This week’s flavour as far as Paytm is concerned is its entertainment subsidiary, Paytm Entertainment. Under this banner, Paytm handles online and mobile phone-based ticketing for movies and events and is taking huge strides in a business which was almost the preserve of BookMyShow, until recently. Now, Paytm Entertainment has received a boost with the induction of funds from its parent company, One 97 Communications and the amount invested is $8.95 million (Rs 61 crores).
Paytm’s foray into the ticketing business has been strengthened through acquisitions it has made laterally. First, it spent around Rs 35 crores in taking over Insider.in, which was more into events ticketing, followed by the movie ticketing startup Ticket New, a Chennai based company.
Paytm also has direct partnerships with many cinema theatre chains, the main one being with SPI Cinemas, which owns and operates theatres like Sathyam Cinemas, Le Rêve and The Cinema. Their properties are spread across major cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. But the bulk of the business that Paytm generates out of its ticketing arm is through tier 2 and tier 3 towns and cities, in all, 660 of them. Paytm Entertainment claims to have already sold 51 million movie tickets for 8,000 events (live music concerts and the like).
For 2018, the target is to sell over 100 million tickets and to get to this magical figure, the company is trying to rope in regional theatres and movie screens in a big way.
Paytm Entertainment is also simultaneously working with movie production houses and even getting involved with the promotion of movies they release. Movie Refunds and Passes is a new feature Paytm has introduced in the genre, which has helped it consolidate its hold on the movie goers and online ticket buyers.
A CII report suggests that the Indian media and entertainment business would touch $123 billion in the next four years and is clocking a CAGR of around 11-12%.