Flicks playing in motel rooms excite people for different reasons. Indian chemical engineer Sanjay Gaikwad thinks there’s a $180-million business opportunity there. If his plans succeed, motorway entertainment in the US could take on a new sheen, imported all the way from the land of Bollywood. Let’s do the math first. There are roughly five million hotel rooms in the US — premium, budget, and cheap motel rooms. Of these, 2.5 million rooms offer guests some kind of in-room entertainment system — part free, part paid. To avail of the full bouquet of services, on average a guest pays $30 for a full day pass. Roughly 1.9 million rooms are serviced by a company called LodgeNet, the largest entertainment services provider to the American hospitality business. A few smaller players cater to the rest. The 2.5 million rooms that remain unserved are that way because they cannot aff ord the cost of installing an in-room entertainment system. The most conservative estimates put the cost at $400 to the room.
(This story appears in the 19 June, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
See a niche, Recognise it, and make it into a an Industry Well done India.
on Oct 13, 2010