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  • Pinterest opens new office in Singapore

    Pinterest opens new office in Singapore

    MUMBAI: Today Pinterest is proud to announce the official opening of its Singapore office. This is the second office for Pinterest in the region and it will be servicing South East Asia and India as part of the company’s expanding work in APAC. Pinterest also has a team in Japan based in its Tokyo office, which opened in 2013.

    Starting with a small team of local talent, Ayumi Nakajima, Country Manager, South East Asia and India, will focus on increasing growth in the region. The team will also support relationships with brands and publishers and make sure Pinterest offers the best localized experience for people from different cultures throughout the region.

    “Pinterest has a growing, passionate audience across APAC who are using Pinterest for inspiration to create a life they love,” said Ayumi Nakajima, Country Manager, South East Asia and India. “There is a great opportunity for brands, publishers and creators on Pinterest to connect with these engaged users when they’re considering what to do or buy next. With a team based in Singapore, we’ll be able to offer an even more relevant experience for our Pinners in one of our fastest growing regions. So no matter where you’re from, Pinterest is serving you ideas that feel personalized for you.”

    APAC is one of the fastest growing regions for Pinterest with millions of people currently using the platform each month, a number that has increased by more than 50% over the past year (June 2018 to June 2019). People in these countries are also saving more than 7 million ideas on Pinterest each day. 

    The Pinterest Singapore team has already been working with regional partners such as Vogue India and Miss Malini in India and  MasakTV, Tastemade and Femina Magazine in Indonesia.  MasakTV partnered with Pinterest during Ramadan season this year, helping Pinners in Indonesia find inspiration for recipes to break their fast. In just six weeks, the campaign doubled MasakTV’s Indonesian audience, including a new audience of younger, female Pinners—a different audience from who MasakTV typically reaches on other platforms.

    Unlike other platforms, where the focus is on friends, Pinterest is where people go to focus on themselves. More than 250 million people around the world come to Pinterest each month to plan their future—including what to eat for dinner, what products to buy, where to travel and how to decorate their homes. 

    More than half of people on Pinterest come from outside the United States, and international growth is one of Pinterest’s top priorities. Pinterest’s new Singapore office is the company’s next step in its ongoing commitment to deliver locally relevant inspiration to Pinners around the world. 

  • ZEE5 unveils Tamil subscription packs for Malaysia and Singapore

    ZEE5 unveils Tamil subscription packs for Malaysia and Singapore

    MUMBAI: Underscoring its strong language content offering for audiences in Malaysia and Singapore, global digital entertainment platform ZEE5 today announced the launch of special Tamil subscription packs for these markets.  This will enable users in these markets to access premium Tamil content at extremely competitive prices. The ZEE5 Tamil premium packs are priced at 9.9 MYR per month in Malaysia and 6.98 SGD per month in Singapore.

    Subscribers will be able to access popular shows from ZEE Tamil like Sembaruthi, Yaaradi Nee Mohini, Poove Poochoodava etc. as well as ZEE5 Originals like Sigai, Kallachirupu and America Mapillai. Also available is the upcoming Tamil original movie – D7, along with other language content dubbed in Tamil, including ZEE5’s recently launched Original, Rangbaaz. 

    Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global said, “At ZEE5 we’re not just focused on offering our users the largest range of language content, but also on making it extremely easy for them to access that content through customized offerings for different markets. The introduction of the Tamil pack in Malaysia and Singapore enables viewers in these markets to access a huge bouquet of premium Tamil content, ranging from their favourite TV shows to a constantly expanding library of Originals and movies including World Digital Premieres. We’re looking forward to delighting audiences in these markets with the rollout of these new packs”

    ZEE5 offers 1,00,000 hours of Indian Movies, TV Shows, Cine plays, Music, Videos and a slew of exclusive Originals, across 12 languages – English, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Punjabi. It also offers 60+ popular Live TV channels.

    The App can be downloaded from Google Play Store as well as the iOS App Store and can be accessed by visiting www.ZEE5.com. The app is also available on Samsung Smart TV, Apple TV Android TV and Amazon Fire TV.

  • OOYALA POWERS STARHUB’S NEW STREAMING BOX

    OOYALA POWERS STARHUB’S NEW STREAMING BOX

    Singapore: StarHub, a leading broadcaster and telco operator in Singapore, launched a brand new all-in-one entertainment destination – the StarHub Go Streaming Box, powered by the Ooyala Online Video Solution. This box is the first in the world to run on the Operator Tier version of Android TV Oreo, and comes pre-loaded with the best of StarHub’s content catalog. With the Ooyala Online Video Solution simplifying and streamlining the OTT content preparation and publishing process, StarHub can deliver a great viewing experience for its audiences.

    “The StarHub Go Streaming Box offers customers seamless and easy access to our breadth of content, our Partners’ apps, as well as the Google Play Store,” said Chong Siew Loong, Chief Technology Officer, StarHub. “Ooyala’s Online Video Solution plays a vital role in content management and video playback, ensuring that our customers enjoy a fuss-free content viewing experience.”

    The Ooyala Online Video Solution is a suite of content management and video publishing apps that deliver high quality, personalized video experiences across multiple devices for media owners, allowing them to keep their viewers engaged, and monetize their content easily.

    “Media companies today invest heavily in content and look to maximize their ROI by making the content available through multiple channels,” said Jonathan Huberman, CEO, Ooyala.  “Ooyala solutions allow them to do exactly that, by simplifying millions of workflows and delivering content anytime, anywhere, to any device.”

    “We’re excited to expand our collaboration with StarHub, a major entertainment provider in Asia,” said Huberman. “StarHub is an important customer of Ooyala, and we have once again proven that our platform is flexible to support integrations with other applications to meet our customers’ requirements. Our strong Asia Pacific services team, based in Singapore, worked closely with StarHub to deliver the project on time, allowing them to launch this innovative service successfully.”

  • BSNL sees speed spike in latest Netflix ISP ranking

    BSNL sees speed spike in latest Netflix ISP ranking

    MUMBAI: The streaming giant Netflix has released its monthly ISP Speed index data where India’s BSNL saw a noteworthy speed jump. The state-owned telco company’s average speed rose to 2 Mbps, up from 1.66 Mbps in July. Along with the speed spike, it also rose one spot according to the ranking. Other than BSNL, rankings of Hathway and D-Vois have also improved but the speed spike is not much notable. In overall country rankings, India fell one spot to 54th place. The Netflix ISP Speed Index is a measure of primetime Netflix performance on a particular ISP.

    According to ISP index, 7 Star Digital, Spectranet, Airtel have acquired top three positions. Another government owned entity MTNL fell one spot due to the spike in BSNL’s average speed.

    Globally, largest speed gain on the index was experienced by Flow in Jamaica. Speeds at the Jamaican operator increased by 0.74 Mbps, bringing its average monthly speed to 2.37 Mbps. Indosat-Fibre in Indonesia also saw notable spike reaching a 4.14 Mbps average for August up from 3.76 Mbps in July.

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    In the losses category, KBro in Taiwan and SK Broadband’s speed in South Korea decreased notably. KBro experienced speeds decline to a monthly average of 2.80 Mbps from 3.06 Mbps last month and SK Broadband’s speeds slowed to 2.71 Mbps on average down from 2.97 Mbps last month. As per country rankings, Jamaica dropped five spots to 51st and Singapore dropped four spots to 12th.

    The country reckoned to have the overall top speed is Switzerland at 4.19 Mbps, followed by Netherland’s 4.07 Mbps and Romania’s 4.01 Mbps. Netflix’s home country, the US, stood at eighth position with average 3.98 Mbps speed.

  • Viacom launches MTV Play, Comedy Central Play mobile apps in Singapore

    Viacom launches MTV Play, Comedy Central Play mobile apps in Singapore

    ‘MUMBAI: Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has announced the official launch of MTV Play and Comedy Central Play mobile apps in Singapore through the Singtel Cast over-the-top video portal. The MTV Play apps like Play the Music, MTV Play Firsts, which will aim to showcase content to be first on before any other platforms in Singapore, including The Challenge: Vendettas, Million Dollar Baby and Just Tattoo of Us Season. The other features MTV Shorts which will deliver free access to MTV’s wide-ranging short-form content and MTV Signatures offering access to the MTV library for shows.

    The Comedy Central Play app features include Comedy Central Play Express, delivering the global hit The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Comedy Central Play Firsts such as Comedy Central Stand-Up, Asia Season 3 and Comedy Specials, Comedy Central Exclusives with content from The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, The Review, Moonbeam City, Comedy Central Play Shorts giving free access to Comedy Central’s Bad Snappers, Josh Investigates, and Comedians Solve World Problems and the Comedy Central Play Collection which comprises a library including Comedy Central Roasts, Key & Peele, The President Show, The Comedy Jam and more.

    The app will combine live TV, video streaming apps and on-demand entertainment including stand-up, talk shows, scripted and short-form content on Comedy Central. The apps are available for free download from the Apple App Store, Google Play and can be accessed via the Variety Plus Pack of Singtel Cast.’

  • Travelxp flies into Singapore’s StarHub

    Travelxp flies into Singapore’s StarHub

     MUMBAI: Travelxp, the lifestyle channel that reaches over 91 million homes, has planned to expand its reach in the major market of Asia-Pacific. The company has forayed into Singapore market in association with a local player StarHub that went on air on 3 July 2018.

    The content available will include all the genres such as cultural, heritage, travel and food among others. All of the platform’s subscribers will be able to preview the channel for free.

    Travelxp CEO Prashant Chothani said that it is the beginning of the network’s expansion into the Asia Pacific region and it will continue to take its world-class content across the globe in more language feeds. “Further launches in different international markets with more languages are on the anvil in the coming months,” he said.  

    Chothani further added, “Our partnership with StarHub would take Travelxp to all 4,49,000 subscribers of StarHub TV. The channel will include Chinese subtitles in the coming months, to appeal to and engage with a wider audience. It is going to be the mainstream channel, launched as the English one. Going forward, it will be localised in Chinese also.”

    StarHub head of content business unit Lee Soo Hui said: “We are delighted that our customers will be the first in Southeast Asia to enjoy Travelxp’s content. With Singaporeans being avid travellers, we are confident that Travelxp will resonate with every backpacker, guidebook follower, and adventure seeker.”

    The launch follows the channel’s addition to the UK’s Freeview platform at the end of April. It is now available globally in 91 million homes, in English, German, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian and Bulgarian. In India, the company plans to add more languages to add to the Hindi, Tamil and Bengali audiences it currently serves.

    Speaking on the ad inventories, Chothani said that the process hasn’t started yet but will soon embark on it.

    As the emergence of digital platforms is growing steadily, the network as such has no plans or any deals with other OTT platforms for streaming its content. Chothani said that it is soon planning to come up with its own digital strategy by this year. He added, “As far as marketing and promotional strategies are concerned, StarHub is marketing heavily and they are doing all the marketing that is required.”

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  • ATF’s first Animation Pitch announces winners

    ATF’s first Animation Pitch announces winners

    MUMBAI: The Asia TV Forum (ATF) is drawing to a close amid much fanfare. The event saw several activities such as an exciting round of on-stage pitches wherein producers from all over Asia presented their ideas. The winners of the inaugural Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) Animation Pitch were also anounced and the unveiling of the second ATF Formats Pitch took place on 30 November 2017.

    Reed Exhibitions and global partner Green Gold Animation announced studio2 Animation Lab as the winner of the first-ever ATF Animation Pitch. The animation concept, titled “The Western Journey of Pigsy”, wowed the on-stage jury for its creativity and strong appeal to children. The line-up of judges, which comprises some of the biggest names in kids’ animation and entertainment, also saw strong potential for the concept to be exported and extended to a series.

    Targeted at creators and producers of innovative concepts for new and original kids’ animation, ATF Animation Pitch is aimed at facilitating the exchange of ideas and talent between leading international television, distribution and Asian-based producers. In total, 61 entries were received from all over Asia.

    “I am thrilled and excited to be named the winner of the inaugural ATF Animation Pitch. We had a unique concept and we felt that it allows viewers to experience the journey in the west story in a contemporary way. Moving forward, we will work towards developing the script for the concept,” said studio2 Animation Lab director Chiu Li Wei.

    Chiu Li Wei and Grace Chuang from studio2 Animation Lab received a $19,000 prize from GreenGold Animation. This includes a $2,500 cash award, and a consultancy package worth $16,500 that is tailor-made for them to further develop the winning animation, making it ready to pitch to broadcasters.

    After a closely contested fight between five finalists, leading independent distributor all3media International and ATF announced that Gamaliel Paulus (Gammy) from Indonesia, came out on top, winning $3,500 in cash and a $16,500 (both Singapore dollars) consultancy package tailor-made to develop the format, making it pitch-ready for broadcasters.

    ATF Formats Pitch is the premier Asian pitching competition designed to discover innovative concepts for new and original non-scripted entertainment formats from the pan-Asian region. This platform showcases the best of Asia, and exposes ideas for export and development within and even outside of the region.

    In its second year, the competition received more than 50 entries from 13 countries and only five finalists were selected to pitch their concept during the live on-stage judging session which concluded earlier today. Formats were evaluated based on creativity, originality and capacity to return for multiple series. The winning concept must also have the capability to resonate with audiences globally.

    Portraying all these qualities was the winning format, Ranking. It is a game show where participants have to guess the correct order of a ranking in return for prizes. Besides the excitement value that comes with game shows, it also serves to dish fun facts and information to viewers. The judges loved the simplicity of the idea and felt that it had great potential for further development.

    “As many people are familiar with rankings, I believe my format will appeal to any country. Also, I have not seen it in the form of a game show concept. As a producer myself, I understood that for a format to do well, it has to be simple. I am very thankful for the win, I didn’t expect it at all,” said Gamaliel Paulus (Gammy).

    To further develop the format and make it ready for pitching to broadcasters, Gamaliel Paulus (Gammy) will work closely with all3media International. This follows the success of “Hit It” from XTREME Media, which won at the inaugural ATF Formats Pitch last year, and has received its first local commission for a debut in February 2018.

    Aside from the ATF Animation Pitch and ATF Formats Pitch, ATF and ScreenSingapore is also home to another pitching competition, the Southeast Asian Film Financing Project Market.

  • Indian OTTs to be in focus on day 2 of ATF

    Indian OTTs to be in focus on day 2 of ATF

    MUMBAI: Singapore-based Reed Exhibitions’ Asia TV Forum (ATF) will commence today with 60 countries taking part. The first day will see sessions based on content, advertising and the evolution of storytelling and digital traditions and innovation Ninety thought leaders will deliver fresh insights in over 24 sessions from 28 November to 1 December 2017, discussing present-day issues such as big data, movement in the over-the-top (OTT) scene, new monetisation strategies, unscripted entertainment formats and kids’ content.

    The Indian sessions will start from the second day. The first one will be ‘Bollywood & Beyond: Fresh content from India’. The speakers present for the session will be Epic TV network head content syndication Adita Jain, Greengold Animation VP content sales Bharath Laxmipati, One Life Studios founder Siddharth Kumar Tewary, Rajshri Entertainment MD Neha Barjatya, and Toonz Animation India senior manager- content syndication and distribution Viju Thomas. The session will be moderated by Indiantelevision.com group founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari.

    Wanvari has been working on developing opportunities for India’s animation and live action sector – whether for TV or OTT – over the past three years at ATF as its representative for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

    India’s OTT ecosystem has been exploding with newer apps popping up ever so quickly. At last count, close to 42 OTT services were operational in India. The second Indian session will be about the needs and wants of Indian OTT buyers. The panellists for the discussion will be Pittie Group/Epic TV CEO and MD Aditya Pittie, Viacom18 Digital ventures COO Gaurav Gandhi, producer, entrepreneur and storyteller Sidharth Jain, Spuul founder and global CEO Subin Subaiah, and GoQuest Media Ventures MD Vivek Lath. This panel discussion will also be moderated by Wanvari.

    ATF will also focus on virtual reality (VR) sessions, which will delve into the discourse that takes place among ecosystem partners, from content concept, creation and circulation. Real Vision VR filmmaker, speaker and published author Clyde Desouza will moderate the panel. Desouza is working with Times Now for its VR immersive journalism.

    On day three, listen to GreenGold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka talk about how to provide 360-degree experience to kids. Chilaka has created and built one of the India’s largest animation brands Chhota Bheem, which currently has a viewership of over 40 million across platforms. He will also talk about nurturing localised IPs and stories and priming them to go global.

    The major Indian satellite TV networks Sony Pictures Networks India, Star India, Indiacast-Viacom18, and Zee Telefilms have their syndication and licensing teams exhibiting at the Marina Bay Sands venue. Other noteworthy exhibitors include: format and content syndication company GoQuest, Swastik Productions’ One Life Studios that is hawking its mega-budget Porus and homegrown formats, One Take Media, which is selling its kids animation and cookery shows, film and digital content creator and distributor Rajshri Entertainment, infotainment channel Epic TV, and kids’ content pioneer GreenGold.

  • Netflix to set shop in Mumbai, invest in local content

    MUMBAI: US California-based video streaming service provider Netflix has plans to establish an office in India aimed at stepping up its game in India, according to a National US-India Chamber of Commerce news release. The India office is expected to be based in Mumbai — the company’s fourth in Asia, after Tokyo, Singapore and Taiwan.

    Netflix recently announced that its service will now be available on the DTH platforms of Bharti Airtel and Videocon. It also entered into a carrier billing agreement with Vodafone India.

    Also, the streaming service is planning to invest in making new content for the Indian market, and also come up with new payment platforms, the release stated.

    The NUICC release, citing Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, said the Mumbai office will be as big as Tokyo within a few years. Hastings added that India had seen the highest growth among all Asian markets for Netflix’s offering, and targets to be among the top five apps on a consumer’s phone.

    Netflix at present has around 94 million users, among which 44 million are outside the US market, according to the NUICC statement.

    The expansion move comes when the company is attempting to be the first to eliminate buffering while at the same time working on technology that enables content to stream at speeds of 100 kbps. Such a move could boost the company in markets like India, the world’s fastest growing smartphone market, where network speeds are among the slowest in the world, the NUICC said.

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  • Hotstar plans to enter other markets

    MUMBAI: Much is in store for Over-the-top (OTT) content aggregator platform Hotstar. A game-changer in the industry which managed to generate 175 million downloads in two years now plans to expand to other parts of the globe.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan has announced new territory launches. Speaking to Mumbrella Asia at the CASBAA OTT Summit in Singapore, he said, “The model can be global with mobile viewing and tech at the heart of things.”

    Though, he did now reveal how much investments had gone into the company or which countries were being looked at as the next markets in the global expansion plan. “We will look at other models too,” he said. “It may be that some of our customers want to pay to receive no ads whatsoever. And where we do run ads, we try to ensure they are personalised and not disruptive. So, for example, with the cricket the ads run during the break between overs.”

    Despite the high cost, he revealed that the app received 60 million active users last month due to its mix of national and international content. “It was a big bet for us to bring all the content together in one place, but that is what the consumer wants. India was ready for it but nobody had invested to connect up the dots before,” he added.

    He also said that the cricket test match between India and England has received as many as three million people using Hotstar at one time.

    Mohan also asserted that the company is seeing rapid growth on a dramatic scale. “Something big is happening in India. That’s clear in the numbers. It’s an exciting story for curated high-quality content and we now have massive brand equity. So we do see an opportunity to take Hotstar to other markets.”

    It will be interesting to see what card the company pulls out next.