ITV

Category: Over The Top Services

  • OTT’s first digital talent hunt for kids launched on Voot

    MUMBAI: HDFC Life, a private life insurance company, has announced the return of HDFC Life Young Stars Season 2 in partnership with Voot, a Video-on-Demand platform from Viacom18.

    Conceptualised by Maxus for HDFC Life, this unique digital talent show for kids includes performances by children, between the ages of 6 and 14, in the popular categories of Dancing, Singing, Acting and Musical Instruments. The engaging show HDFC Life YoungStars Season 2, showcasing kids and their inspiring talent, is now streaming exclusively on Voot .

    Along with mesmerizing audiences with their stellar performances, the young prodigies will also be mentored and judged by celebrity experts from the respective fields. The celebrity judges this season include:

    – Salman Yusuff Khan, a popular dancer turned actor of ABCD fame, will be making his judging debut and mentoring the young dancers

    – Jay Bhanushali, an award winning television actor and renowned host, will be mentoring the child actors

    – Harshdeep Kaur, the Bollywood singing sensation, will be mentoring young singers, while

    – Leslie Lewis of Colonial Cousins fame will be mentoring the budding musicians.

    YoungStars Season 2 aligns to HDFC Life’s digital first focus and Voot’s vision of curating innovative content experiences. Parents uploaded their child’s video clips on the Young Stars microsite, which were then shortlisted. The selected children will get mentored by the celebrity judges, who will nurture their talent in the field of their choice. The finale will include a faceoff between the finalists and the winners, who will be adjudged ‘HDFC Life Young Stars’ and will get the opportunity to perform with the celebrity mentors.

    Commenting on YoungStars Season 2, Pankaj Gupta, EVP-Strategic Alliances, Bancassurance & Marketing, HDFC Life said, “Every child has a special talent that blooms through recognition and constant encouragement. Keeping this in mind, we launched HDFC Life YoungStars, an innovative digital platform that gives parents the opportunity to nurture their child’s talent, through expert guidance. The platform allows us, as a brand, to give parents the ability to secure more than just their child’s financial future.”

    Pooja Verma, Head – Content, Sports and Entertainment Partnerships at Maxus, said, “Maxus is incredibly proud to have established HDFC Life YoungStars as a valuable asset for HDFC Life to bring alive the brand’s proposition of ‘Sar utha ke jiyo!’. The show extensively engaged with parents and kids, in line with the deeply rooted brand philosophy.”

    She further added, “We are excited to reprise the success of HDFC Life YoungStars at an even bigger scale this year, together with the perfect partner that we found in Voot. The encouraging response so far has once again, affirmed our expertise and belief in the power of using content for brands to tell their stories in newer and compelling ways.”

    Monika Shergill, Head of Content, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures said “We at Voot are always looking at bringing content innovation to our viewers. With HDFC Life YoungStars 2, we have brought alive an immersive platform for kids to showcase their talent. With this show, we are confident of providing entertainment & engagement for all our viewers – both parents and kids.”

    She further added “We are happy to partner with HDFC Life and Maxus to promote new and unique talent amongst kids. Both HDFC Life and Voot have a shared vision of empowering kids and with this initiative we intend to tap into their early potential and give them a platform to show case the same to the world.”

  • Ditto TV has the largest paid OTT subscriber base in India, says Zeel’s Z5 head Archana Anand

    MUMBAI: Even as Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd has got it right on the television front, questions have time and again been raised that it has not got its act together on digital. However, ever since the digital business was handed over to Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra’s younger son Amit Goenka, the company has been working on redoing its roadmap for VoD and streaming. 

    Hence, last year, it took a major punt by relaunching its platform Ditto TV as a live television platform. The sticker price was Rs 20 a month. And, the water cooler talk is that Goenka and team Z5 have got   a handle on the direction they would like to steer Ditto TV. More action and announcements are slated to follow.

    Goenka’s point professional is Archana Anand who serves as Z5 Business EVP and  head of digital. It is Anand who is executing strategy on the ground. And, she believes that the Rs 20 decision has proved to be a wise one, as it  has helped it reach newer audience who are not watching TV.

    Anand was one of the speakers at indiantelevision.com’s second edition of Vidnet2017. She had a one-on-one conversation with Indiantelevision.com consulting editor Anjan Mitra.  Excerpts from the conversation:

    What are your views on the OTT landscape in India?

    I think we are going through the best time possibly can have for the industry. Jio has played an immense part in easing out the the ecosystem and making it much more viable for people to consume OTT.

    More importantly we have had some international players coming in and setting up  shop here, Netflix and Amazon, I think that’s wonderful in the sense as the category has got evangelised so that people who will be coming later will don’t have go to explain what it is.

     With Jio and all the international players coming in it’s a fantastic time for somebody to do interesting things in this space. 

    Would you like to share some insights from your work with Ditto?

    People have been questioning whether going the SVoD way in a market like India where consumers are still hesitant to pay and that mindset is that content should come to us for free. If not, we are okay to get it from pirated sites. At  DittoTV, we were pioneers when we launched in 2012 for quite some reasons we couldn’t make the impact which we wanted to.

    Last year, we re-launched with a very gutsy call. We re-launched Ditto at a very radical price of Rs 20 and our catch phrase was ‘BeesKa TV’ and industry asked how we would make a profit out of it  – at so low a price.

    I am delighted to say this was the most successful thing we ever thought through.

    The concept was to democratize television. With this Rs 20 price point, our thought process was we will actually create penetration and get television to be used by all of those little markets and people who couldn’t afford.

    Our campaign was pretty thought thourgh that I didn’t believe I was reaching out to the urban audience. I was very clear that I am reaching out the audience for whom digital is fuzzy word.

    More importantly with the 20 bucks price point what I got to do we were able to get it from telco’s mobile wallet which is the most ubiquitous in this country and that helped to partner with telcos and get immediate distribution. So today i have tied up with all the four telcos of this country. Subscription base comes (read: is growing month to month) because of the promotions done by the telcos. The highest cost is cost for acquisition and I don’t have any acquisition cost  – the telcos are giving it free to the consumer and paying.

    It was our good fortune that Reliance launched their Jio Play with live television and suddenly the other telcos needed Ditto. My guess is we would be highest or the biggest paid subscriber OTT in this country.

    Despite that,  as an ordinary consumer I am confused about your brand. Why so many brands in a space which is already littered with other brands?

    For starters, I understand it’s a bit confusing. In a short time, people will see our thought process and strategy for OTT very differently. We are going to get these multiple brands under a single umbrella and we will do a exciting launch in the near future.

    What will be your go-to market strategy then? 

    One should not view this market (in India) purely as AVoD or SVoD or TVoD. All of those models will still be exist because we are seeing the potential.  

    BARC recently put out some numbers saying there are some 103 million home who still don’t have access to television. So, what happened to those homes do they leapfrog to digital for they have already done so?

    Going by our Ditto expereince, I do believe we have reached out to a far greater audience than currently being targeted by BARC. Once EKAM (BARC’digital video measurement service) comes in, I hope you will realize that the last mile has expanded a little more because of the option of being able to watch live television on digital.

    Will OTT and traditional linear television both survive or cannibalise?

    Look at the consumer eyeballs around you and you resist all you want but the fact is this little device becomes the single point for us for most of our  content. Huge brands across the globe are now revisiting the way they are spending advertising money saying they wanted a particular urban audience or millennial audience. For the youth, they are possible smarter to put it on OTT.

    Having said that, while one is not making big prophecies about the death of television but you are going to see a trend. We have over 30 OTT players today. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s a loss pool today, and more and more people are jumping in. But, everybody is making a punt for the future.

    Zee Group, the parent company, completely got out of owning sports content. Aren’t you losing on a huge chunk of young audience who are digitally literate and could be your subscribers.

    It might be true but there are choices you make. You can’t do everything and so, I think, the concept was very clear if you couldn’t be the leader or number two in that space we rather move on and use the investment in the other areas.

  • Indian online video to grow to US 1.6 bn at 35 percent CAGR by 2022

    MUMBAI: Media Partners Asia (MPA) estimates that the Indian online video industry generated approximately US$ 230 million in total sales in 2016, and is on course to reach approximately US$340 million in 2017. MPA projects a 35 percent CAGR to 2022 as total industry sales top US$1.6 billion.

    Further, the MPA report entitled Asia Pacific Online Video & Broadband Distribution, says that the Asia Pacific online video market will scale to US$ 46 billion by 2022, with China contributing more than 75 percent. MPA indicates that online video revenues, including net advertising and subscription fees, will grow at a 21 percent CAGR across the region between 2017 and 2022, climbing from US$17.6 billion in 2017 to US$46 billion by 2022.

    Said Mumbai-based MPA Vice President Mihir Shah: “In 2016, Jio’s 4G launch intensified competition slashing mobile data prices. The currency demonetization initiative by the government, implemented towards the end of 2016, also helped spur a significant improvement in the digital payments infrastructure in the country. Both these events have served as catalysts for online video consumption and monetization. By 2022, SVOD will account for 17 percent of the online video market in terms of revenues. Online video consumption will remain dominated by YouTube with domestic challengers Hotstar and Voot performing robustly but in a distant second and third place, respectively.”

    China will continue to contribute the lion’s share of customers and revenues to the online video industry in Asia Pacific, garnering 85 percent of SVOD customers and 78 percent of online video sector revenues by 2022. Such growth and scale reflects: (1) Wide-scale investment in original and acquired OTT content, including early and exclusive windows; (2) A weak market for traditional pay-TV, creating an opportunity for premium content distribution and monetization through online video; (3) Steady improvements in broadband reach and infrastructure, as well as increased adoption of smart TVs and set-top boxes; (4) Consumer adoption of seamless payment systems, developed by the owners of some of the most popular online video services, who are also leveraging data analytics and bundling to create new cohesive new ecosystems for content, commerce and communication. China’s online video market is largely ad-supported but with subscription’s share of revenue hitting 33 percent in 2017 (compared to 18 percent in 2015 and 26 percent in 2016), prospects for a demand-driven subscription model remain bright.

    Japan, Australia, India, Korea and Taiwan will emerge as the markets ex-China with the most scale in online video revenues and distribution. This reflects robust payment infrastructure, including in India, along with the growth of advertising-funded platforms and the steady rise of premium, subscription-based platforms. Piracy and under-developed payment infrastructure will continue to limit growth across much of Southeast Asia although increased broadband penetration (led by mobile connectivity) positions telcos as key partners to drive online video revenues. Online video advertising, in particular, remains a scalable and vital opportunity in Southeast Asia while SVOD revenues will grow rapidly from a very low base.

    Said MPA executive director Vivek Couto: “Advances in telecoms and payment infrastructure continue to point the way forward for the online video sector in Asia Pacific, although business models and regulations continue to evolve in a sector that’s still nascent in most territories. Key trends are emerging: (1) Services anchored to nimble, robust and sustainable business models – built around strong execution and scalable content consumption – are rising to the top; (2) Access to local and Asian content is increasingly essential in almost all markets, while demand for recent windows for franchise-based Hollywood product is also robust. Demand for original content along with movies, kids content and sports is also becoming more important; (3) Content curation, packaging and pricing remain critical, along with brand equity. Telecom operators, which have been focused on either paid conversion or mass reach to drive value, are increasingly moving to tighter payment per consumption models in pursuit of ROI across key video partnerships; (4) The value of branded destinations will increase rapidly within the online video ecosystem as platforms and operators forge partnerships with broadcasters and content players; (5) Leading local and regional players ex-China will start to capitalize on a massive online video advertising opportunity, hitherto dominated in the main by YouTube.”

    According to MPA, the online video advertising pie in Asia Pacific will grow from under US$12 billion in 2017 to more than US$25 billion by 2022. Ex-China, this opportunity equates to US$7 billion by 2022 versus US$3 billion in 2017. YouTube and to some extent Facebook will remain dominant, with an average 75 percent market share of online video advertising between them ex-China by 2022, versus 85 percent in 2017. Japan, India and Australia, followed by Korea, will be the biggest online video ad markets after China over this period. In SVOD, consumer spend ex-China will accelerate from a low base as revenues reach ~US$3.1 billion in 2022 versus US$1.5 billion in 2017. Japan and Australia will account for a combined 55 percent of value by 2022 versus 68 percent in 2017. Southeast Asia’s contribution will climb rapidly from a mere 9 percent in 2017 to 15 percent by 2022. Indirect SVOD revenues, which reflect wholesale fees paid by telcos to online video platforms as part of bundling and integration agreements, will remain important in the medium term but become less significant longer-term. Even in the short-to-medium term, telecom operators are recalibrating their approach to ROI with a greater focus on payment per consumption models. Ex-China, SVOD indirect fees will grow from only US$110 million in 2017 to US$213 million by 2022. Average SVOD subscriber penetration of the population will only reach 9.8 percent in 2017. This should increase to ~19 percent by 2022 as total SVOD subs, including direct and indirect connections, scale from 341 million in 2017 to 676 million by 2022 (from 58 million to 102 million ex-China).

    Exponential growth of mobile internet connectivity, combined with a slow but steady transition to next-generation fixed broadband, will provide a significant boost to online video consumption, reach and monetization. According to MPA, data revenues across fixed and mobile networks in Asia Pacific are sizable at US$236 billion in 2017. These will reach US$318 billion by 2022, with the ex-China market size at ~US$175 billion by 2022 versus US$126 billion in 2017. Average mobile broadband penetration will reach 73 percent per capita by 2022 versus 59 percent in 2017, with some of the biggest growth coming from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Average fixed broadband penetration will grow steadily from 44 percent to 52 percent of households over 2017-22, with the focus increasingly on upgrading high-speed networks using fibre and next-generation cable technologies.

  • Nexstar Media & Fox Broadcasting extend network pacts, add OTT dist. through ’19

    MUMBAI: Nexstar Media Group announced today that it entered into a long-term affiliation agreement Fox Broadcasting Company (“Fox”) covering its 17 full power and 2 low power owned or operated stations through 31 December, 2019. In addition, the Company has reached an over-the-top (“OTT”) master agreement with Fox, as well as specific agreements to launch on all the new internet-delivered programming services already distributing Fox programming.

    Separately Fox Broadcasting Company extended the affiliation agreements for six stations owned by Mission Broadcasting, Inc., three stations owned by Marshall Broadcasting, Inc., one station owned by Shield Media, LLC, one station owned by White Knight Broadcasting, Inc. and one station owned by Super Towers, Inc., which are operated by Nexstar Media and these 12 stations have also entered into an over-the-top (“OTT”) master agreement with Fox, as well as individual opt-in agreements with the aforementioned new internet-delivered programming services.

    Nexstar Media Group chairman, president and CEO Perry A. Sook stated, “Our new agreement reflects the complementary value that Fox’s programming brings to our viewers and stations when combined with Nexstar’s unique, locally-produced news programming and other content. Fox’s programming, including highly-rated sports content such as the NFL, MLB and NASCAR and scripted primetime shows including Empire and The X-Files, are popular with our viewers and our affiliation with FOX supports our goals for delivering great entertainment and information to viewers and advertisers anywhere, anytime and on any device, while creating a new revenue stream for Nexstar related to the OTT master agreement.”

    Fox Networks Group president of distribution Michael Biard stated, “We are pleased to launch on emerging distribution services in all 31 Fox-affiliated markets. Our new agreements with Nexstar are an important part of our mutual efforts to extend audience reach while reflecting the value of our programming within the overall Fox network-affiliate relationship. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Perry and his exceptional team.”

  • Hotstar & CBS agree to bring Showtime content & brand to India

    MUMBAI: Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform, and CBS Corporation today announced an SVOD content licensing and trademark agreement for SHOWTIME in India. The agreement will introduce the SHOWTIME brand to India for the first time and bring a roster of Emmy® and Golden Globe® winning programming from SHOWTIME to the territory.

    The agreement will provide Hotstar Premium subscribers in India access to future SHOWTIME series such as the new comedy SMILF, the new limited series, ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA, starring Oscar® winners Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Arquette and Golden Globe nominee Paul Dano, and the new TWIN PEAKS. Also available to Hotstar Premium subscribers are hundreds of hours of critically-acclaimed series including THE AFFAIR, BILLIONS, RAY DONOVAN and the recently premiered, I’M DYING UP HERE.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan said, “Over the last year, we have established Hotstar Premium as the most exciting destination for American TV shows and movies in India on demand. We have been continuously raising the bar on what is already the best streaming service for an Indian audience interested in international stories. The deal with CBS is in line with our strategy of bringing the best of new shows and movies from around the world to our Premium subscribers. Today, SHOWTIME joins an exciting slate on Hotstar. It is clear that there is no equivalent service like this in India, or, frankly, anywhere in the world. We are clear that we are building Hotstar Premium as the most compelling subscription service that will showcase the best story tellers from around the world.”

    “We are thrilled to be partnering with Hotstar to bring critically-acclaimed programming from SHOWTIME to Indian audiences,” said CBS Studios International president and CEO Armando Nuñez. “Thanks to this agreement and other partnerships with top platforms around the world, the footprint of the SHOWTIME brand and programming continues to expand in the global marketplace.”

    For CBS Corporation, similar agreements for SHOWTIME have been announced with FOX Networks Group in Asia, Canal+ Group in France, along with Sky UK, Germany and Italy, Bell Canada, Stan Australia, Movistar Spain and other output partners around the world.

    Setting its sights on shaping the connected TV experience in India, Hotstar appropriated the top spot on iTunes as Apple TV’s App of the Year for India in 2016. The recognition came on the back of a breakthrough year in which Hotstar continued to lead and disrupt the Indian market place. The service has more than 250 million downloads to date, and was the first local service to cross 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store. Globally, only one other video streaming app has hit the same milestone.

    Hotstar Premium now becomes the one of the few services in the world with exclusive content partnerships with the best global studios like Disney, Fox, HBO, and, now, SHOWTIME.

  • bobbles launches Humax B1 sat STB & H3 OTT player for expat viewers across Europe

    MUMBAI: bubbles media GmbH announced the availability of two new Humax receivers for bobbles.tv subscribers – the Humax B1 HEVC compliant digital set-top box for satellite reception and Humax H3 OTT media player for OTT online viewing.

    The Humax B1 HEVC compliant digital set-top box will deliver bobbles world-class programming from Asia to European subscribers via SES’ 19.2 degrees East ASTRA satellite position. Thanks to High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265, bobbles’ new satellite STB supports significantly enhanced video bandwidth efficiency for broadcast channels. This improves resource economy in terms of satellite capacity and helps streamline bobbles’ service operation. Meanwhile, the Humax B1 STB will deliver superior SD picture and sound quality for bobbles’ satellite viewers.

    The Android-based Humax H3 media player for OTT viewing delivers wireless, multi-room TV enabling bobbles online subscribers to watch their favourite content anywhere in the home or office. bobbles’ OTT service benefits from the 3READY front-end whose UX enables viewers to easily discover and select content.

    bobbles.tv is the pioneering multicultural satellite and OTT entertainment service for international expat communities living in Europe. Launched in August 2016, bobbles.tv delivers popular programming to Chinese and Korean communities across Europe, while the most recently launched bobbles package delivers India’s most popular TV channels to viewers in mainland Europe.

    Thanks to bobbles’ innovative distribution paradigm which combines pan-European satellite broadcasting with over-the-top viewing via online distribution, bobbles aims to deliver culture-specific entertainment packages to the estimated 15 million people originating from Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin American regions who have relocated to Europe.

    Humax VP sales Graham North said: “We congratulate bobbles for its commercial and technical innovation in delivering engaging, easy-to-access top-quality entertainment to Europe’s international communities. “Humax is proud to play a role in helping to bring these communities together via a great TV viewing experience whether it’s via satellite or online,” he added.

    “Fundamental to our values is the need for maximum user choice and flexibility at a subscriber-friendly price,” said bubbles media CEO Arnold C. Kulbatzki. “We believe these new Humax devices help us further deliver on these goals, enabling more people to enjoy bobbles programming, and feel closer to home.”

    bobbles.tv breaks new ground in viewer choice and service usability. With no need for a contract, depending on the chosen package, bobbles.tv monthly prices start from just €6.95 online and €14.95 on satellite.

  • In-depth analytics helps retain customers & reduce churn, says Corpus COO

    MUMBAI: Do you want to retain your audience? Do you want to know who your right audience is and how to acquire them? Do you want to improve your content and marketing ROI?

    OTT content creation is not a problem anymore but retaining viewership is a task. Imagine working super hard for months to create a masterpiece. You finally get a gallery to showcase it, but the gallery officials won’t tell you how many tickets they sell, who visits the gallery or the number of people who entered the area where your masterpiece is showcased or even the number of people who actually stopped to look at your art.

    “Viewers are moving more towards over the top (OTT) video content, but the varied and flexible set of content options is increasing ongoing customer churn. Getting to the hearts and minds of OTT content viewers has never been easier; so understanding customer characteristics and isolating the churn symptoms are two important factors that form the base for a strong analytics engine,” said Corpus Media Labs COO Dave Maan.” Mann says, “In-depth Content and App analytics surely helps OTT providers retain customers and reduce churn.”

    Corpus Advanced Analytics leverage OTT real-time viewer watch data, user wise and device wise usage data which are generated on an interactive real-time customizable dashboard on the Corpus Video Platform. Corpus enables an OTT provider with indicative analytics engine which is based on deep learning algorithms. Leveraging the results generated from these algorithms, Corpus advanced analytics engine can give an OTT provider the ability to make a recommendation that statistically will give them the results that they are looking for.

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    The Corpus Video Platform, now enabled with Corpus Advanced Analytics engine, influences every phase of the customer journey on the OTT platform, providing useful insights to drive results.  Corpus platform helps the OTT providers and the content owners achieve the following:

     Track Viewer’s App journey

     User and device wise usage data to provide market intelligence to marketing and network operations teams to take informed decisions

     Reporting tools allows query based extraction of data to bring sense to the services provided

     Advertising and Content recommendation to users such as most trending or most popular content being watched on the network, thus increasing user engagement

     Real-time dashboard of analytics to get a quick glance of the load and usage pattern across multiple geographies

     Registrations and subscription management

     Measuring and monitoring video consumption

    “Corpus Advanced Analytics engine provides our customers with all the insights needed to achieve effective OTT business outcomes and helps them make decisions about which programming choices they need to make and how to market to their audiences for effective, repeatable and predictable up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. This engine enables our customers to stay ahead in the existing OTT landscape,” Maan added.

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    OTT: Videos’ augmented quality, content search & personalised recommendations vital, says Corpus COO

  • Netflix’s Nick Nelson joins Ownzones Media as head of product innovation

    MUMBAI: In a move to bolster its in-house product and innovation development, Ownzones Media Network, the OTT EntTech company, has appointed former Netflix executive Nick Nelson as the new Head of Product Innovation. Nelson, who will be based in Los Angeles, reports to Aaron Sloman, Chief Technology Officer at Ownzones.

    In making the announcement, Sloman stated, “We are thrilled that Nick has joined us to further develop and refine our consumer OTT interface and user experience. He’s highly regarded in the industry for his knowledge to build and rollout brilliant OTT and streaming offerings, most notably in the early days of Netflix and recently with Seeso. I look forward to working closely with him on the innovation and strategy around our company’s products.”

    In this newly created post at Ownzones, Nelson will oversee the innovation of Ownzones’s suite of products and services, and helping to develop novel concepts that furthers Ownzones’s pursuit of connecting people with the content they love. He will also help evolve the consumer facing discover experience, A/B testing framework and product data intelligence.

    Nelson brings a wealth of valuable experience having served as Head of Product Creative at Netflix from 2012 to 2016. During the evolutionary years of the streaming giant, Nelson grew his Netflix team from 5 to 50+ employees to support the increasing responsibilities, volume, and international expansion of the company. Nelson was also responsible for transforming the Creative Services department at Netflix from a process-driven acquisition operation to a highly strategic, cross-functional team focused on improving creative while simultaneously operating at a global scale.

    Nelson has also held key positions at other leading digital rights management organizations including Cognizant Technology, Deluxe Entertainment Services and Ascent Media.

    Most recently, Nelson served as the Owner of Technically Creative, a company he founded in October 2016 in Los Angeles. For the past year, he consulted with Seeso, the OTT subscription streaming service owned by Comcast through NBC Universal.

    Nelson is a graduate of University of California – Santa Cruz, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems and Technology Management.

  • Cheaper content demand, piracy & OTT popularity dog A-Pac pay-TV, avers innovation forum

    MUMBAI: NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company, in partnership with MTM, has revealed the latest findings from the Pay-TV Innovation Forum 2017 that looks into the Asia-Pacific pay-TV market.

    The global research programme examines the state of pay-TV innovations and strategies that will drive the next phase of growth for the industry.

    Service providers and content-owners from the region participating in the forum in May 2017, agreed that the Asia-Pacific pay-TV industry is entering a transitional period during which operators will need to adapt their business models and technology platforms in order to thrive in the changing environment. New offerings will have to reflect changing consumer demand for cheaper and more personalised content packages, including OTT services, to effectively expand the range of services at different price points. Delivery infrastructure and technology platforms across APAC will also become much more IP-based, with content being increasingly delivered via both fixed-line and mobile broadband networks. This need for change is being driven both by the persistent threat of content piracy and the increasing popularity of OTT services that are using aggressive pricing strategies to acquire customers.

    Despite these challenges, pay-TV providers in Asia Pacific are investing in the future – continuing the steady roll-out of IP-connected set-top boxes (provided by 72 per cent of providers in 2017, up from 66 per cent in 2016), PVRs (63 per cent, up from 56 per cent), standalone OTT services (28 per cent, up from 23 per cent), and new adjacent services such as advanced advertising and Smart Home solutions (offered by 27 per cent, up from 16 per cent).

    Industry experts highlight two urgent investment priorities that will help service providers to navigate the transforming video and TV services market:

    Concerted approach to tackling content piracy: to limit illegal access to content, operators are calling for content owners to take their own independent actions to monitor, track and stop the distribution of illegal content, and for industry strategies that would bring together pay-TV operators, ISPs, content owners and industry associations to work with regulators and governments to take further legal action.

    Development of more consumer-focused and diversified product portfolios by embracing new business models, operators can develop new packages and offerings that appeal to changing consumer tastes at a wider range of price points, including skinny bundles, personalised offerings, seamless multi-screen TV everywhere services and smart home solutions. Operators also cited potential opportunities for growth through new business-to-business services, including harnessing data with new analytics tools to offer enriched data services and support targeted advertising.

    “The pay-TV industry in Asia Pacific is going through a challenging, transitional period. Traditional pay-TV revenues in many advanced Asian markets are under pressure, while emerging markets are growing, but delivering low ARPUs. The industry is being increasingly disrupted by content piracy, especially around live sports, and impacted by low-cost OTT offerings, making it harder for pay-TV companies to invest with confidence,” said MTM managing partner Jon Watts . “Pay-TV service providers in Asia-Pacific need to take stronger action against piracy to secure their future, while maintaining investment in new services and innovation.”

    “There is a strong call to action across the pay-TV industry in Asia-Pacific to respond to these growing challenges. Operators and content owners need to be innovative in how they transform their technology and business models to respond to these pressures,” said NAGRA senior director product marketing Simon Trudelle. “The Forum’s research highlights that service providers not only recognise the problems they face from content pirates, but want to see actions taken limiting illegal access to premium content to maintain revenue and ensure quality content continues to be created. By working in partnership with vendors, operators can be more agile and better adapt to the fast changing landscape.”

  • YuppTV & Fox Star to offer movies for expats

    MUMBAI: The world’s largest player for South-Asian content, YuppTV, recently announced its partnership with Fox Star Studios, one amongst the leading production houses of today.

    As part of the non-exclusive association, YuppTV is set to feature an admirable collection of popular movies by the Fox Star Studios, including Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Jolly LLB2, Akira, MS Dhoni and Neerja, on its on-demand movie streaming platform, YuppFlix, which can be accessed by YuppTV users across the globe for expat community.

    Commenting on the association, YuppTV CEO Uday Reddy said, “The association will enable us to offer the best movie catalogue by Fox Star Studios on our platform. We shall further continue to include the latest movies in our offerings and are affirmative that the users will enjoy the best movie catalogue on YuppFlix.”

    YuppTV has been actively updating its offering of latest movies on YuppFlix, its dedicated platform for on-demand movie streaming. Users can access the latest movies on all YuppTV platforms, including the iOS and Android app and internet-enabled devices.

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