Diamond Comics ties up with Rediff.com to go mobile

Diamond Comics, the publisher of comic books based on characters such as Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinky, Phantom and Shaktimaan, has entered into a special arrangement with Rediff.com to make available its content on mobile phones.
Speaking to afaqs!, Gulshan Rai, managing director, Diamond Comics reveals that according to the arrangement, Rediff.com will source content from Diamond Comics and package it for mobile consumption. To distribute the content, the Internet company will develop a downloadable mobile application, which will be offered or pushed to mobile subscribers through various mobile operators.
Rai indicates that the company has already tied up with Loop Mobile and Vodafone to push its mobile applications and is in talks with other mobile operators as well.
Apart from mobile application, content of Diamond Comics will also be offered through Rediff.com mobile site (Mobile.Rediff.com/comic). In addition, Rediff.com will sell Diamond Comics or accept subscription offers on its website.
Comic books related to characters Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinky, Phantom, Shaktimaan and comics digests such as Panchatantra, Tenalirama, Vikram Betal, Akbar Birbal, Ramayan and Mahabharat will be made accessible on mobile.
Consumers will be charged Rs 10 to access each comic title. Rai says, “Rediff.com will share about 80 per cent of the revenue earned through mobile content with Diamond Comics, while the Internet company will charge a 10 per cent service charge for selling subscription or comics through its website.”
Diamond Comics is also talking to some other websites to distribute its content online. Rai says, “We have already tied up with Malayala Manorama and will provide our content for its website.”
Other than online and mobile distribution, the comic books publisher plans to distribute content through the IPTV platform and launch a TV channel as well.
Although Diamond Comics had announced it plans to launch a TV channel in 2008, it has not launched its channel as yet. Rai says that the TV venture will go live in July 2010. He adds, “We have tied up with MediaGuru, a media consultancy firm based in Noida, to launch our TV channels. We have plans to launch four TV channels in different languages – Hindi, English, Bengali and Malayalam, in association with MediaGuru.”