U.K.-based digital retail service provider iO Global has signed a deal with Mumbai, India-based content aggregator Hungama Mobile which will give the Ipswich, England-based company’s customers in Europe, Asia and Africa access to some 500,000 tracks from “Bollywood” musical films.
Hungama, which claims to be the world’s leading digital distributor of Indian entertainment content, has deals in place with a string of Bollywood film studios/distributors, including Rajshri Productions, V.R. Pictures and Mukta Arts.
According to iO, the deal includes over 1,000 movies, 20,000 videos and some 50,000 images. Companies serviced by iO will be able to offer the music and film/video content as downloads; individual images are available as “wallpaper.”
In a statement, Hungama Mobile group account head for wireless Mridula Joshi Sharma said: “the mobile experience platform from iO global, combined with the partnerships the company has with a broad range of leading network operators across the globe, is the gateway to access a larger market, particularly in Europe and Africa.”
Added iO global CEO Martin Knestrick: “With recent figures showing that over 2 billion people across 127 countries watch Bollywood movies, we are certain there will be a high level of demand for accessing this content on mobiles and PC’s.”
The new deal adds Hungama to a list of iO trading partners which includes all four major record companies. Prior to the Hungama pact, iO claimed to have a catalog of more than 500,000 music tracks.
