CHENNAI: With the launch of a next generation e-box, Ufx Emagine, Chennaiites now have the luxury of watching a film of their favourite star first-day first-show without standing in the queue for tickets.The e-box, which comes with various features including movies on demand, media player, personalised services, cool apps, social networking, video conferencing, online shopping and e-learning has been launched in the city by the UF group in collaboration with Malayasian-based companies - Select-tv and Creative experience SDN Bhd.Interestingly, the e-box concept of first day first show is backed by Tamil Nadu Producers’ Council and also other producers from the state who feel this will help curb piracy of films and prevent the loss of revenue. The unique feature of Ufx Emagine is that it does not contain any form of native storage and works entirely on a streaming mechanism and the Pay Per View model that will enable immediate settlements to vendors, movie producers, distributors and sub-distributors through the payment gateway’s icash card mechanism duly certified by the RBI.The e-box, which has currently a well stocked library of 4,000 movies covering over 36 languages, is available at a cost of `6,999 that includes `3,000 as a security deposit and `3,000 as a content deposit under RBI approved escrow account.Usman Fayaz, chairman of the UF group, said the e-box also has acces to 3,000 live radio stations and music portals around the globe as well as unlimited access to user generated videos via the web browsing service. “It also has a cloud gaming device that contains a vast library of 150 games. There is also an e-learning facility installed that has an interactive learning platform for students from pre-school to post graduation,” he added.UFX currently has 24 distributors and 173 sub-distributors in the state. “In Chennai, we have 64 sub-distributors and we are targeting the upper middle class and middle class segments,” said Fayaz.Interestingly, the prices for first-day first-show movies will be fixed by the producers who will get 70 per cent of money charged while 30 per cent will go to UFX. Other than that, a blockbuster will be priced at `100 while an ordinary one will cost `50. “The charges will come down if the boxes are deployed more,” Fayaz said. The bandwidth connections will be provided by the company who has a tie up with Reliance. “This will cost `1,000 extra,” Fayaz added.There are also plans to have about 10,000 to 12,000 titles in libraries soon and talks are also on with TV channels to offer about 130 channels soon.Fayaz said his company is planning to invest about `1,000 crore in the business in the next three years. “Our target is to sell one million boxes by 2015,” he added.
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