Future of television is smart and networked

The smart TV market has been stagnant. Is Dor the disruption it needs?

- VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR

A new idea for television was announced on Tuesday. Dor, a 43-inch, ₹10,799 TV offers 24 streaming apps such as SonyLIV, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar, and over 300 channels, with a single subscription and sign-on. These are free for the first month. For the next 11 months, you pay ₹799. After that, the price changes, depending on how many apps you want to keep.

You could opt for free channels and YouTube, and not pay anything. Dor's search works across apps. For instance, you could look for a Shah Rukh Khan film, or an action film, or a comedy across every app on a single screen.

"The idea is to help viewers to stop searching and start watching. We are building our own Apple-like ecosystem for content discovery and eventually everything that goes with it (e-commerce, advertising, etc.)," says Anuj Gandhi, founder and CEO, StreamBox Media.

Its main product is an operating system, Dor, which powers the eponymous TV. This could be licensed to any TV manufacturer. StreamBox is majority-funded and owned by consumer electronics firm Micromax Informatics along with Nikhil Kamath (Zerodha) and Stride Ventures (a debt fund).