Well, according to Vinod Bhat (pictured), co-founder of on-demand video service BODVOD, the answer is simple: Bollywood’s presence and distribution is for the most part lacking through the vital media outlets, including cable, online and print.

We’ve seen ZTV, ITV and EchoStar Indian-related programming, but what the New York-based entrepreneur and his cohorts found was that Bollywood films and music were scant or sorely lacking in the digital space, while being relegated to a handful of screens in mid to large markets nationwide.

With that in mind, Bhat & Co. set in motion a strategy to bring Indian movies and music to the masses, first by not only hearing the needs of Bollywood producers, but with the digital content providers stateside. Several meetings and a couple of years later, the result of their discussions and brainstorming was BODVOD, a service which holds exclusive rights to movies, music and TV shows from India, and redistributes the content to cable on-demand, Internet and mobile platforms. Currently with over 30 major distribution affiliates, BODVOD, which counts New York/New Jersey, LA, Houston and Dallas as the largest markets, has not only signed deals with major cable providers, but with online powerhouses including Google Video.

Recently, ADOTAS chatted with Vinod about the state of South Asian media in the US marketplace, the way BODVOD is setting about to change it, the advertising implications, as well as BODVOD’s own branding strategies for 2007.

Hi, Vinod. So what’s the background and strategy of BODVOD?

In terms of what the company does, we hold exclusive rights to a basket of movies and music primarily coming from India—primarily Bollywood music and movies—and we package, distribute and market that on pretty much all digital platforms. Mostly cable video-on-demand, anything delivered using IP protocol—Google Video, iTunes, etc., as well as services run by mobile carriers and also mobile devices.

To date, our distribution is actually in about 11 million households, on all of Time Warner and all of Cox. We’re covering probably around 70% of the South Asian population in the US today. We got into this business really for a variety of reasons. I think when you look at the South Asian market in the country today, it’s probably the most affluent group out of any of the ethnic or even non-ethnic groups that exist. I think the median household income is $68,771 according to the last census update. When you look at education levels, about 61% of them have a college degree. Then on top of that, they’re overall Web and tech-savvy with 81% of them having broadband access in their homes.

It’s a pretty attractive demographic, numbers between 3-5 million people, and tends to be mostly concentrated in or around urban areas—but just across the country entirely. It’s a focused audience, and it’s fragmented when you look at it in terms of the entire audience.

In terms of this audience behavior, Bollywood is the content piece that really transcends all age groups. So it’s not really an older-skewing thing or a younger-skewing thing, it appeals to everybody in the demographic. The primary motive by which people consume this content has been theatrical releases, but there are only about 80 screens in the country that really show Bollywood movies today. But what you’ll notice is that oftentimes, a Bollywood movie will be in the top 20 of a weekend box office gross. It’ll be like #18 or #19, but on a per-screen level, you’ll see that it has among the highest engagement numbers in the industry. So if the average screen pulls in, say, $2,000, the Bollywood movies would be at close to $5-6,000.

The other issue is that the theaters tend to be in down market. So oftentimes, while people might be interested in the content, they don’t necessarily make the trek out to theaters, but they just kind of avoid it entirely. The other aspect of this is really with DVD distribution, and DVDs are not available in a lot of mass-market retail locations like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy…just because of shelf space issues. Then, the content really isn’t widely available on television at all, and most of the television content like ZTV and Star that have content mostly do a lot of serialized programming—soap operas, sports programming, fashion shows, cooking and other general entertainment. There are certainly movies, but not to the extent that we’re focused on.

What happens is most of these channels are delivered over satellite and not so much available on cable. So, we saw an opportunity that, given the attractiveness of this audience from a demographic perspective, and given the issues with the way in which they currently consume this content, there’s this whole other realm of new media—cable video-on-demand, Internet and mobile, where there was a relative absence of South Asian content. So we wanted to fill that gap.

“As we learned from our simulcast of March Madness on Demand, there is a huge appetite for real time content on the Internet,” said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media in a statement. “Viewers increasingly want access to programming when it’s fresh, and the Internet allows us to bring our content to them wherever they are and whenever that content is broadcast.”

To view the online simulcast, users need to register with CBS so they can view the show when it airs in their time zone. After the live simulcast, the Evening News will be available on-demand, and individual news segments will be available online through CBS’s Build-Your-Own Newscast tool. Both the simulcast and the on-demand video will be free for consumers and ad-supported.

Anchor Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News team will also be involved in several other online CBS projects including the Couric & Company blog, which will serve as the Evening News’s mouthpiece to viewers, Eye to Eye, which will feature video clips that expand on the content in the newscast, CBS News First look, which will preview evening news stories before they air, and Katie Couric’s Notebook, a one-minute podcast which will examine one particular issue or news story.

AOL Video includes video-on-demand content channels, AOL Video Search that is based on Truveo and Singingfish technology, a full-screen video player, and AOL’s UnCut Video offering with which users can upload and share videos directly from their camcorder, Webcam, video-enabled mobile phone, and PC.

Kevin Conroy, Executive VP of AOL, said in a statement that the introduction of AOL Video is an extension of AOL’s position as a leader in online video. “From originally produced and licensed programming to branded online video-on-demand channels to user-created videos that people create, upload and share on the Web themselves, AOL Video is truly the first one-stop source that brings the best videos on the Web together in one place and gives consumers more choice,” he said. Conroy adds that “if a video is out there, you’ll find it here on AOL Video.com.”

An online interactive programming guide will be at the center of the AOL Video portal’s main page and will feature paid and ad-supported content on more than 45 video-on-demand channels like A&E, MTV Networks, TBS, Warner Bros, and many others.

AOL Video Search will also be a prominent aspect of the portal, allowing users to crawl and index videos on the Web that traditional search engines are unable to find. It will return results from YouTube, Yahoo, Google Video, AtomFilms, and more. Users will be able to view videos from AOL Video across various platforms and devices, from desktops and laptops to plasma screens and handheld devices.

“Some of the most entertaining video content available today is created by everyday people, and with the launch of TV Guide SPOTTERS, we are giving fans an opportunity to showcase their best creativity to TV Guide SPOT’s 20 million on demand subscribers,” said Dmitri Ponomarev, TV Guide SPOT’s VP of on-demand in a statement. “TV Guide Spotters is a unique way for fans to share with other viewers their passion for their favorite TV shows, personalities and memorable moments.”

TV Guide SPOT currently has more than 20 million subscribers and contains clips and interviews from various TV shows, as well as music videos, video guides to recent movies, and content from their TV Guide Channel. It also allows cable subscribers to preview what TV Guide calls the “best of television.”

The six figure deal will at launch be sponsored exclusively by Cisco Systems; Cisco branding will be seen throughout the Times Online TV pages as well as TV ads regularly between video items.

The video service, which is powered by ROO, will offer Times Online users access to business, news, and entertainment among other features from the likes of Reuters.

“Video online is a crucial part of the new multi-media world and we hope this groundbreaking service will allow our users to join with us in experimenting in this area and that they will tell us what they enjoy and want more of,” said Peter Bale, online editorial director of Times Online in a statement. “ROO offers a high-quality experience which has been customized for Times Online and will allow users with a variety of connection speeds, not just broadband, to enjoy video and TV services within the familiar environment of Times Online.”

“These findings confirm that On-Demand media usage is not a fad or restricted exclusively to a tech-savvy consumer niche,” said Bill Rose, senior vice president of marketing, Arbitron Inc, in a press statement. “As On-Demand media becomes increasingly mainstream, it will compliment traditional forms of media distribution and offer new life and extended value for programming.”

One of the key findings in the study is that when given a choice between never using the Internet and never watching TV, four in 10 people would choose to keep the Internet and eliminate television. Portable MP3 player ownership (iPod and other branded players) has also increased rapidly from 14 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2006, and among 12- to 17-year-olds, ownership increased from 27 percent to 42 percent. Finally, eighteen percent of Americans own or use a digital video recorder (DVR). The findings for the study were based on a telephone survey of 1,925 Americans conducted from January 13 — February 12, 2006.

“Our latest technology and service enhancements to the DMSP enable our customers to generate new revenue streams in a cost-effective way,” Randy Selman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Onstream Media, said in a press statement. “Using Onstream Media’s DMSP, publishers can now monetize their video content through highly targeted, integrated inserted advertising that is customized to the profiles of individual users, subscribers and/or online buyers.”

Additional features included in the new services are transformation of high resolution streams into many different streaming formats and bandwidth speeds, comprehensive tagging of each video scene and its contents, capability of delivering video to PCs, Macs, mobile, and iPod formats, and transaction processing for packaging and on-demand selling.

Begun in 1993, Onstream Media focuses on services which increase productivity and revenues and reduce capital expenditures and operational costs. The company offers encoding, editorial, hosting, digital asset management, streaming, e-commerce/pay-per-view and distribution via the Onstream Digital Media Services Platform (DMSP).

VOD will showcase music videos from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music, among other labels. As for advertising, local Clear Channel stations will be able to sell :15 pre-roll spots into their programming. The company adds that its NEW! and Stripped video programs have already lured local advertisers along with major brands including Virgin Mobile, Budweiser and Comcast. Clear Channel eventually plans to roll out Video-on-demand to its radio station sites across the country.