Following the immensely successful productions Bid2Win and Bollywood Dhamaal, Cellcast Interactive India, the global leaders in providing interactive content for television, today announced the launch of Sumo.TV, a pioneering product offering India’s first end-to-end user-generated content (UGC) solution for broadcasters.

“Sumo.TV invites individuals to share their personal or creative videos that could be featured on prime time television”, said Mahesh Ramachandra, Vice President, Cellcast Plc, U.K. Sumo.TV has already been launched in the UK and China markets, and has proved a hit with television audiences in those countries.

“In fact, in the UK market we have started a 24-hour channel with the content contributed by solely by viewers. This exceeds what even YouTube or MySpace can provide for their communities”, Mr. Ramachandra added. All content can be contributed through the newly-launched website, at www.sumo.in, where individuals can view, share and manage their own content.

Pankaj Thakar, CEO of Cellcast Interactive India said, “UGC reflects a fundamental change in audience behavior, especially in the 18-34 age group in India where most of them are spending time online or on mobile creating and sharing their own content. Sumo.TV offers them an outlet to share their content with millions through the power of television.”

“Importantly, the content contributors can earn revenue whenever their videos are watched or shown on television,” he added. Every time a user’s content is downloaded by another user, shown on television, or streamed on mobile services, he will receive a percentage of received revenues. Effectively, Sumo.TV users are being invited to set up their own mini-channels.

Sumo.TV thus brings together a compelling consumer proposition, offering users new ways of finding that ‘15 minutes’ of fame, new ways of making money from personal content and new ways of expressing themselves and making friends. In the U.K., the Sumo.TV website (www.sumo.tv) alone has an average of 80000 unique visitors per day.

Mr Thakar said, “India is experiencing a truly dynamic phase in media technology convergence and we, at Cellcast, are delighted to launch the revolutionary product Sumo.TV in the market that will help us derive the benefits over a long period.”

“Cellcast India plans to air the video content on local television and are currently in talks with a number of television channels about the same,” he added.

All the best videos submitted to the website or via mobile phone are selected by trained staff and broadcast on Sumo.TV channels and programmes. Broadcasters who license Sumo.TV have immediate access to all the components of next-generation UGC programming including...

• Original user-generated content
• UGC-oriented interactive TV formats
• 3D video jukebox
• Content management system and production tools
• Video-sharing and community website
• Mobile services

These powerful tools and services allow a broadcaster to create anything from an hour-long weekly television show to an entire UGC-driven 24/7 television channel.

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About Cellcast Interactive India

Cellcast Interactive India is the pioneer in developing integrated participation content in the fast-growing Indian mobile and interactive TV market. Cellcast uses traditional media for customer acquisition and new media to enable customers to pay-and-participate. Cellcast have successfully executed its unique business model in India and are experiencing rapid revenue growth. The flagship product, Bid2Win, has grossed over US $ 1.4 Million in revenues within 6 months of launch. Cellcast’s recent launch of “Bollywood Dhamaal” also opened to tremendous success with hundreds of thousands of responses on the first day.

Cellcast plc

Headquartered in London, with associated operations in Paris, Beirut, Mumbai, Miami, Hong Kong and Sao Paolo, Cellcast’s applications and programming are distributed on the Sky Digital and Freeview platforms in the UK and international broadcast partners include Canal+ in France; STB in Ukraine; Future TV, Dubai Television and Rotana TV in the Middle East; TVS-3 in China; TV3 in Malaysia; and Rede TV in Brazil. Cellcast plc joined the AIM market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange on 21 September 2005.

For Further Information Contact:
Jensen Baptista
CMCG India Pvt. Ltd.
Tel: 022 24450991- 6 / 9820587678
Email: jensen.baptista@cmcgindia.com