multiple formats such as theatrical, television and OTT digital media streaming to consumers around the world. Eros International Plc changed its name to Eros STX Global Corporation pursuant to the July 2020 merger with STX Entertainment, merging two international media and entertainment groups. The combination of one of the largest Indian OTT players and premier studio with one of Hollywood’s fastest-growing independent media companies has created an entertainment powerhouse with a presence in over 150 countries. ErosSTX delivers star-driven premium feature film and episodic content across a multitude of platforms at the intersection of the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing global markets, including US, India, Middle East, Asia and China. The company also owns the rapidly growing OTT platform Eros Now which has rights to over 12,000 films across Hindi and regional languages and had 211.5 million registered users and 36.2 million paying subscribers as of September 30, 2020. For further information, please visit ErosSTX.com.
About Eros Now:
Eros Now, a division of Eros STX Global Corporation, is the world’s leading Indian OTT platform with over 211.5 million registered users and 36.2 million paying subscribers. It offers endless entertainment hosting one of the largest movie libraries (over 12,000 digital titles), as well as premium television shows, music and music videos, unmatched in quantity and quality. Eros Now also has a deep library of short-form content, totaling over 4,400 short-form videos including trailers, original short exclusive interviews, and marketing shorts. To date Eros Now has successfully premiered over 180 films in nine different languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Telugu, and Punjabi. To see, watch now: www.erosnow.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210308005524/en/
