SonyLIV
SonyLIV is an Indian over-the-top freemium streaming platform owned by Culver Max Entertainment. SonyLIV was introduced in 2013[2] as the first OTT service in India.[3] As a streaming service, it is carrying content from its local networks, including films, television series, live sports matches and original programming, and also featuring content licensed from third-parties in India such as Lionsgate and ITV among others. Since 2020, SonyLIV has taken more of an active role as producer and distributor for both films and television series, and to that end, offers a variety of original programming content through its online library.
SonyLIV logo | |
Screenshot | |
| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
Type of site | OTT platform |
| Available in | |
| Headquarters | |
| Country of origin | India |
| Area served | Indo-Pacific, Middle East, Canada, and United States (via Sling TV) & Bangladesh |
| Owner | Sony |
| Industry | |
| Products | |
| Services |
|
| Parent | Culver Max Entertainment |
| URL | sonyliv |
| Registration | Required[a] |
| Users | 32.7 million (paid)[1] 118 million monthly active users[1] |
| Launched | 22 January 2013 |
| Current status | Active |
History
SonyLIV was launched on 23 January 2013,[4] by Culver Max Entertainment.
SonyLIV has access to 18 years of content from channels that are part of Culver Max Entertainment and more than 700 movies, which means a total of 40,000+ hours of television show coverage in Hindi and English.[4] Since its launch, SonyLIV has streamed live sports events.
Anime was part of SonyLIV. Varieties of anime original from Animax were available on SonyLIV to stream. After shutting down a linear TV channel on 18 April 2017, Animax[5] was made available exclusively as a digital streaming channel in India from 7 July 2017 to 7 May 2020.[6]
In June 2020, SonyLIV was launched as a streaming service in the United States on Sling TV, with all the shows available in India available on the app.[7][8] SonyLIV was launched in Canada on 15 October 2021.
LIV Sports
LIV Sports was launched on 1 June 2014 by Culver Max Entertainment[9] (a new sports streaming service exclusively for sports properties). LIV Sports was the official mobile and internet broadcaster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup starting 12 June 2014. LIV Sports aired both live and video-on-demand match content with statistics and analysis.[10] However, this service was integrated into SonyLIV. As for now, LIV Sports is part of SonyLIV.
Loosa
SonyLIV first revamp (2016)
In June 2016, SonyLIV underwent a revamp for the first time and started to stream live television channels. Since this revamp, SonyLIV has added many shows and movies to the portfolio. On 1 November 2018, SonyLIV and Lionsgate had entered into a multi-year content[11] deal. As part of the deal, SonyLIV will offer an embedded Lionsgate Play with over 500 hours of premium original series. In 2019, SonyLIV started to stream live channels of other networks, including news channels.
SonyLIV second revamp (2020)
SonyLIV revamped its content and interface in May 2020 using AWS Cloud.[12] SonyLIV uses Amazon ElastiCache to support real-time, in-memory caching at scale, Amazon CloudFront as a low-latency content delivery network, and Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) as a highly available message queuing service. In June 2020, SonyLIV underwent a revamp for the second time, and this time they started to stream content from Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television Studios, ITV and Reliance Entertainment. Also, SonyLIV started to stream its own original movies and series. On 15 January 2021, WWE Network[13] was launched in India through SonyLIV.
Overview
SonyLIV is the first Indian over-the-top media service platform to produce music content for a Hollywood feature film – producing music for the Hindi version of the blockbuster titled Passengers, starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. The singers for the original soundtrack titled Aadat included Jubin Nautiyal, Shirley Setia and Raftaar. Since then SonyLIV has produced more than 100 songs which are available on the app, YouTube, JioSaavn and many other online music service platforms worldwide.
Programming
SonyLIV's core library consists of 18 years of content from Culver Max Entertainment's channels including Sony TV, Sony SAB, Sony Aath and Sony Marathi.
After Sony Pictures Networks India's acquisition of Ten Sports Network, all TEN Sports live programs also began broadcasting on SonyLIV. Since then, SonyLIV is streaming WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown and other WWE pay-per-view events, and UFC. SonyLIV also streamed cricket matches played by Pakistan,[14] Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe, and Grand Prix motorcycle racing.
SonyLIV also streamed NBA until early 2021.
Genres
SonyLIV features programming in the following key genres: comedy, crime, drama, horror and action.[15]
Live channels
SonyLIV also live streams its own channels in its network on the platform.[4]
SonyLIV Originals
SonyLIV has streamed a number of original streaming television series. The first-ever original was a Gujarati web series titled Kacho Papad Pako Papad[16] and it is streaming since 2017.
SonyLIV underwent a revamp in its appearance in June 2020.[17] Since then, SonyLIV provides their original shows in 5–7 languages. Without Hindi, SonyLIV releases originals in the other languages after 1–2 weeks from the release date.
Rocket Boys, Scam 1992, The Big Bong Connection, Your Honor, Pyar, Ishq Rent and Avrodh: The Siege Within are some well-known SonyLIV original shows.
Availability
SonyLIV is available in India, Pakistan, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Canada. It’s also available in the United States via Sling TV.
Viewership
SonyLIV has reached about 25 million views on a monthly basis on its website, app and YouTube channel.[18]
Platforms
Hardware supported
List of SonyLIV-ready devices:
- Sony Bravia smart TVs and Sony Xperia smartphones
- Android TV devices
- Samsung smart TVs
- Amazon Fire TV and Fire HD devices
- Roku devices
- Apple TV
- Chromecast devices
Software supported
Supported web browsers by platform:
- KaiOS: Available in JioPhone, installable through JioStore.
- OS X: An Intel-based or Apple Silicone Mac with OS 10.4.8 or later. Browsers supported are Safari 4 (or higher), Firefox 5 (or higher) and Google Chrome.
- Microsoft Windows: Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7 running Internet Explorer 8 (or higher), Firefox 2 (or higher) or Google Chrome 6 (or higher), and Windows 8.1 through a web browser.
Other software options
- Android version 2.2 and above
- iOS, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
- Windows Phone
SonyLIV security flaw
On 20 December 2019, Bengaluru-based security researcher Ehraz Ahmed discovered a security flaw in the SonyLIV app, that allowed to fetch sensitive user information such as profile picture, email address, date of birth, name and phone number of its registered users.[19]
See also
Notes
- ^ Optional in India, but monthly subscription is required to access additional content.
References
- ^ a b "Disney+ Hotstar Has Around 8 Million Paid Subscribers, Disney Claims". NDTV. 9 April 2020.
- ^ Laghate, Gaurav (2013). "Sony Launches Video on Demand". Business Standard India.
- ^ "avatar - Gravatar Profile". En.gravatar.com. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ a b c Deb, Debabrata (15 July 2018). "The ultimate SonyLIV review: Everything you need to know". finder India. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
- ^ "Sony to shift Animax channel to SonyLiv". Indian Television Dot Com. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- ^ "Animax Asia Channel Removed from 'Sony LIV' Streaming App". Animenewsnetwork.com. 17 May 2020.
- ^ "Watch Live Indian TV Channels - Shows and Movies Online | Sling TV". Sling.com. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
- ^ Palermo, Philip (31 May 2020). "Sling TV Adds Sony Pictures Networks India's SonyLIV VOD Service". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
- ^ "Multiscreen Media Launches Liv Sports". The Hindu Business Line. 2 June 2014.
- ^ "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Live Online Streaming Available Through Sony LIV Application". Indiantvinfo.com. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
- ^ Laghate, Gaurav (1 November 2018). "SonyLIV, Lionsgate India partner to offer premium content". economic times.
- ^ "SonyLIV Grows Subscriber Base Tenfold and Enhances Streaming Platform Supported by AWS".
- ^ Dua, Priyanka (16 January 2021). "SonyLIV Launches WWE Pack At Rs. 299; Offering Five Profiles And Offline Content Download". Gizbot.com. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "Cricket Archives PSL 2021 Live Streaming & TV Channels, Pakistan Super League 2021". Cricketzine.com. 31 January 2021.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". sonyliv.com. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
- ^ "2017: The year OTTs went regional in India". Indian Television Dot Com. 4 January 2018.
- ^ "SonyLIV". Sonyliv.com. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
- ^ "Sony to move its video streaming service SonyLIV to a fee-based model". 11 September 2015. from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
- ^ "SonyLIV Fixes Flaw That Could Allow Attackers to Fetch User Information". NDTV Gadgets 360. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
External links
- Official website