ItzCash eyes Rs 5,000 crore business from entertainment segment by FY18

ItzCash, a leading digital payments facilitator, is betting big on the Indian entertainment industry. The company has inked strategic partnerships with the country’s largest online entertainment ticketing brand – BookMyShow and India’s first Live TV platform – dittoTV.
ItzCash, which forayed in the entertainment space nine years ago with satellite cable/DTH (direct-to-home) recharge for Dish TV, currently gets 20%-22% of its business from the segment. With a strong offline network reach, comprising more than 75000 retail touch points and a dominant presence in the DTH & cable TV segment, the company is now vigorously eyeing the movie bookings and mobile TV sectors to drive incremental growth for the next two years.
BookMyShow has added a new ‘Cash Top-Up’ feature to its ‘MyWallet’ to make it even easier for everyone to transact on their app or website. This tie-up will allow users to recharge their ‘MyWallet’ by paying cash at the nearest ‘ItzCash World’ outlet. In its partnership with dittoTV, the company aims to capitalise on its offline network to offer Rs 20 easy-recharge for monthly subscription.
ItzCash said it has been witnessing a consistent 40% year-on-year growth in the entertainment segment. It is aiming to grow its current revenues from Rs 3,000 crore to over Rs 5,000 crore by FY2018 (2017-18). “India is fast becoming a digital country and will soon be the world’s second largest market with 650 million internet users and 520 million smartphone users by 2020,” said Bhavik Vasa, chief growth officer, ItzCash. “Food and entertainment tops the list of adoption and growth of digital payments,” he said.
“We are delighted to partner with ItzCash, which will enable users to book tickets on the BMS app and website without having to use their credit/debit cards or net banking,” said Marzdi Kalianiwala, vice president, business intelligence and marketing, BookMyShow.
“With a stark change in consumer preferences and a steady growth in disposable incomes over the years, the spend on entertainment has continuously been on the rise,” ItzCash said. “With India’s ‘Pay-TV’ poised to grow to $12.3 billion by 2018, ItzCash is targeting an average growth of 42% in its overall revenues through such new services for the Indian consumer,” the company said.