Devotional content startup Vistaas Digital Media claims to have 50,000 paid subscribers for its video platform, live streaming portal

Three year old devotional content startup Vistaas Digital Media claims it has clocked 50,000 paid subscribers for its video platform and live streaming portal DivineIndia.com, within three months of operations. Note that this number includes monthly, quarterly, half-yearly as well as yearly subscribers. Rajiv K Sanghvi, founder and MD, Vistaas Digital Media told Techcircle.in that the target is to cross the 3 lakh paid subscribers mark by the end of this year.

The site allows its members to access videos of over 1,500 holy shrines including exclusive live content from 60 popular pilgrimages (of all religions) across India. These include Shree Shirdi Sai Baba temple (Ahmednagar), Bangla Sahib Gurdwara (Delhi), Haji Ali Dargah (Mumbai), Jagadguru Shankaracharya Mutt (Kanchipuram), Shani Shinganapur (Ahmednagar), Immaculate Conception Church (Panjim), ISKCON- Mayapur (World Headquarters) and Ganga Aarti (Varanasi).

The content offered also includes animated and enunciated Granthas Shrimad Bhagvad Gita, Quran Sharif, Holy Bible, Shri Guru Grantha Sahib, animated Aartis, Chalisas, Shlokas, Mantras, etc. Over 500 documentaries on pilgrimages of India are also offered, besides other sections like vaastu shatra and yoga and meditation.

Subscription to the site is in the form of Divine India gift cards/e-coupons. The prices of which range from Rs 200 for a one-month login to Rs 1,200 for a yearly package.

Vistaas Digital Media was founded in 2009 by Sanghvi, who has founded startups that specialize in delivering digital content across mediums like mobile, Internet, television, DTH and publishing. These include Vistaas Mobility Pvt Ltd (mobile focused) and Vistaas Media Pvt Ltd (media conglomerate focused on children).

The company has tied up with banks (like Bank of India) as well as other corporates wherein they purchase DivineIndia.com's memberships from the company and then provide it to their customers (after adding their own branding to it). It is also in the process of tying up with mobile operator Airtel to offer additional services like Prasad on demand (members can get Prasad delivered to their doorsteps) and Mannat services, etc.

"People see value in our offering because first of all, the temples are not that fast on the technology front, which means that the content is not updated on their sites in real-time. Secondly, we aggregate content from all the popular pilgrimages across India and offer it in one place, hence viewers don't have to visit 50 different sites for viewing their deities. Add to this, the fact that we hold the exclusive rights for 98 per cent of all the prominent religious places in India on all three digital channels (mobile, Internet and TV)," said Sanghvi.

Prior to launching DivineIndia.com, the company spent the first two and a half years in tying up with the religious places for exclusive rights as well as producing content. It is also providing content to Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd for iDarshan, a 24-hour interactive devotional application for Airtel digital TV customers.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)

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