Thiruvananthapuram: In a trend-setting initiative, Kerala will launch CSpace, India’s first government-owned OTT platform, to provide people-oriented meaningful infotainment and leverage enormous opportunities in the sector.
Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan will launch the OTT platform at Kairali Theatre on March 7. Cultural Affairs Minister, Shri Saji Cherian will preside.
“CSpace is essentially a response to the growing imbalances and multifarious challenges in the OTT sector in terms of content selection and propagation,” said Shaji N Karun, renowned film director and Chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), at a press conference here today.
CSpace is managed by KSFDC, a state-owned company entrusted with the promotion of Malayalam cinema and industry, on behalf of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Govt. of Kerala. For selecting and approving the content, KSFDC has constituted a curator panel of 60 members including eminent cultural personalities from the state, such as Benyamin, OV Usha, Santhosh Sivan, Shyamaprasad, Sunny Joseph, and Jeo Baby. Every content that is submitted to the platform will be evaluated by three curators from the panel for its artistic, cultural and infotainment merit. Only the content recommended by the curators will be showcased on the platform.
Karun said the curators have so far selected 42 films for the first phase of CSpace including 35 feature films, six documentaries, and one short film. Films that have won awards in National or State Awards or have been exhibited in major film festivals will also be shown.
Another distinctive feature of CSpace is transparency in its operations and the overall earnings and revenue share. The platform, which operates on a pay-per-view basis, allows viewers to watch a feature film for Rs 75 and shorter content for a much lower price. Exactly half of the amount charged goes to the content provider. Viewers can download the CSpace app from the Play Store and App Store from March 7 onwards.
K V Abdul Malik, MD of KSFDC, said the launch of the platform will address a major concern of the exhibitors and distributors of the film industry regarding their dwindling profits due to producers releasing their feature films directly on OTT Platforms.