Delivering Videos In A New Style

When Dilip Venkatraman, the former CEO of CNN IBN & IBN7 TV network, decided to pursue his entrepreneurial interests in 2015, he knew he was stepping out of the broadcasting business to create a better content viewing experience. He wanted to start a digitally dynamic startup venture that would show news bulletins personalised to one’s taste and offer interactive video playlists with curated content based on one’s preference.

“VideoTap is an original ‘Made in India’ concept with technology built in-house by a team of 25 people. It is a platform that offers interactive videos on demand with video compilations, interactivity and ‘direct-to-scene’ watching,” says founder and CEO Dilip Venkatraman, who founded the company with wife Savvy Dilip, chief operating officer of VideoTap.

With new innovative technology available on all fronts, consumers now want more control over their viewing experience. That’s what motivated the husband-wife duo to create an entire ecosystem that delivers an unmatched user experience. “A team of video publishers, especially broadcasters and production houses, is helping us unlock valuable content. We are trying to create exclusivity in technology to assist people who want content. VideoTap is the smartest video experience for the smarter generation on smart gadgets,” says Savvy Dilip.

As per industry predictions, active Over-the-top content (OTT) and Video-on-demand (VOD) subscribers are going to increase to 105 million by 2020. While the VOD industry prepares to have a more successful run in 2017, Venkatraman and Savvy bring to users a highly innovative, cloud-based interactive smart video platform, powered by proprietary patent-pending technology.

There was a time when people watched passive content on a passive screen, but with VideoTap one can enjoy an active experience on active screens, claims Venkatraman. “There are times when consumers want to watch a specific scene in a video and not the full version. For them, we offer personalised real-time video compilations, and interactivity on videos. That way, no two people get the same experience as per the demand of the consumer. Hence, one can experience bigger variety and personalised compilation on demand,” he adds.

So far, Venkatraman has invested close to $1 million in the venture, which will be launched in the coming weeks (the platform will be rolled out in phases). He plans to raise $10 million over the next two years to set up R&D centres in Israel and the US.

The company also plans to make the platform accessible to countries such as Korea and Singapore in the next three years. “We are building a local company with global succession. We are working towards making this platform artificial intelligence-enabled, facial and voice recognition-enabled and a less manual technology platform,” adds Savvy Dilip.

The digital platform aims to support both B2B and B2C segments. While publishers can upload videos on this platform, process them using their cloud-based video tagging, curating and authoring tool, and publish these videos, this experience will be delivered on the publisher websites and apps as well as on VideoTap’s platform and apps. The platform’s interactive video ad serving technology allows advertisers to target their content at prospective customers, using unique adaptive video ad formats. One unique feature of the platform is its ability to deliver ‘expandable video ads’, says Venkatraman.

On this platform, producers will be able to curate their uploaded video content, create ‘smart videos’ and publish them using Design Room — a proprietary cloud-based video tagging, curating and authoring software. “The content can be shared on both broadcasters’ website as well as VideoTap’s player. On a broader note, if the broadcasters embrace this technology channel, they will be able to reach out to digital consumers who don’t come and watch TV,” concludes Venkatraman whose prime focus is to provide a user-friendly experience to the consumer.