Eros Now offers 2-month free subscription after its unique users peak to a new high

• As COVID-19 forces thousands of people to stay home, Eros Now is offering a 2-month free subscription to Indian customers.
  
• This comes after several state governments have urged people to avoid all non-essential travel and work from home to contain the outbreak.
  
• According to an online app Annie, its daily active user rose by 78% between 27 February and 7 March.
  
  

As COVID-19 is forcing lakhs of people to stay home, streaming player Eros Now is offering a 2-month free access to its Indian customers.

“We are opening the gates of Eros Now to watch the product, which otherwise would cost ₹49 a month. So we are allowing 2 month free access until the end of March. There might be a little bit of flow bound on the new content that comes in but we have at least 10,000 films across languages for our audiences,” Ali Hussein, CEO told Business Insider India.

This comes after several state governments urged people to avoid all non-essential travel and work from home to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak. So far, the virus has infected 151, and killed 3 in India.



People have been binge watching more due to social isolation and closure of malls and cinema halls.

Eros Now is among the many platforms in India that have witnessed a peak in its unique viewers. According to an online app Annie, its daily active user rose by 78% between 27 February and 7 March.

According to a Business Standard report, most Zee5 and Voot witnessed upto 20% rise in usage the past few days. Eros Now is now looking to cash in on the renewed interest in streaming shows and movies. It claims to have 137 million registered users and 26 million paid subscribers.

“It is still early to say how much. But yes, there is an opportunity for us. If there is free time available then entertainment tends to be a free choice for a lot of customers in India. That’s the reason why we are not charging our customer but providing them the window to indulge with entertainment on our platform,” Hussein added.

Eros Now had planned to add at least one original series in a month and 40 theatrical releases in its content library. It aims to spend between $50-70 million on original content in the next 12-18 months. However, some of its releases like Haathi Mere Sathi have also been postponed due to Coronavirus.

Apart from education apps like Byju’s and Unacademy, Amar Chitra Katha also offered free access to all its comics online


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