You can now watch popular American TV shows like Friends and Hollywood blockbusters such as Wonder Woman in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. In a bid to make inroads into the growing video-streaming market in the country, Singtel-backed HOOQ has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy aimed at bringing Hollywood content to the masses.

The OTT platform will offer Hollywood movies and popular TV series dubbed in regional languages. In addition, it plans to bring the latest English blockbuster movies on its platform within 90 days of release.

HOOQ is a joint venture of Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros.

“We launched our services in India in 2015. Since then, various new players have entered the market. We have watched all our competitors and crafted our strategy accordingly. Our pricing at ₹89 per month will be key to our expansion,” Peter Bithos, CEO, HOOQ, told BusinessLine.

In order to improve the quality of its streaming, the firm has moved its infrastructure to India to cater to the local market here. This means, the content will be stored locally to ensure there is no latency for video-on-demand services. The company said pricing and differentiated content, including localisation and distribution, will form the core of its offerings in India. As a part of an inaugural offer, HOOQ is offering three months’ subscription for ₹89. While Hotstar charges ₹199 a month, Netflix is available for upwards of ₹500 a month. Amazon Prime has priced its offering at ₹499 a year.

“We are very focussed on India as a market. We have moved our back-end infrastructure from Singapore to Mumbai and Pune. This will enable us to strengthen our presence in Asia,” Bithos said.

Besides India, the firm currently operates in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

HOOQ launched its operations in India in 2015 with a monthly subscription of ₹199 per month. But it did not get much traction due to the entry of other players with better content strategies.

Bithos said the firm is rolling out a big campaign across digital media and TV aimed at getting more subscribers. “Our tagline, ‘Home of Hollywood’, emphasises on our content which is not available on any other platform,” he said, adding that the company will be adding dubbed English movies and popular TV shows in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages with subtitles.

Asked if integrating with telecom players has increased its brand recall, Bithos said the firm has seen good traction due its association with telecom players. Recently, the company had partnered with Vodafone to offer its services to the latter’s customers.

Bithos did not divulge the investments the company is making, but added that HOOQ will be spending “multi-million dollars” on its expansion in India.

According to a Frost & Sullivan report, there are currently more than 30 OTT video service providers in India and 90 million active OTT viewers.