YouTube launches Comedy Week in India

Lines up 400 hours of best comedy content and 35 new exclusive shows on YouTube

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | September 6, 2013

Comedy has found a new destination! YouTube in close collaboration with leading Indian content producers and production houses today announced the launch of Comedy Week in India. Running from 5th September until 12th September, YouTube will play home to the best of Indian comedy with over 400 hours of comedy content curated all on YouTube India's channel at www.youtube.com/comedyweek. The week will feature a wide range of content including best comedy scenes from Bollywood, all-time favorite TV comedy shows (Comedy nights with Kapil),Great Indian laughter challenge, MTV Bakra, Kahani Comedy Circus ki), best of Indian mimicry, and Indian regional language comedy content in Telgu, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Gujarati and Kannada.

As part of Comedy week launch in India, YouTube, in partnership with production houses, has also launched over 35 new YouTube exclusive shows featuring stand up comedy acts from the biggest names in comedy in India. O4 Digital Media, will launch YouTube channels featuring content from leading comedy stars in India such as Cyrus Broacha, Vir Das, Bharati, Krushna, VIP, Saurabh Pant and Sugandha Raja Sagoo and many more.

Comedy Week also wouldn't be complete without getting some of the funniest YouTube partners in India on board. Over the next seven days, you can watch brand new content produced by popular YouTube comedy creators including Jay Hind TV, TheViralFever and NH7.

Speaking at the launch of Comedy Week, Gautam Anand, Director Content partnerships for YouTube APAC said, “Here in India, comedy shows contribute to over 30% of total watch hours within the TV shows category, and in the past year, comedy show viewership has shown one of fastest growth in viewership. Bringing Comedy Week to India allows us to give India's audiences more of the content they love and discover new content that they can only enjoy on YouTube. We have also worked hard with the biggest names in the comedy in India and are excited to bring more leading Indian comedy content onto one destination on YouTube.”

Sandeep Menon, Director Marketing for Google India, also launched YouTube's first television commercial in India for comedy week. The two TVC on YouTube for Comedy week will be 45 seconds each featuring Cyrus Broacha and Sudesh.

Speaking at the launch, Sandeep said, “YouTube globally is on fire: There are over one billion people coming onto YouTube every month and over six billion hours of video watched every month. We've seen tremendous growth and momentum for YouTube here in India and today we are launching Comedy Week to help reach out to the first time Internet users in India and give them a reason to get onto the Internet for their daily dose of entertainment.”

Comedy week will also feature content from premium broadcasters and film production houses like Rajshri, Eros, T-series, Shemaroo, Disney, Star, Colors, SabTV, Sri Adhikari Brothers, Telguone, MTV, Yash Raj films who will showcase content from this existing catalogues and specially produced content for comedy week.

Speaking about the launch of 25 new shows on YouTube for Comedy Week, Sanjiv Sharma, Founder & Executive Chairman of O4 Digital Media Pvt. Ltd said, “We have had long standing relationship with comedy and TV, now with YouTube becoming the go to destination for all video content and the creative freedom that it offers, we want to establish a strong presence online with our original content. Our aim is to become the #1 comedy network on YouTube. Starting with Comedy Week, we are launching 10 brand new channels featuring original programming covering all genres of comedy from exclusive shows of leading stand up comedy stars, mimicry, slapstick comedy, sketch and character comedy.”

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