In South India, TNGicube a startup incubated by Asianet Satellite Communciations is also getting ready for the launch of an online DVD rental service by the first week of Novmber in cochin and Thiruvanathapuram.

Perhaps the biggest strength behind TNGicube will be the 8 channels of TV and half a million cable and broadband subscribers of Asianet in kerala.

Welcome to Bust 2.0!

coming soon to a economy near you!

GK

You may like to see a compiled list on online DVD rental companies :

http://anuraggupta.blogspot.com/2006/10/online-video-rental-companies-in-india.html

Yaar, I’ve said this earlier and I’ll say it again. The prices of DVDs are crashing, and so are the pricess of pirated DVDs. You can buy world-class discs of blockbuster films for 70 bucks here in Chennai (30-40 bucks if you know someone at Burma Bazaar). I’m sure a black market exists in all major cities. Why the hell would I want to rent a DVD when I can buy it for less?

Also, the black market is full of gems that you can’t find anywhere else.

I don’t know where this trend is headed.

Well TNGicube, is actually following a different business model unlike a 70mm or catchflix, its introducing a concept called “rent dvd’s for life” and one can actually rent any number of DVD’s for just Rs 50/DVD and keep it for any number of period.

Though its not clear how TNGicube is going to do this, i hear that they are in talks with Moser baer for the same.

Nitha,

I just tried searching for TNGicube website, but seems the website doesnt even exist, But i had heard a lot about TNGicube and its subbsiidary Ifuturz, its the company actualy co-founded by a group of first year engineering students way back in 2001 and followed a very different model and it in 2005 it was employing aroumd 200 final year engineering students from different projects ranging from IPTV, Mobile TV, Mobile VAS, broadband VAS and Intertactive TV solutions.

It was working on a 1200 sq ft office being provided free of cost by TINFO Mobile, one of the leading mobile game developer before being incubated by Asianet Satellite communications.

TNGicube manages the entire wireless, online and ITV services of Asianet as well as it was working on atleast 25 projects like the recently launced NXTPay mobile payment solution and upcoming social networking platforms like tagme.in.

But i tried a lot tracking TNGicube on the net, but was not successful. The Indian Express has rated them as the largest diversiified student startup in India with over 40 start up subsidiaries and 240 student worlkforce (Dont know the status of the company now since the cofounders or employees will now be out of college). Also TNGicube was once featured on contentsutra as well (but searched the link on google, but says page not found ).

Here’s some news reports that appeared abt TNGicube in the past. Well if anybody has any infor regarding the current status of tngicube please post it.

1)Location is not a constraint for mobile busines! (Content sutra)
http://www.contentsutra.com/index.php?s=valueaddedservices&paged=1

2)Reading the future (The Hindu)
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006071501720100.htm&date=2006/07/15/&prd=mp&

3)Now, virtual girlfriend for mobile users (The Hindu)
http://www.hindu.com/lf/2005/05/26/stories/2005052600900200.htm

4)India’s top 100 technology startup

http://numsum.com/spreadsheet/show/28905

5) shining presense
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/03/11/stories/2006031101130200.htm

“I also came across Madhouse.in, a Delhi-based DVD rental company.”

AFAIK, They are based out of Chandigarh, they plan to start Delhi operations though.

My take on DVD rentals ...
http://internetinindia.com/2006/09/19/india-flickclick-cinesprite-seventymm-catchflixmadhouse/

Thanks for mentioning about Madhouse, Pawan.

Madhouse is a Delhi-based company.

Currently, Madhouse is serving customers in Delhi NCR & Chandigarh. We have officially launched in the NCR region, however we did start with serving customers in Chandigarh region.

To know more visit: http://www.madhouse.in

Looks like Madhouse is a phone base DVD rentals. Check out this link.
http://internetinindia.com/2006/11/08/online-dvd-rentals

Has anyone tried it ?

Madhouse (http://www.madhouse.in) is is a complete “MOVIE RENTAL COMPANY”. Service is available online and offline.

Our belief is that to reach mass market in India (to tap into entertainment passion of Indians), one needs to have a multi-channel model. Madhouse has following channels to interact with customers

Web - http://www.madhouse.in
Customer Care – Phone
Customer Care – SMS
Customer Care – e-mail
Madhouse kiosks / local retail partners

And on most the channels we offer full functionality i.e. Find more about service, sign up, browse, build Qs, order movies and other customer care activities. We were the second company in India to offer this service, started in May 05.