Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films partners with ShortsTV

Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films is partnering with ShortsTV, the world’s first and only TV channel dedicated to short films. This collaboration will bring the best short films from across the globe to Indian television for the first time ever, exclusively on Tata Sky.

The Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films platform has been a pioneer in the short film genre in India. Working with aspiring and established directors and storytellers, the platform is the go-to destination for original and powerful short film content. Through a variation of powerful short films, the platform has successfully redefined movie watching for cinephiles over the past few years. Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has become one of the most credible and celebrated stages for short films in India.

Commenting on the partnership, Kartik Mohindra, Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod Ricard India, said “We are delighted to partner with ShortsTV, the world’s first and only 24/7 TV channel dedicated to short films, as they launch in India. The short film industry has been growing dramatically owing to the changing viewer habits. Our platform Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has been at the helm of the evolving short film industry and has now become the torchbearer for original, powerful and perfect content. This partnership is a great opportunity for us to reach out to a wider audience and showcase our content on television for the first time ever”.

ShortsTV in association with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will open the world of short stories and films to the large set of discerning Indian audiences. The Viewers are in for a treat with an exciting mix of award winning and nominated short films covering a variety of genres such as comedy, drama, thriller, mystery, crime and adventure amongst others. The best of Oscars, Sundance, BAFTA and Cannes along with unique and powerful Indian short films presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will be showcased on ShortsTV.

Commenting on the occasion, Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive at Shorts International Ltd and member of the Academy of Motion Pictures said, “We are thrilled to partner with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films. The platform ushered in a revolution in the short film industry in India by investing in high quality Indian short movies and reaching incredibly large audiences online.  It is the perfect platform for us to collaborate with, as we look to further grow appreciation of short films in India by offering our channel to millions of Tata Sky TV subscribers, as well as users of the Tata Sky mobile app. In addition to our catalogue of premium short films from around the world,  ShortsTV will broadcast all the short films by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films, bringing what will truly be the world’s best shorts to TV screens for the first time in India.”

Carter founded Shorts International in 2000. Coming from a background in both investment banking and law, Carter has made Shorts International the world's leading short movie entertainment company, functioning as distributor, broadcaster and producer. Carter has extensive experience in short movie production and short movie entertainment. He is a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a member of the Short Film and Feature Animation Branch of The US Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Carter, originally from Terre Haute, Indiana, received a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a J.D. from Georgetown University, is a member of the New York Bar and attended the London Business School Corporate Finance Evening Program.

In a candid conversation with Adgully, Carter Pilcher spoke about why he entered the Indian market and what made him start Shorts TV to begin with.

Excerpts:

 What made you come to India at this point in time?

As we came to India and looked around, we got offers from every single operator for some way to launch our TV network; we talked to them and other folks in the market and realised that Tata Sky was a perfect fit. We are just great partners. We have an exclusive deal with them for the first year but after that we will probably be everywhere – DTH and Cable. We have a lot of interest in all of them. We will not start any new deals until we finish this but Tata Sky has been the perfect partner. They are very excited because just after the first 10 days we have already gotten more than 40,000 subscribers. It is the fastest service uptake compared to any other service on Tata Sky.

What made you launch Shorts TV?

I am originally an aeronautical engineer. I worked for the government calculating satellite orbits in the U.S but I then went to law school and got a business degree, and I was doing investment banking. I am a numbers guy and I love watching short films. I stopped my job and began Shorts TV to see if I could do it. I am not very creative as a person but I think Short films are a great way for young talent to express themselves. The Short film format helps you get rid of all studios and you get much better stories. I love the short film format because of the more interesting and shocking films.

The duration of these films is less than 40 minutes, usually 20 minutes or less. Documentaries are usually 30-40 minutes long and animations are 5-8 minutes long.

Globally how has the market grown and how appreciative are audiences for such content?

We have two kinds of audiences that view our content right away. First is the educated film people, we call them aficionados, they are connoisseurs, they know what a great movie is, especially what a great short is. They want fabulous shorts. I tell people, and I think it is true, that we are the HBO of short films. That’s what we always want to offer – great movies.

Most of our TV programming is put in hour long blocks, so it’s curated like in film festivals. We will show you an hour block of films which could be animation or live action and it is really accessible. We showcase a lot of Indian stories; we have a lot of Indian films. The content is curated just for Indian audiences. We have two schedules of programming for India; we have a whole team consisting of 10 people working in India. We are buying a lot of Indian shorts and partnering with platforms such as Royal Stag Barrel Select and Terribly Tiny Tales.

When you look at the world there are a very few places that have a distinctive look at Cinema and India is a movie country. Even though I am the only aeronautical engineer in the Academy of Motion Pictures, I am not too much of a geek to know that India has a great movie industry.

We are also showcasing regional content in languages like Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, and every major language and we are trying to ensure that we launch more and more of those.

What will the programming be like?

There are some limitations but we will have 24/7 programming. In other countries we are showing over 5000 films over 1000 hours of content. Here we are showing 600-700 hours because it is a value added service. We are programming the content in 8 hour blocks that repeats twice and then the next day we begin the new block. 

All perfect short films by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will be available for viewers on ShortsTV. Chutney, a legendary short film which has crossed 120 Million views, Ahalya, Shunyata, Ouch, Chhuri, Carbon, Juice, which has won the Filmfare for the best short film, Nayantara’s Necklace, Interior Café, Her First Time and Mumbai Varanasi Express will be available on ShortsTV.

Tata Sky ShortsTV is available on Tata Sky Mobile App and can also be accessed on Channel #113 (SD) and #112 (HD) at a minimal cost of INR 75/month on TV through a STB and on watch.tatasky.com.

Check out the exclusive short stories titles on Tata Sky Shorts TV