Mela launch announced today - Global "Netflix/Hulu" for South Asian content

Today we announced the launch of Mela, a multi-platform entertainment service that will provide consumers worldwide one of the largest collections of premium South Asian video content.

We had an action-packed day today with three launch events: press conference in the morning, Strike-a-Pose with Abhay Deol contest in the afternoon, and a private screening of Abhay Deol's latest Bollywood hit, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara in the evening.

Here is the video:


Mela represents the diversity of genres, tastes, languages, and regional flavors present in the rich cultural heritage of South Asia by licensing premium content from some of the biggest movie studios and television broadcast companies in the region. Mela brings directly to your television premium entertainment that includes dozens of live television channels covering news and entertainment, hundreds of hit Bollywood and regional movies, with an increasing number of titles in high-definition, and hundreds of independent films and selected premium videos from the Internet.

The Mela service at launch will be available on television through Mela’s high-definition set-top-box. Mela plans to later roll out its service on all major platforms including PC, mobile phones and devices, video gaming consoles, Internet connected televisions, Internet connected Blue-ray players, and other popular over-the-top devices and set-top boxes.

Today is, of course, a big day for the Mela team. It is also a big day for the South Asian content industry (film studios, television networks, actors, and everyone involved in creating compelling story telling). But most importantly, it is a big day for the fans. There is no reason why in this day and age, fans should not have access to their favorite content delivered to them in a manner that fits their connected, digital lifestyle.

It is the goal of Mela to fix this global distribution problem. If we don't, not only will piracy continue to ravage the industry, consumers will continue to be frustrated, and in a world of abundant choices, they will move on to other activities to entertain themselves. Everyone will loose in that case, except, of course, the content pirates.

Today is the start of Mela's journey in its pursuit to become the global "Netflix/Hulu" for the South Asian content.

Check out for more exciting updates soon...

A new chapter

Today we announced my new role at Verismo Networks, a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup that offers business customers worldwide solutions to bring seamless convergence of IPTV linear channels, video-on-demand, Internet videos, social networking and personal media playback directly to consumer's television. Verismo's end-to-end solutions enable MSOs/OEMs to cost-effectively expand their reach globally while giving subscribers an unparalleled viewing experience.

I am extremely excited about this move. The partnership with Verismo provides us very strong, complementary capabilities to continue to execute on the vision of Digital Entertainment Corporation of India ("DECI"), a global entertainment venture that I launched last year after leaving NBC Universal.   

The full press release is included below.

Watch out for some exciting updates in the coming weeks... 
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Verismo Networks Gets Into Entertainment Services

Sab Kanaujia, a Media Veteran and Ex-NBC Universal Executive, Joins Verismo as President of Entertainment Services

Mountain View, CA August 9, 2011 – Verismo Networks, the leading provider of a complete end-to-end solution to enable broadband entertainment and video delivery over broadband networks, today announced that they will be launching a new business unit focusing on entertainment services. Sab Kanaujia, a globally renowned media industry veteran, has joined Verismo as the President of Entertainment Services. Kanaujia had earlier launched Digital Entertainment Corporation of India (“DECI”), a holding company that focused on launching entertainment services to a global audience.

In his new role, Kanaujia will head Verismo’s new entertainment business unit and will be responsible for all areas including content acquisition, product, operations, marketing and distribution. Kanaujia brings more than 15 years of global experience to the company, with an impressive career that spans NBC Universal and Time Warner AOL, amongst others.

“Verismo Networks continues to set lofty goals for developing and delivering content-rich broadband entertainment solutions for our customers," said Prakash Bhalerao, Chairman and CEO of Verismo Networks. "Delivering new entertainment content and content rich services over our proven and widely deployed broadband entertainment platform is a high priority for Verismo Networks. Kanaujia has been a proven innovator in his previous roles and we are excited to have him join our team.”

“Verismo Networks shares the vision that prompted us to launch DECI. They bring extremely complementary strengths that will enable us to successfully execute on our strategy," said Sab Kanaujia. "With a globally deployed broadband entertainment platform, an opportunity to partner with a seasoned entrepreneur in Bhalerao and strong backing of a blue chip investor like Intel Capital, I am delighted to join the Verismo team at a crucial stage in its growth phase.”

Prior to founding Digital Entertainment Corporation of India, Kanuajia was the Vice President, Digital Product Strategy & Development at NBC Universal (NBCU). Based out of the company’s headquarters in New York City, he ran its global digital product strategy and development across its television broadcast network, cable TV channels, Hollywood studios and digital properties. He joined NBCU in August 2006 as part of its corporate digital media team that incubated Hulu.com, one of the world’s largest online premium video networks announced in March 2007 as a joint venture between NBCU and News Corp. 

He was the General Manager of NBCU’s strategic digital venture with Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel across theIndian sub-continent and Middle East. Working with NDTV, one of India’s biggest media companies and a strategic investment of NBCU at the time, Kanaujia led the business deal to help re-launch several of its digital properties including its flagship global news destination, www.ndtv.com. He was also the brainchild behind NBCU’s corporate social media initiative that distributed firm’s content covering over a dozen brands including NBC, CNBC, USA Networks, NBC Sports and Olympics, SyFy, MSNBC, Universal Studios, iVillage, Telemundo, Oxygen, and others to fans through viral distribution. He quickly grew this initiative, which within two years accounted for over 25% of the total reach of NBCU’s network of online properties, providing the firm’s content a global footprint with presence on more than six million destinations worldwide.

Earlier, Kanaujia held various key roles in product strategy and corporate development at Time Warner AOL. Amongst his several achievements at AOL, he successfully launched AOL Hi-Q Video, a key high-quality distribution platform for AOL’s In2TV service, the first broadband television network in the U.S., providing thousands of hours of on-demand, full-length classic TV shows from Warner Brothers.

Kanaujia is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) in Silicon Valley, and a Senior Volunteer with the American India Foundation. He attended the University of Michigan Business School at Ann Arbor, MI for executive management training, and earned his MBA with honors from the University of Maryland at College Park, MD. He received his Bachelor’s in Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India.

About Verismo Networks

Verismo Networks provides an end‐to‐end solution for the easy deployment of Broadband entertainment services by ISPs, Telcos, OTT and IPTV service providers globally. Its Broadband TV platform is globally deployed and the leading solution that brings seamless integration of IPTV linear channels, video on demand, internet video, social networking and personal media playback directly to the TV. The Verismo end-to-end platform and cloud based services enables the fastest time‐to‐market for any content owner and service provider to expand their reach globally and cost effectively while giving subscribers an un‐paralleled viewing experience. Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization is an investor in Verismo Networks. For more information, please visit www.verismonetworks.com

Media Relations Contact:

Teena Touch PR for Verismo Networks 415-310-3125 teena@teenatouchpr.com