Streaming Pakistani films for the diaspora.
Where is Pakistani cinema?
Mainstream streamers neglect Pakistani films. With current global players excluding Pakistani films from their platforms, the diverse Pakistani and diaspora audience lose access to their own films.
After a market analysis and financial considerations for a project like this, I decided to make an MVP in Squarespace powered by embedded uploads through a streamer, Teyuto. This was a cost-effective way to experiment with user experience.
After licensing films, I was able to create trailers and thumbnails to use on the site to create a visually appealing and intuitive platform, attracting both filmmakers and viewers to engage with the site.
The learning curve was in developing the product more deeply, creating exposure and brand presence, as well as generating the revenue which seemed so easy to implement after doing extensive market analysis.
Everything I did had to consider the most important stakeholders: 1) filmmakers and 2) viewers.
Throughout the 15 months of this projects, I learned that these users had unique and similar interests in a platform like this.
Through over 50 direct conversations and social media advertising, I had key findings from these user groups:
There were concerns about the revenue potential, which I was certain wouldn't be an issue once there were consistent visitors on the site. Unfortunately, the catalog needed to expand before expecting this. Social media advertising had only gone so far and I was seeing high viewer retention.
So the revenue streams I had in mind were ruled out, despite the attempts to revisit them every quarter:
I'm now working with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts based in New York to help draft a contract to work with independent advertisers.
Initially, I was able to offer filmmakers some seed money for licensing, but it came to a point where I was unable to follow through on my revenue sources.
In the past 15 months, I was able to make a streaming platform of 11 short films and over 800 hours of content viewed across different platforms used to distribute content.
Considering how difficult it is to gain user attention through social media, gaining even a few thousand viewers felt like a success. A worthy insights from various ad campaigns was in seeing an even number of viewers from Pakistan and the diaspora showed that there is as much interest in Pakistani films within Pakistan itself.
Through its MVP, the platform demonstrated the need for accessible films due to how much and from where viewership occurred.
This gives more confidence that, once the platform is able to secure its advertising partners, it will generate the revenue to help Pakistani filmmakers make more work and finally deliver on the mission of the project.
I also received support from StartOut, through its Mentorship Program and workshops to help develop the platform and explore venture funding.
