ITV

Category: iWorld

  • Voot originals’ strategy of disruptive shows unfolds with ‘Yo Ke Hua Bro’ from 18 Aug

    MUMBAI: Voot’s “Yo Ke Hua Bro,” the 5-part comedy web-series starring Aparshakti Khuranna, Gaurav Pande, and Shamita Shetty is set to go live on 18 August 2017.

    Viacom 18’s video-on-demand streaming service Voot is all set to launch its next Voot Original – “Yo Ke Hua Bro”. Set in the heartland of Haryana, Yo Ke Hua Bro is an edgy comedy that brings to life the comic capers of the desi dumb and dumber! The show is set to add a new shade of rustic humour to the diverse palette of Voot Originals. The show with the bros — Aparshakti Khuranna & Gaurav Pandey along with the divas Shamita Shetty and Ridhima Pandit is set to go live on August 18th, 2017 only on Voot.

    Set in Haryana where hormones are raging and the sex ratio is skewed we meet 2 ‘BROS’ who don’t yield results! Be it clearing their graduation, their entrance exams, landing a girl or even a date… this original series is full of moments that will make most bro’s go “Yo Ke Hua Bro”. But the biggest Yo Ke Hua Bro moment is when these desi bro’s land themselves in a Kaand! Yes you heard that right! Boys in a kaand that will exemplify the male species! What is this scandal? Watch the show to find out more!

    The show will see actors Aparshakti Khuranna (Famously known for his character in Dangal), Gaurav Pandey (critically acclaimed for his role in Badrinath Ki Dulhania) essay the roles of the 2 Bro’s. The stunning divas Shamita Shetty and Ridhima Pandit will essay the roles of the sassy women who challenge the boys. In a special appearance will be the digital phenomena Sumeet Vyas, in a never see before role of a maverick cop.

    Speaking about Voot Orignals, Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gaurav Gandhi said: “We have a very aggressive original’s strategy that will see a slew of innovative & disruptive shows being brought alive. Our endeavour with Voot Originals like Yo Ke Hua Bro is to ensure that we create content that engages & entertains the discerning digital viewer. We will see many more such differentiated originals from Voot in the coming months.”

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures head of content Monika Shergill said: “We are looking at launching many more series this year each with a differentiated pitch. Kick starting this plan with our latest offering – Yo Kay Hua Bro is set in heartland India. It is a comic caper with a unique twist! Men beware… we are about to spark the imagination of many women!!”

    Yo Ke Hua Bro is Voot’s eight original since its launch in May 2016. With shows like It’s not that Simple, Shaadi Boys, Badman, Untag amongst other, Voot has created a wide palette of content catering to the entertainment needs of the discerning viewers. Voot “Yo Ke Hua Bro” with its high decibel humour, spirit and desi chutzpah is all set to go live.

  • Kumar Mangalam Birla charges into content creation, hires TV vet Sameer Nair

    MUMBAI: Sameer “Sam” Nair has made it a habit to go where many  a man has gone before and failed. The only difference: he has made what he has been charged with a success.

    Now, the former Star TV COO and former Balaji Telefilms group CEO, is headed to the $43 billion Aditya Birla group to revive chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla’s long harboured ambitions to chew away a piece of the fast growing Indian entertainment business through his company Applause Entertainment.

    Earlier, attempts by Birla under Applause were abject financial failures, though the company churned out films such as the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Black and Dev.

    The reason: Birla did not have a strong platform 10 years ago, and attempts to create for cinema and television were challenging. However, with the upcoming Idea-Vodafone giant (around 400 million subs when the two merge by 2018) under his belt, he won’t be facing that challenge in his fresh attempt to build the entertainment side of his business. Additionally, he has  Sam who has a track record of turning around struggling entertainment companies.  Finally,  global platforms such as Amazon, Netflix and Hotstar will be another window of opportunity for revived entity.

    Thus, Kumar Mangalam has kept aside an initial  investment  war chest of  Rs 2-3 billion this time around.

    Sam  and Applause will be focused on creating premium drama series, in multiple genres and languages (Tamil, Hindi and Telugu) in the shorter format with seasons to feed the new emerging audience which is currently gorging on shows such as House of Cards and Game of Thrones. The idea, according to Sam is to work with content producers in the established studio structure to roll out the first batch of shows rather quickly in the next six months. Around 20-30 series  across romance, drama, crime and thriller genres will be delivered over the next 18 months.

    Dropping data prices on mobile and increased consumption of video while on the move are factors which will fuel the explosion in content in India going forward, points out Sam.  Content, he says,  has to play catch-up with technology.

    Also Read :

    ALTBalaji is essentially everything that Balaji on TV is not: Sameer Nair

    Just 11% video viewership is on OTT: Akamai’s Reddy

    Synergy between quality content & branding workable in digital space, feel industry experts

  • Ownzones’ SVoD brings ‘Best Westerns Ever’ to Amazon, Roku, iOS & Android

    MUMBAI: The Western genre rides again thanks to a new SVOD channel being launched by Ownzones Media Network. The OTT EntTech company will bring Best Westerns Ever to Amazon video channels and via the Ownzones app currently on Roku, iOS and Android platforms beginning today, giving fans exclusive access to hundreds of iconic Western films and TV series at a nominal monthly subscription fee of $1.99.

    Today’s news comes on the heels of Ownzones’ successful rollout of Best TV Ever, a subscription content service for fans of vintage TV series that has seen exponential growth, revealing a great demand for niche programming. ‘Best Westerns Ever’, the next in Ownzones’ plans for a full stable of niche vertical channels, was created to satisfy this demand for underserved fans of the Western genre.

    ‘Best Westerns Ever’ will boast more than 400 film and TV titles featuring the genre’s biggest stars, including John Wayne, Dennis Hopper, Gene Autry, Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, Bob Denver, Roy Rogers, Jane Russell, Fred Astaire, Burt Lancaster, and Maureen O’Hara, along with cult classics and rare treasures, such as “The Cisco Kid” and “Bonanza” and films like “Rawhide,” “Billy the Kid Wanted,” “Red River Valley” and “The Over the Hill Gang.”

    “In launching these niche channels, we are recognizing and responding to vastly underserved audience segments by developing exciting, affordable consumer offerings that appeal to their viewing passions,” said Ownzones head of programming Doug Lee.

    “’Best Westerns Ever’ is a robust channel offering sure to delight Western superfans, who will no longer have to pay high prices to gain access to the titles they love. We’re delivering the best of the genre in feature films and series with one-click convenience.”

    Lee adds that, as the end of the traditional TV bundle nears, viewers will be looking to subscribe and spend more in niche OTT services that are of interest to them.

    Ownzones’ launch of ‘Best Westerns Ever’ and success of Best TV Ever validate the company’s business model, which leverages the consumer’s purchase mindset with the organic search capabilities of its partners.

    These new content services will continue to expand to other distribution platforms to meet the growing consumer demand. Both products will also be available on Ownzones.com.

  • June: Jio & ACT lead wireless, wired broadband subs growth

    BENGALURU:MukeshAmbani’s Reliance Jio juggernaut continued leading growth in wireless broadband internet in the country nine months after its commercial launch on 5 September 2016. Jio has added 51.2 million subscribers in calendar year 2017 (CY-17) until 30 June 2017 (Jun-17) At the same time, ACT Broadband, probably the largest private wired internet service player in South India, continued to lead subscriber acquisitions in CY-17 with the addition of about  100,000 (0.1 million) broadband internet subscribers until Jun-17.

    Wireless broadband numbers grew 9.14 million or 3.35 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) in Jun-17 to 281.99 million from 272.85 million in May-17 according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data for the month of June 2017. Jio’s subscriber base grew by 13.68 percent in Jun-17.The top 5 wireless broadband service providers were Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd (123.36 million), Bharti Airtel (53.25 million), Vodafone (41.13 million), Idea Cellular (26.37 million) and Reliance Communications (13.54 million). Please refer to the figure below:

    public://1111111111111111_1.jpg

    The figure below shows the m-o-m subscriber base growth of the top 5 service providers in India.

    public://22222222222222_2.jpg

    Top five broadband internet service providers constituted 89.08 percent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of Jun-17. The subscriber base of these service providers was Reliance JioInfocom Ltd (123.36 million), Bharti Airtel (55.34 million), Vodafone (41.14 million), Idea Cellular (26.37 million) and BSNL (21.76 million).

    In the case of wired broadband subscribers, the all India subscriber base grew by 0.19 million or by 1.04 percent in CY-17 – from 18.14 million on 1 January 2017 to 18.33 million as on 30 June 2017.

    As on 30 June 2017, the top five Wired Broadband Service providers were BSNL (9.73 million), Bharti Airtel (2.1 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.22 million), MTNL (0.98 million) and You Broadband (0.65 million). Among the top 5 wired broadband internet service providers the government run providers – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) lost subscribers, Airtel saw an increase of 10,000 subscribers, while ACT and You Broadband both gained subscribers in June 17 as compared to May 17. Please refer to the figure below.

    public://3333333333333333333333.jpg

    It must be noted thatTRAI reports indicate data in millions of numbers up to 2 decimal places. Hence it is assumed in this report that a figure of 0.51 million (5.1 lakh) subscribers for You BB for Dec-2015 would be granular to the nearest 10,000. While percentages have been mentioned up to two decimal places, the accuracy may vary, depending upon the exact number.

    Multi-system operators (MSOs’) and Local cable operators (LCOs’) or cable video service providers also provide broadband internet services in the country. These cable service providers have a number of subsidiaries and alliances, hence broadband numbers are split as applicable. The consolidated subscription numbers of these entities could be larger than the numbers of some of the wired internet services providers mentioned above.

    ALSO READ ;

    ACT still leads in wired sub addition, Idea & BSNL lose wireless subs

    ACT to invest Rs 7 bn in wireline infra, Rs 1 bn for Delhi

    Jio juggernaut rolls on, wired segment wobbles

    TRAI may invite ideas to boost b’cast & tele-products manufacturing

  • Game of Thrones episode leak with Star TV watermark traced to Prime Focus Tech; 4 people arrested

    NEW DELHI: “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” Ygritte told her reluctant lover, delivering one of the most iconic lines in the drama series. But  the Maharashtra police do know who leaked  episode four from season seven of  the blockbuster HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ with the Star India watermark about 10 days back. And, the source of the crime is Prime Focus, a technology partner of Star. 

    Police investigations done in Mumbai and Bangalore have shown that present and former employees of Prime Focus, technology vendor for Star India, were responsible for the leak. GOT airs in India on Star channels and its digital platform Hotstar.

    “The information and material collected at the Bangalore office (of Prime Focus) and the Mumbai Police station were collated, studied and analysed by the police. On being satisfied, the investigating agency sufficiently established the role and involvement of various persons, both existing and former employees as well as outsiders,” Maharashtra special IGP (cyber) Brijesh Singh said in a statement yesterday, adding four persons were arrested on 14 August 2017.

    It transpires that the leak, which was one in the series of many leaks globally involving, GOT in recent times, happened in Prime Focus Technologies’ Bengaluru office.

    The police said interrogations revealed that more than one person was involved, included outside people, who had access to the raw data of the TV series. All the accused persons were produced in a court and later sent to police custody till 21 August 2017.

    During investigations, Prime Focus had come forward accepting the leak had happened at its end. It also lodged a police complaint against one of its serving employees alleging that he, along with another former employee and other persons, illegally gained access to the episode and leaked it online.

    Indiantelevision.com could not independently reach out to Prime Focus for the company’s reactions to the developments on online leak. 

    In a separate statement Star India said, “This was the first time that an incident of this nature has occurred. We are deeply grateful to the police for their swift and prompt action. We believe that valuable intellectual property is a critical part of the development of the creative industry and strict enforcement of the law is essential to protecting it.”

    On 4 August 2017, The Verge had reported an unaired episode of GOT appeared on the Internet early that morning. While HBO’s servers were breached earlier that week, this episode leak happened at GOT producer HBO’s distribution partner in India, Star India, and the company’s logo appeared watermarked throughout the leaked episode.

    According to The Verge, Smartprix spotted a direct link to the MP4 of the episode over at Star India’s own distribution site, allowing people to download GOT freely before sharing it with Google Drive links on Reddit.

     

    ALSO READ:

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    http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/english-entertainment/star-world-to-host-first-live-got-debate-on-facebook-170421

    https://www.vox.com/2015/4/12/8394447/game-of-thrones-leak

  • PCCW Media reports lower half year video numbers, higher OTT numbers

    BENGALURU: Hong Kong based telecommunications, media, IT solutions, property development and investment and other businesses group PCCW Limited reported lower numbers for its video operations comprising of NowTV and improved revenue for its ViuTV and its OTT operations for the half year ended 30 June 2017 (H1-17) as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Overall, on a consolidated basis, the group’s revenue and operating profits were stable during the current year period as compared to the corresponding year ago period.

    For NowTV, the company reported a stable subscriber base of about 1.3 million and lower average revenue per user (ARPU) of HK$186 in H1-17. The company has mentioned ARPU of HK$ 194 for H1-16 and HK$192 for H2-16. Consequently, revenue in the current quarter declined 3 percent to HK$ 1,350 million from HK$ 1,391 million in the corresponding period of last year (H1-16) and from HK$ 1509 million in the immediate trailing half year period (H2-16).

    NowTV EBIDTA was HK$ 154 million, HK$ 184 million and HK$ 229 million for H1-17, H1-16 and H2-16 respectively.

    For its Free TV business – ViuTV, the company reported revenue in H1-17 of HK$94 million as compared to HK$ 52 million in H1-17, but lower than the HK$ 108 million for H2-17. ViuTV had a higher operating loss (negative EBIDTA) for H1-17 at HK$ 116 million as compared to HK$ 68 million in H1-16 and HK$ 115 million in H2-16.

    OTT services revenue increased 24 percent to HK$ 337 million in H1-17 as compared to HK$ 227 million in H1-16 and HK$ 312 million in H2-16. OTT services reported a higher operating loss (negative EBIDTA) of HK$ 125 million in H1-17 as compared to HK$ 109 million in H1-16 and slightly lower than an operating loss of HK$ 126 million in H2-16.

    Overall, PCCW Limited core revenue decreased by 5 percent to HK$ 17,576 million due to a slowdown in Mobile handset sales at HKT. Excluding Mobile handset sales, core revenue was steady at HK$ 16,549 million. The Solutions and over-the-top (OTT) businesses showed continued growth momentum with their revenues increasing by 6 percent and 24 percent, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2017, compared to a year ago

    PCCW Group managing director BG Srinivas said the Group’s strategy was to continue to develop and maintain our leadership in the relevant markets of each of our core businesses of IT solutions, media, and telecommunications, while seeking new growth opportunities.

    He said, “With an excellent track record in large-scale IT projects and a global data centre network alliance, PCCW Solutions will continue to benefit from the needs of enterprises and the public sector to go digital. The significant recurring nature of its business and the expanding demand for digital transformation capabilities should lead to a growing contribution from PCCW Solutions.”

    “Now TV has consolidated its market leadership in the pay TV industry in Hong Kong while ViuTV has broadened our reach into the TV advertising market. Although the environment in the media industry in Hong Kong has been very dynamic in the past year, we expect the competitive behavior to rationalize and lead to improved profitability. The OTT business has extended our geographic scope beyond Hong Kong and we now have a presence in 24 markets. Our goal is to build the leading digital media service in Asia with the best viewing experience and most relevant content,” added Srinivas.

    PCCW raises US$ 110million for video and music streaming

    In a press release, PCCW says that it has raised US$110 million to expand its penetration in its existing markets as well as to expand to other high growth markets its range of video and music streaming services. Hony Capital, Foxconn Ventures and Singapore sovereign fund Temasek have taken an 18 percent share in the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT. PCCW Media will remain as the controlling shareholder of PCCW OTT. PCCW OTT is present in over in 24 markets globally. Its services include video streaming services under the Viu and Vuclip brands along with a music streaming service MOOV.

    The company says that this strategic investment will strengthen PCCW OTT’s ability to enhance its core value proposition of relevant content including distinctive original productions, and to continue to deploy the latest technologies and leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience.

  • Subramaniam is Prime interim head as Amazon seeks new leader

    MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video India director – content Vijay Subramaniam has been appointed as the interim head till the time a suitable replacement is found for Prime India head Nitesh Kripalani who quit two days ago. Kripalani will however remain on the rolls of Amazon India till November.

    “We are looking to fill this position. In the interim, Subramaniam has stepped in,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

    Subramaniam, who has over 20 years of experience in television, radio and print, also worked with Disney, Turner, Magna and Star. He quitt Disney Media Networks in April 2017, and joined Prime shortly later. Before joining Disney, Subramaniam was with MTV India as the advertising sales director, responsible for delivering revenue objectives for MTV. 

    While free Youtube, which makes money with ads, is successful in India, Prime Video is among the first SVoDs which is succeeding owing to scale.

    Also Read:

    Amazon Prime country head Nitesh Kripalani quits

    Amazon Prime plans to add more originals & evaluating regional content

  • SonyLiv to scale up via Amazon Fire & Apple TV, courtesy Cisco IVP

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) and Cisco will together extend SonyLiv video experience to Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV customers in India.

    The Cisco Infinite Video Platform (IVP) provides SonyLiv with a fully cloud-based infrastructure, allowing it to offer more than 40,000 hours of broadcast-quality premium viewing experiences, including Live TV.

    Cisco IVP features superior security protocols that protect the video content from all kinds of threats. Through Cisco IVP, SonyLiv will be able to scale up, brand and market its OTT app on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV in India.

    Users have access to rich content including movies, a strong line-up of events across all sports, shows, music, TV shows and much more across multiple devices and platforms.

    SonyLiv EVP and Head – Digital Business Uday Sodhi said,“SonyLiv has reinvented how users immerse themselves in unmatched entertainment experience. Our association with Cisco provides us the ability to extend our SonyLiv offering to a new set of consumers,allowing them access to our vast content catalogue. Our focus is on bringing the best of Cisco’s technology expertise and our content prowess to establish new benchmarks in the OTT space.”

    Cisco India & SAARC MD – service provider business Sanjay Kaul said, “Superior-quality videos are the way forward. Video will be 75 per cent of India’s mobile data traffic by 2021. Therefore, it is imperative that content-providers are equipped to scale up and deliver dynamic user experience. Cisco’s Infinite Video Platform offers SonyLiv an opportunity to secure its place as the leader by delivering broadcast-quality entertainment to Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV consumers.”

  • Now ‘Watch’ original videos & shows on Facebook

    MUMBAI: FB is excited to see how creators and publishers use shows to connect with their fans and community.  Watching video on Facebook has the incredible power to connect people, spark conversation, and foster community. On Facebook, videos are discovered through friends and bring communities together.

    As more and more people enjoy this experience,  FB has learned that people like the serendipity of discovering videos in News Feed, but they also want a dedicated place they can go to watch videos. That’s why last year  FB launched the Video tab in the U.S., which offered a predictable place to find videos on Facebook. Now  FB wants to make it even easier to catch up with shows you love.

    FB will be introducing Watch to a limited group of people in the U.S. and plan to bring the experience to more people soon. Similarly,  FB will be opening up Shows to a limited group of creators and plan to roll out to all soon.

    Introducing Watch

    FB is introducing Watch, a new platform for shows on Facebook. Watch will be available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and in our TV apps. Shows are made up of episodes — live or recorded — and follow a theme or storyline. To help you keep up with the shows you follow, Watch has a Watchlist so you never miss out on the latest episodes.

    Watch is personalized to help you discover new shows, organized around what your friends and communities are watching. For example, you’ll find sections like “Most Talked About,” which highlights shows that spark conversation, “What’s Making People Laugh,” which includes shows where many people have used the “Haha” reaction, and “What Friends Are Watching,” which helps you connect with friends about shows they too are following.

    FB has learned from Facebook Live that people’s comments and reactions to a video are often as much a part of the experience as the video itself. So when you watch a show, you can see comments and connect with friends and other viewers while watching, or participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show.

    A Platform for Shows

    public://newsroom-hero_final-blue-11_1.pngWatch is a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work.  FB  thinks a wide variety of Facebook shows can be successful, particularly:

    Shows that engage fans and community. Nas Daily publishes a daily show where he makes videos together with his fans from around the world. The Watchlist makes it easy for fans to catch every day’s new episode.

    Live shows that connect directly with fans. Gabby Bernstein, a New York Times bestselling author, motivational speaker, and life coach, uses a combination of recorded and live episodes to connect with her fans and answer questions in real time.

    Shows that follow a narrative arc or have a consistent theme. Tastemade’s Kitchen Little is a funny show about kids who watch a how-to video of a recipe, then instruct professional chefs on how to make it. Each episode features a new child, a new chef, and a new recipe. Unsurprisingly, the food doesn’t always turn out as expected.

    Live events that bring communities together. Major League Baseball is broadcasting a game a week on Facebook, enabling people to watch live baseball while connecting with friends and fellow fans on the platform.

    FB  thinks Watch will be home to a wide range of shows, from reality to comedy to live sports. To help inspire creators and seed the ecosystem,  FB has also funded some shows that are examples of community-oriented and episodic video series. For example, Returning the Favor is a series hosted by Mike Rowe where he finds people doing something extraordinary for their community, tells the world about it, and in turn does something extraordinary for them. Candidates are nominated by Mike’s fans on Facebook.

    Addressing Cloaking

    public://cloaking_inlinegraphics_0.jpgFB  has always been working to combat the spread of misinformation and the financially-motivated bad actors who create misleading experiences for people. FB is now sharing additional steps  FB ’ve taken to remove even more of them from Facebook, so that what people see after clicking an ad or post matches their expectations.

    Some of the worst offenders use a technique known as “cloaking” to circumvent Facebook’s review processes and show content to people that violates Facebook’s Community Standards and Advertising Policies. Here, these bad actors disguise the true destination of an ad or post, or the real content of the destination page, in order to bypass Facebook’s review processes. For example, they will set up web pages so that when a Facebook reviewer clicks a link to check whether it’s consistent with our policies, they are taken to a different web page than when someone using the Facebook app clicks that same link. Cloaked destination pages, which frequently include diet pills, pornography and muscle building scams, create negative and disruptive experiences for people.

    Since cloaking exists across many of today’s digital platforms, we will also be collaborating closely with other companies in the industry to find new ways to combat it and punish bad actors. Over the past few months  FB  have been ramping up our enforcement across ads, posts and Pages, and have strengthened our policies to explicitly call out this practice.  FB  will ban advertisers or Pages found to be cloaking from the platform.

    How  FB Identifies Cloaking

    FB is utilizing artificial intelligence and have expanded our human review processes to help us identify, capture, and verify cloaking.  FB can now better observe differences in the type of content served to people using our apps compared to our own internal systems.

    In the past few months these new steps have resulted in us taking down thousands of these offenders and disrupting their economic incentives for misleading people.

    How Will This Impact My Page?

     FB sees cloaking as deliberate and deceptive, and will not tolerate it on Facebook.  FB will remove Pages that engage in cloaking. Otherwise Pages should not see changes to their referral traffic.

    ALSO READ :

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  • Vuclip parent PCCW sells 18% in OTT biz for $110m, fuels growth

    MUMBAI: PCCW Media, the parent company of Vuclip which provides web-based and short-form content video services in 19 markets including India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets with multiple patents, has introduced three investors.

    Further fueling growth and innovation of Viu and other OTT services in Asia and beyond, PCCW has brought in Hony Capital (Hony), Foxconn Ventures (Foxconn) and Temasek as investors of PCCW International OTT (Cayman Islands) Holdings Limited (PCCW OTT).

    This strategic investment will strengthen PCCW OTT’s ability to enhance its core value proposition of relevant content including distinctive original productions, and to continue to deploy the latest technologies and leverage its patents in video streaming and encoding to offer the best customer experience. As a rapidly expanding business, PCCW OTT aims to increase its penetration within the existing markets where it has made significant inroads as well as to expand its footprint in other high-growth markets.

    PCCW OTT engages in the provision of OTT (over-the-top) Internet media and entertainment services in 24 markets globally, including video streaming services under the “Viu” and “Vuclip” brands as well as a music streaming service under the “MOOV” brand. Hony, Foxconn and Temasek will own approximately 18% of the enlarged issued share capital of PCCW OTT for a total consideration of US$110 million. PCCW Media will remain as the controlling shareholder of PCCW OTT.

    PCCW Media Group managing director Janice Lee said, “Our focus on content, pricing and technology that are locally relevant in various markets, together with our fast-tracked rollout across the region, has enabled Viu to become a leading OTT video service in Asia. We are very excited to have Hony, Foxconn and Temasek join us as strategic shareholders. Bringing these reputable partners in the business will support our current plans and strengthen our leading position in the market with the introduction of more locally relevant and original content, and technology to support innovative product development – all of which are beneficial to our ecosystem comprised of users, advertisers and business partners.”

    Hony Capital chairman and CEO John Zhao said, “Hong Kong is the forefront of international collaboration responding to the Belt and Road Initiatives, and Viu at present has laid out effective business map in Southeast Asian countries along the Belt and Road, which will no doubt play an essential and unique role to help the culture, content as well as creative ideas to travel abroad. We are glad that we can join hands with Viu led by Lee, and we hope Hony Capital can bring in not only the capital support, but also other value-added services and resources. In the meanwhile, Hony Capital can incorporate the business into our existing endeavors in the cultural and creative industry, to eventually offer even better Chinese contents to the world.”

    Foxconn EVP Fang Ming Lu said, “Foxconn is transforming to be a Technology Service Provider from content creation to network transmission. We will work with PCCW to deliver advanced OTT service to the market. We believe the collaboration will enhance the customer experience in entertainment life and accelerate the development of the OTT ecosystem.”

    Launched in October 2015, Viu has over 12 million monthly active users as of June 2017. The service operates on a dual-model of an ad-supported tier of service and a premium subscription tier of service with more features. Viu delivers premium Asian content in different genres from top content providers with express delivery of local language subtitles as fast as four hours after original telecast. It also offers original production series under the “Viu Original” initiative. Viu is available in 15 markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and the Middle East countries of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

    Joining the PCCW family in May 2015, both Viu and Vuclip users can enjoy smooth and unbuffered viewing experience regardless of device or network conditions. MOOV is one of Hong Kong’s largest multi-platform digital streaming music service and ranked number one on brand awareness and user satisfaction in Hong Kong (which is also available in Vietnam).

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