Television Asia Plus | October 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITORIAL/PUBLISHER Raymond Wong Publishing Director raymond@harvest-info.com Monina Eugenio Editor editor-tva@harvest-info.com +639175767822

OPERATIONS Dear Reader, Mari Vergara

Now that we are several months into the COVID pandemic, a lot of us have most likely adjusted to the new normal. While movement may be limited, for now, technology has made it possible for us to still make meaningful connections.

Head of Operations mari@asiantvawards.com

SALES Simon Lee

An example of this is the 2020 MIPCOM Online+ which will allow us to network virtually from the safety of home.

In this issue of Television Asia Plus, our cover story takes a look at the evolving tastes of Asian consumers in OTT and pay-TV viewership during the pandemic and how companies like Netflix and A+E Networks are adapting.

We also talked to the newlyappointed Managing Director of pocket.watch, Anshuman Misra, and TV5 CEO Robert P. Galang in our C-Suite section.

Next, we feature Taiwan’s rising star of short formats Studio76, headed

by Dennis Yang. We also zeroed in on ZEE5 Global’s content offerings

Hong Kong, U.S.A., and Europe sales@harvest-info.com MONINA EUGENIO EDITOR

that put Indian superwomen front and centre. There are also insightful stories on how to monetise OTT

by Matt Kossatz; bringing video game magic to the big screen and how this affects the future of filmmaking by Quentin Staes-Polet; video production innovation in Asia

by Elliott Renton; and an op-ed on how 5G will change the game for OTT streaming by Paolo Cuttoreli.

It could take some time before we can all meet in person, but for now, we hope you enjoy the latest issue of Television Asia Plus right from the comforts of your home.

Chua Chew Huat Asia Pacific sales-sg@harvest-info.com

MARKETING Franco Rafael mktg@harvest-info.com

TECHNICAL SUPPORT Michael Magsalin tech@harvest-info.com

Harvest Information Pte. Ltd. 1100 Lower Delta Road #02-05-8, EPL Building Singapore 169206

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CONTRIBUTORS Deeply involved in the convergence between traditional media and emerging connected devices for over 15 years, Matt has played a large role in the expansion of the OTT video and technology industry across the Asia Pacific. In his role as VP Asia Pacific, Matt heads up Accedo’s entire APAC business. Prior to joining Accedo, Matt was the General Manager of IceTV Pty Ltd., a pioneer in the digital media space in Australia.

Matt Kossatz

Vice President Asia Pacific, Accedo Quentin serves as Epic Games’ General Manager of Southeast Asia and India and is leading the company’s expansion into the region. A data-driven business leader, passionate about creative content, social media and disruptive technologies, Quentin holds over 25 years of experience at the intersection of media and technology. He is also a game engine guru, having held previous regional and C-suite roles at Unity Technologies, Improbable, and Take-Two Interactive Software.

Quentin Staes-Polet

General Manager, Southeast Asia and India, Epic Games Elliot is a digital media and technology specialist, with over 18 years of experiences across traditional and emerging media platforms within all Asia-Pacific markets including China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. In his role, Elliot advises major broadcasters, rights holders and content publishers across the Asia pacific to maximise their digital video strategies. Elliot also helps publishers to easily monetise video content across social media, mobile, and OTT platforms.

Elliot Renton

Senior Director and Head of APAC, Grabyo Paolo has 20 years of expertise and knowledge from the media and telco industries as well as a proven ability to forge long-term strategic partnerships with large and complex accounts both in Asia and globally. Before joining Evergent, Paolo was the Head of Account Management for Asia at Brightcove where he was responsible for customer success and expanding the Asia business across Brightcove’s portfolio of global broadcasters, publishers and digital native customers. He has also held senior sales and professional services roles at Quickplay Media and Subex Ltd.

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Paolo Cuttoreli

Vice President and General Manager, APAC, Evergent

NEWS TECHNOLOGY Synamedia zeros in on industrial-scale piracy with new intelligence-first security model

Independent video software provider Synamedia, announced the launch of its new intelligence-first security model laser-focused on eradicating streaming pirates’ businesses and protecting legitimate providers’ revenues.

In an industry first, this data-led model also makes it possible to measure the efficacy and ROI of anti-piracy initiatives.

The new approach combines digital and human intelligence to zero in on the increasingly sophisticated streaming piracy underworld that is threatening the media industry.

It provides unparalleled forensic insights into the minds, motivations, and behaviours of pirates, and their infrastructure and business models, for a more powerful, targeted anti-piracy response.

It is already fueling technology innovations across Synamedia’s security portfolio, helping customers protect revenues, negotiate fair content license terms such as sports rights, and ensure compliance.

Several new product enhancements that are already benefiting from this methodology are: • A redesigned counter-piracy operations center - Synamedia EverGuard – the beating heart of Synamedia’s intelligence and analysis platform and Streaming Piracy Disruption (SPD) managed service.

Incorporating big data analytics, Synamedia EverGuard creates a list of recommended actions against a set of devices, user accounts and

•

•

•

•

pirate streaming sites. It supports multiple ways of disrupting services and analyzes the effectiveness of each disruption mechanism for better future outcomes. The choice of action and time of enforcement is designed to cause maximum impact to pirates and nudge viewers back to legitimate services.

A rich new UI for the SPD service, allowing operational security personnel to fine-tune the counter-piracy operations center recommendations if required to meet specific business needs.

A new generation of intelligence agents including new client- and/ or headend-based watermarking agents that are resistant to pirates’ evasion techniques, and a new analytics agent.

A new raft of disruption agents for a broader choice of responses, including new quarantining agents in the CDN and the control plane, as well as device revocation agents for turning off and de-registering devices proven to have been used by pirates.

CSFEye, a credentials sharing and fraud solution that is an extension to the Credentials Sharing Insight service. CSFEye specifically targets fraudsters engaged in stealing or abusing accounts for commercial purposes, who compromise the privacy and identity of legitimate subscribers and pose a legal and commercial risk to service providers.

CSFEye now includes the ability to identify all shadow users (both sharers and fraudsters), recommend and execute a range of actions in order to mitigate the risk, and convert them into paying customers.

Vietnam Television launches dedicated 4K studio

National broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) demonstrated its commitment to 4K, as it built a dedicated studio exclusively for 4K productions at its headquarters in the second quarter of 2020.

Dubbed as Studio 7, it is the first 4K TV studio for VTV and features an impressive array of Sony 4K solutions covering everything from 4K/HD/HDR camera systems to multi-format switchers to servers.

Taking center stage at Studio 7 is the Sony HDC-3500 system camera.

It features the world’s first 2/3-inch 4K CMOS sensor with global shutter technology that eliminates the “jello effect” and banding noise, resulting in superb images with 4K in high resolution, exceptionally low noise, impressive sensitivity, and high dynamic range.

Complementing the HDC-3500 is the XVS-6000 multi-format serve.

The highly-versatile switches give VTV the added benefit of SDI and IP Live production support.

Apart from ramping up its 4K production capabilities, VTV also upgraded its HD equipment.

The broadcaster’s HD acquisitions include the HDC-3100 system camera, the “Point-of-View” HDCP1 camera aswell as the MVS-6530 production switcher.

Nguyen Van Chung, the director of VTV-Technical and Production Centre said, “VTV may have a government mandate to inform and educate but we are also here to provide our viewers with a wide range of programmes to cover our wide viewership base.”

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NEWS TECHNOLOGY CP Communications, Mobile Viewpoint bring next-gen IQ-Sports Producer Series to market

CP Communications announced its next generation of Mobile Viewpoint’s IQ-Sports Producer (IQ-ISP) family of automated live sports production systems.

Powered by AI and supporting a range of outdoor and indoor sports, the updated series delivers several key technology enhancements and adds a new entrylevel model, the IQ-SP Lite that is built for customers focused on single-sport productions with one output system.

• Designed to remove the need of an onsite camera crew, IQSP makes professional sports production affordable for minor leagues, training camps, universities – and now, with IQSP Lite – smaller colleges and high schools previously hindered by budget constraints. CP Communications is the exclusive North American distributor of Mobile Viewpoint solutions.

• Mobile Viewpoint developed IQ-Sports Producer to easily capture, stream, and re-publish sports events with ease. Mobile Viewpoint has strengthened the AI capabilities in the new generation of IQ-SP systems, which will prove especially invaluable as live sporting events gradually return during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Amongst the new AI features is the automated highlight creation. IQSP automatically detects scoring plays, and create individual replay clips or post-game highlight packages for publishing to social media with minimal manual intervention, saving producers significant turnaround time, effort, and staffing costs.

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• Mobile Viewpoint has also added a scheduler to the cloud-based management platform LinkMatrix, which automates game schedules in advance without an operator.

• The IQ-SP Pro and IQ-SP Premium configurations also leverage Mobile Viewpoint’s innovative IQ-xCam 180-degree cameras to deliver superior quality for higherend productions. Available with two or four 4K cameras in each housing, the recently released IQ-xCams capture panoramic images at a full 60 frames per second for demanding, broadcast-caliber requirements.

• As well as the AI-powered, panand-scan main feed created by the virtual director functionality of the IQ-SP software, the Pro and Premium models support additional virtual streams that can be defined within the system to follow the action of choice. Users can drag and drop varied fields of view into the image, and add overlays including scoreboard content (clock and score), sideline and goal views, instant replay content, and automatic summaries and highlights.

Operators can select and analyze other streams from the field of play during and after the event.

• Other new upgrades include support for an additional microphone array to augment the cameras’ builtin microphones, enabling producers to complement their exceptional video coverage with higher-quality audio.

Upstream broadband usage, faster speeds spike higher in Q2 2020 Consumers are increasing their reliance on upstream bandwidth and are opting for faster speeds to meet dramatically changed usage habits, according to the Q2 2020 OpenVault Broadband Insights report issued by OpenVault in August, a market-leading source of broadband technology solutions and data-driven insights into worldwide broadband consumption patterns.

The latest quarterly report showed that upstream consumption rose 5.3% from the end of Q1 to the end of Q2, likely reflecting increased use of videoconferencing for business, educational, and lifestyle purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The upstream rise continued even though overall usage actually declined by 5.5% during the same period. Upstream consumption is up 56% year-over-year through 2Q20.

Demand for faster bandwidth tiers accelerated during the same period, as consumer usage increasingly extended across multiple devices simultaneously and operators offered complimentary speed upgrades and relaxed data ceilings. The 2Q20 OVBI shows that nearly 5% of subscribers now receive connections of 1 gigabit or faster, up 133% year-over-year, and up 75% in the last six months alone.

About 61% of all subscribers now have connections of 100 Mbps or faster, a one-year increase of 27%.

Among

other

findings:

• While total average usage declined from 402 GB to 380 GB in 2Q20, consumption is still well above pre-pandemic levels and up nearly 36% from the average of 280 GB at the end of 2Q19.

• A similar effect was reflected in the power user category, where the 8.7% of subscribers consuming 1 TB represented a 13% decline from 1Q20 to 2Q20 – but was up 112% from 4.1% in 2Q19.

• With usage quotas relaxed during the pandemic, consumption by subscribers on usage-based billing (UBB) plans increased nearly 42% year-over-year, from 262.9 GB in 2Q19 to 372.8 GB in 2Q20.

• Average usage In Europe was 221.6 GB, down 10% from the 247.7 GB of 1Q20 but up 30% from the 170.2 GB in 2Q19.

NEWS pay-tv/platform/ott COOCAA, Clip TV announce strategic partnership and co-branded smart TV package

Pay-TV services revenue in Japan to grow at 1.9% CAGR over the next five years Japan’s total pay-TV services revenue is set to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9 percent during 2019-2024, increasing from US$8.9bn in 2019 to US$9.8bn in 2024, according to revised payTV forecasts from GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Photo source: COOCAA

Cutting-edge television brand COOCAA announced a strategic partnership with one of Vietnam’s largest and most famous streaming platforms and content providers, Clip TV. The two parties are set to release their first co-branded line of smart TVs. Launched on the 3rd of September, the smart television features a 40 to 65-inch screen.

It

boasts

of

three

advantages:

• The larges-screen AIoT television can serve as a base for a smart home ecosystem. By giving a voice command to the TV,

users can control smart home devices throughout the home.

• The television runs on Android TV and supports voice control, so with a touch of a button, users can access an endless selection of video content.

• It comes with a free lifetime membership to Clip TV, so that the family can enjoy a wide variety of content including over 100 local television channels, over 20 international television channels, a massive selection of on-demand content, and access for up to four devices on each Clip TV account.

84% of Indonesian consumers are willing to see ads in exchange for free streaming video Connected TV (CTV) has become popular in Indonesia with 7 in 10 consumers having access to it and a whopping 92% of consumers surveyed say they have increased their consumption of streaming content during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, according to the results of a survey conducted

by Integral Ad Science (IAS) called Streaming Wars - The Impact of Stay-at-Home Behaviours on CTV. According to the report, mobile dominates as the medium of choice in Indonesia, with 76% of consumers using mobile to stream video compared to 29% on CTV. They showed an increased preference for streaming content-both subscription and ad-supported with 89% having added free streaming due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

and 83% added a subscription service.

With 8 out of 10 respondents willing to see ads in exchange for free streaming video, the quality, context, and relevancy of ads becoming key in increasing engagement. In response to the quality and relevancy to the ad being seen during the streaming of the video, almost 6 out of 10 respondents said they prefer high-quality ads (ads appearing in a high-quality environment) when they are watching free streaming video content and more than half of them (56%) said that the ads must be relevant to the content they are watching.

Contextual relevance of ads in streaming content helps maintain consumer attention, the majority of consumers (75%) interviewed are likely to view an ad to completion if the ad is relevant to the content they’re engaging with.

GlobalData’s Japan Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report indicates that the overall growth in the pay-TV services revenues will be primarily supported by improving the aggregate average revenue per user (ARPU) from pay-TV services over the forecast period 2019-2024, despite the ongoing cord-cutting trends triggered by growing demand for OTT-based video services in Japan.

Overall pay-TV ARPUs will grow from US$36.01 in 2019 to US$40.37 in 2024 with growing ARPUs from cable, direct-to-home (DTH), and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services.

Deepa Dhingra, a Telecom Analyst at GlobalData said, “Cable will be the leading technology to deliver pay-TV services in Japan over 20192024; however, its share of the total pay-TV service subscriptions will continue to decline with the growing adoption of IPTV services.

Improving coverage of high-speed fiber broadband networks will support the delivery of IPTV services in Japan.

“KDDI will lead the pay-TV service segment over 2019-2024, supported by its strong foothold in the cable segment, and focus on providing cost-effective multi-play packages to compete in the market.

For instance, it is offering a cableplus phone bundled plan at a price of ¥1,330 (US$12.2) along with additional benefits such as lower call rates and an additional discount of ¥100/month for ‘au mobile phone’ subscribers.”

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NEWS CONTENT Moonbug partners with Tencent Video to expand its reach across China compassion, empathy and resilience while teaching children fundamental life skills through engaging storylines and interactive nursery rhymes.

Each in Global entertainment company Moonbug announced its continued expansion into China via a strategic partnership with Tencent Video.

Through the partnership, four of Moonbug’s leading IPs such as Go

Buster, Playtime with Twinkle, The Sharksons, and KiiYii will be available imminently to Tencent Video users.

These popular animated shows promote healthy values such as

show will be Mandarin and

available English.

“We have experienced a huge volume of global expansion this year, and this strategic partnership with Tencent will further enhance exposure for some of our new and younger brands within the Chinese market,” said Nicolas Eglau, head of EMEA & APAC, Moonbug. “We are excited to partner with a leading platform like Tencent and introduce our growing category of children’s content to kids across China so they, too, can learn and grow with these shows.”

iQIYI releases The Long Night, the fifth suspense drama of its highly-acclaimed ‘Mist Theater’ iQIYI continues to innovate and explore different market segments, catering to the diverse preferences of its users.

These dramas cover multitude themes, broadening Mist Theater’s content offering with diverse creation perspective, and filling many gaps in the domestic suspense genre.

China-based online entertainment service iQIYI Inc. has premiered The Long Night, the fifth suspense drama in its highly-acclaimed Mist Theater series on 16 September.

The drama, released by iQIYI and produced by Haoji Film, tells the story of a prosecutor who spends seven years searching for the truth in a perplexing case. The drama series is mainland China’s highest-rated series over the past 20 months.

This year, iQIYI launched Mist Theater, making it the first online streaming platform to adopt a stylised theaterlike category for online dramas. To date, the company has released five high-quality short suspense dramas under the Mist Theatre banner, namely

Kidnapping Game, The Bad Kids, Crimson River, Sisyphus, and now, The Long Night.

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Mist Theater has been a hit among viewers since its debut as multiple dramas in the series that achieved an average rating of over 8 on influential Chinese social media platform Douban, which is know for its movie and TV show reviews.

With widespread popularity and great reviews, Mist Theater has driven the rising confidence in China’s burgeoning original drama series industry.

Another major hit was the recently released Sisyphus, which achieved a popularity index score of 7,000 within 18 hours of its release.

With the addition of The Long Night, iQIYI is expected to strengthen the Mist Theater brand, which has become synonymous with high-quality short suspense dramas that have widespread appeal.

TAICCA and CATCHPLAY announce joint investment in SCREENWORKS ASIA to Build Taiwan’s content powerhouse

From left to right: GM of Screenworks, Karen Tang CEO of CATCHPLAY Group, Daphne Yang Chairperson of TAICCA, Hsiao-Ching TING President of TAICCA, Lolita Ching-Fang HU CREDIT: TAICCA, PR NEWSWIRE

The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) and CATCHPLAY announced a joint investment in Screenworks Asia Ltd. to create more original Taiwanese content for the international audience.

The joint venture aims to increase the quantity and quality of entertainment content productions and to facilitate a platform for international collaboration to make Taiwan a powerhouse for Asian original content.

CATCHPLAY is Taiwan’s leading distributor for international movies with movies such as La La Land, Green Book, and Parasite in its recent lineup.

The distributor also has a streaming service called CATCHPLAY+, which is one of the few digital content services that have succesfully expanded to international markets with over 6 million users across operations in Taiwan, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Screenworks Asia’s main focus will be producing and distributing premium Taiwanese original entertainment content targeting international audiences.

Screenworks Asia selects various topics of international interest for development, focusing mainly on movies, miniseries, and factual entertainment for theatrical releases, TV, or streaming services with creating diversified, crosscountry global IP as its long-term goal.

PEOPLE Fugitive gears up for growth by establishing an international network of senior sales consultants

Fugitive, the content development, financing, and executive producing company managed by Anthony Kimble and Merrily Ross, has recruited four experienced sales consultants to support the business as it grows.

VP of North American sales for ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Tania started her career in TV with Granada Television in the UK before moving to America to oversee Canadian sales for the company, ahead of it becoming ITV.

Acting as agents and operating at SVP level, Joanna Rowley, based in London, Tania Jacobson in Los Angeles, Charo Penedo in Madrid, and Anne RoderBotbol in Paris will be focused on presales for Fugitive’s expanding slate of scripted and unscripted projects, as well as sales for the company’s rapidly growing catalogue of completed programming and formats.

Charo Penedo will be responsible for Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.

She started her career with Hit Entertainment in London, before joining Sunset & Vine International, now part of Tinopolis. Charo then went to work at Optomen (All3Media), where she was responsible for driving sales of the Kitchen Nightmares format and finished show, before moving to Madrid to look after Southern Europe for Discovery.

Covering Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Nordic region, Joanna Rowley is a freelance sales consultant who worked as an executive director at Fox Networks Group Content Distribution, prior to its acquisition by Disney.

Before that, she spent many years as a regional sales director for National Geographic Television International, as well as for its previous incarnation, Explore International.

Tania Jacobson, who will look after Fugitive in the US and Canada, was, until recently, SVP at Endemol Shine, handling the company’s sales and formats business in Canada.Prior to that, also from her base in LA, she was

Her two-decade career has also seen roles at Cineflix Rights and Belgian format business Primitives.

Anne Roder-Botbol started her career at TVF International before moving onto Channel 4 International where she was responsible for the first format sales of Supernanny and That’ll Teach ‘Em in France and Germany. She then joined DRG as VP sales, where she worked across finished tape sales, formats, and drama remakes – most notably securing local versions of Doc Martin in a number of territories, including France. For Fugitive, Anne will represent French and German-speaking territories, as well as Italy and Benelux.

ABP Network announces a strategic role revision ABP Network is set to add dynamism to its newsrooms with a strategic shift in roles focused on News Production, News Gathering, and Corporate Communications.

In this reinvigoration, Rajinish Ahuja will be leading the Corporate Communications Department, spearheading the company’s external relations and stakeholder engagement.

He, along with his team, will be

taking charge of the department with immediate effect.

On an interim basis, the ABPNews content team will be reporting to Sanjay Bragta and Sumit Awasthi for news-gathering and news production, respectively.

With this expansion, ABP Network will gain leeway to expand the scope of news reporting in today’s fast-paced environment and strengthen its senior leadership to minimise the roadblocks set forth by the current market scenario.

Studio 100 Media appoints head of licensing

Studio 100 Media named Joachim Knödler as Head of Licensing commencing September 1st.

He succeeds Gerd Russwurm, who will retire at the end of the year after more than 24 years with the company.

In his new role, Joachim Knödler will be responsible for the international licensing of the Studio 100 Group.

He reports to Martin Krieger, CEO of Studio 100 Media / International.

Most recently, Joachim Knödler was Managing Director, Central Europe at (Wildbrain) CPLG Central Europe.

Under his leadership, the business in Central Europe was restructured and during his 17 years there, he gained extensive experience in brand licensing, entertainment and the launch of private label brands including the implementation of DTR licensing. He developed fundamental licensing strategies with all major Hollywood Studios for a successful introduction of their portfolio in GSA and Europe.

Another focus of Knödler’s work is the development of Master Toy lines.

Previous positions at Hasbro and Simon Marketing / The Marketing Store allowed him to gain extensive experience in the toy sector. In various roles, he was responsible for the relaunch of the Star Wars Toy Line together with the launch of E1 and the rollout of the Pokémon Master Toy Line and the Nerf Toy Line in the German-speaking territories.

He also supervised the development of the Happy Meal Toys for McDonald’s Germany and was accountable for the first McDonald’s Monopoly, which was rewarded with significant sales growth. In addition, he was responsible for initiating the success of Sesame Street and Minions in the German-speaking world.

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C-SUITE pocket.watch: Pushing the boundaries of content by kids for kids

By Monina Eugenio AM: Kids’ content consumption has evolved in the past few years.

Traditional kids shows have given way to real-life creators online that kids can relate to and consider as friends.

Pocket.watch has understood this move in kids’ viewing habits and is creating content with these superstar creators to super-serve its kids audience on any platform. pocket.watch has had proven success in launching several of the world’s most popular kid YouTube creator franchises, like Ryan’s World, Ryan’s Mystery Playdate, and HobbyKids Adventures, with sustainable, highly successful global projects.

In July, the California-based digital media studio pocket.watch appointed Anshuman Misra as the company’s newest Managing Director who currently leads the company’s second international office located in Singapore.

The company is aggressively expanding its operations outside of the United States, and in February, the company opened its London office as they expand to the EMEA and the UAE. Television Asia Plus (TVA): What are some of your plans as the newlyappointed APAC managing director at pocket.watch and with your extensive background in the media industry, how do you plan to achieve this?

Anshuman Misra (AM): Pocket. watch content and it’s superstar creators have a kids following never seen before on any medium.

My job is to propagate this content and premium content made especially for platforms outside of YouTube onto OTT, traditional TV, and others in the Asia Pacific. The quality of content and the intensely personal connection that kids feel for the creators, makes the content very desirable to platform operators.

In addition, I will be seeking advertising and sponsorship opportunities in the marketplace. With our creators notching up over 8 billion views a month on YouTube and growing their presence on other platforms, advertising sales becomes a significant part of our business and is addressed by our advertising division Clockwork.

TVA: How do you plan to capture the Asian market with pockwet.watch’s expansion into the Asia Pacific?

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As the studio behind global franchises from the YouTube stars and characters loved by Generation Alpha, the pocket.watch team has already done an excellent job drumming up overwhelming excitement from partners in this region for what’s to come.

TVA: What other areas of children’s entertainment is Pocket. watch planning to explore?

AM: Pocket.watch continues to be everywhere that kids are—from TV to consumer products to mobile gaming— so nothing is off-limits. If Generation Alpha is there, that’s where pocket.watch and their creator-led franchises will be!

TVA: In terms of content production, does Pocket.watch have plans on producing long-form content?

AM: Yes, out of the Ryan’s World franchise, pocket.watch developed the hit kids TV series Ryan’s Mystery Playdate, which is currently expanding to international markets.

As the top television show for preschoolers in the U.S., and on the heels of the show’s Emmy nomination for Outstanding Preschool Children’s Series, the episodic TV series has been picked up for a 10-episode fourth season by Nickelodeon.

Since its launch in April 2019, Ryan’s Mystery Playdate has reached over 33 million total viewers across American channels Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. The series also ranks No. 1 in its time slot on Treehouse in Canada, across all 11 Canadian kids networks measured, and saw a +45 percent audience increase in April 2020.

Similarly, it ranks No. 1 on Treehouse VOD. We’re hoping to translate this to other markets, like the Asia Pacific.

TVA: Do sign on, in-house

you have plans to develop, and groom influencer talents?

AM: Yes, pocket.watch recently welcomed Kids Diana Show to the pocket.watch creator family with the launch of the Love, Diana lifestyle and entertainment brand.

The franchise stars Diana from the YouTube channel Kids Diana Show, the second-largest YouTube channel in the world.

The franchise expands on Diana’s success by introducing the channel’s massive audience to original content in new formats such as animation; new platforms including OTT and gaming; and through a consumer product line, including toys and apparel available in-store and online for the 2020 holiday season.

Production of 40 episodes of the new series Love, Diana, a live-action and animated hybrid, has already begun.

Each episode of Love, Diana will include a positive lesson about friendship, leadership, family, imagination, and, most importantly, the power of play.

The series will launch Fall 2020 on YouTube and pocket.watch’s OTT network which includes Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel, PlutoTV, Xumo, and Samsung TV Plus.

Additionally, there will be a Love, Diana lifestyle product line, targeted to children between ages 2-7, that will encompass the core characteristics of imagination, playfulness, creativity, empowerment, and friendship that Diana’s audience knows and loves. pocket.watch has signed a robust and broad range of licensees, with nine already signed on for launch.

The Love, Diana program will see a global retail launch in time for holiday 2020, straddling three continents and shaping up to be one of the largest consumer products launch ever for a YouTube creator brand. pocket.watch is also extending the Love, Diana brand into mobile gaming on the heels of their p.w Games division’s success with Tag with Ryan which has garnered 12 million downloads and over 450,000 daily active users.

The Love, Diana mobile game will feature a collection of fun minigames bursting with personality, vibrant colors, and imagination that will empower kids to design their very own “Princess of Play.” It will be available in the App Store and Google Play later in 2020.

C-SUITE Why TV5 is one Filipino broadcaster to watch out for

By Monina Eugenio creating entertainment content for many years now.

We also have very strong relationships with international content providers that give us access to an immense library of world-class content.

The partnership with TV5 was a logical next step for us where we see Cignal TV providing the highestquality entertainment and sports content, both local and international.

TVA: Instead of producing your own entertainment content, TV5 and Cignal will be focusing on show pitches from independent content producers. How will this be a gamechanger for the Philippines’ local entertainment industry where other networks produce in-house content?

RPG: We get to cast a wider net this way. Rather than building an in-house team, we now have the opportunity to work with all the available experts out there on a per-project arrangement.

Broadcast institution TV5 is ramping up its lifestyle and entertainment offerings as it contends to be one of the top broadcasters in the Philippines.

Helmed by Cignal and TV5 President Robert P. Galang, TV5 forged a partnership with Cignal, the country’s top pay-TV provider in August 2020 in a block timer deal that would bring quality entertainment to more Filipino homes.

Television Asia Plus (TVA): TV5 has had a long history of revamps and changes starting with being a freeto-air sports broadcaster. How do you see TV5’s latest positioning?

Robert P. Galang (RPG): TV5 was a third player trying to catch a moving train that already had the two market leaders driving it faster.

We attempted multiple strategies to win our own set of loyal viewers.

The recent developments in the Philippine TV industry and this global pandemic have created both challenges and opportunities that are unprecedented.

Using learnings from our successes and failures, our team decided to pivot back to providing mainly entertainment content, adding a healthy mix of sports and news programs.

TVA: Do you see Cignal playing a strategic role in TV5’s repositioning as an entertainment platform and what specific areas can Cignal contribute?

RPG:

Cignal

TV

has

been

It also allows more people to work on multiple projects simultaneously which speeds up the production process and the delivery of content to the network and, eventually, to our viewers.

TVA: Could you share with us some of the shows that will be launched on TV5 and Cignal?

RPG: We launched our first installment of fresh, locally-produced content in August which ushered in TV5’s return to entertainment.

We nowhave two primetime gameshows, Fill In the Bank and Bawal Na Game Show, that air alternately on weeknights.

We introduced a morning talk show called Chika Besh, which we are hoping will form a daily morning habit among our female viewers.

This is followed by a show that has gained such a huge fan base because it addresses concerns of the Filipino public called Idol in Action, hosted by RaffyTulfo.

We also strengthened our weekend primetime line-up with the return of TV5’s original talent search, Bangon Talentadong Pinoy, the introduction of an intimate talk show, Usapang Real Life, which reveals the lighter-side of premier broadcast journalist Luchi CruzValdes, and a fitness show, Fit for Life, to kick-off our Sunday programming.

We have also been exclusively airing live NBA games since the season restart on Cignal’s NBA TV Philippines channel and our freeto-air channels, TV5 and OneSports.

The availability of the NBA on our platforms is a major milestone in our quest to bring the best content to our viewers and subscribers.

We plan programs in

to the

roll-out more coming months.

In September, we launched two popular K-dramas, Reply 1998 and Wok of Love, and you can expect another wave of variety shows, comedies, talk shows, and local adaptations of international formats starting in October.

TVA: Aside from entertainment and sports content, what other areas are you open to exploring?

RPG: We are also beefing up our news and current affairs line-up which will be produced in-house by our News5 team.

Aside from the locally-produced programs we launched, we are also strengthening our children’s programming with content from Cartoon Network and Rainbow SpA and expanding our entertainment genre offerings through our tie-ups with international content providers such as A+E, Telemundo, and JKN, among others.

TVA: How do you see TV5 capturing the Millennial audience who are more into mobile and streaming?

RPG: We remain committed to investing in emerging platforms and we’ve developed a good grasp of the nuances of the digital space which tends to skew towards a younger demographic.

TV5 has been leveraging on digital platforms such as Youtube and Facebook in order to distribute our content to digital natives and have reaped the benefits in terms of digital monetisation revenues.

Seeing this as a growth business, we plan to further expand our reach by publishing more digital-optimised content with a focus on short-form or snackable materials and introducing digital exclusives to complement our broadcast programming.

We produce our content with digital in mind, breaking it down into “atomic” units that people can easily share online.

We are also quite bullish about eSports which started with Cignal TV’s participation in the Philippines’ premier eSports league called The Nationals.

We’re also seeing good traction with Cignal Play, our flagship OTT product which we relaunched last March as a free streaming video service.

TV5, through its partnership with Cignal TV, is available on this service.

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COVER STORY Surviving a pandemic: A look at the evolving tastes of Asian consumers in OTT and pay-TV viewership

By Monina Eugenio

Consumers are rapidly adjusting to the world of digital reality and are shifting to OTT video and live TV content streaming.

Also, OTT consumption has increased at a greater pace during the pandemic.

Hrushikesh pointed out that OTT service providers are offering a diverse range of content across multiple languages and producing original TV content has been a major hit among consumers in the Asia Pacific.

Meanwhile, pay-TV operators are adding existing serviceswith OTTvideo offerings.

OTT will continue to transform the way content is consumed in the Asia Pacific region as users are willing to pay for OTT platforms.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has got everyone staying at home.

With movement limited, the television screen has become a quick escape from the reality that this virus is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Before the pandemic, traditional TV, broadcast, print media, and pay-TV platforms were popular among Asian consumers.

According to the leading analytics company GlobalData, the Asia Pacific region closed 2019 with a total of 772.1 million pay-TV accounts. China and India are the largest pay-TV markets in the region with an estimated 394.2 million and 181.5 million accounts, respectively, at the end of 2019. Collectively,

the two countries accounted for 74.6% of the total pay-tv accounts in the Asia Pacific region in 2019.

Moving forward, GlobalData predicted that the total number of pay-TV accounts in the region will grow in the period between 2019 and 2023, reaching 798.6 million accounts by the end of 2023.

However, GlobalData said that they expect pay-TV adoption will decline in some of the most growing markets such as Singapore, Australia, and Vietnam, as a result of substituting traditional pay-TV subscriptions for OTT video platforms.

How Asia is tuning in Hrushikesh Mahananda, a Senior Analyst of Telecoms Market Data and Intelligence at GlobalData shared that TV and broadcast media were popular among consumers across the region in the first few months of the pandemic.

He said, “News channels and informative programs were the prime factors driving an increase in TV viewership. Indoor TV viewing of free content experienced higher adoption rates among consumers.”

Hrushikesh added that despite this, traditional TV viewing is facing tough challenges during COVID-19 in terms of a lack of fresh content.

Now that we are several months into the pandemic, the internet has become the main source of medium to explore the digital world.

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Hrushikesh explained, “OTT players offer a wide variety of content, thus creating an attractive experience for consumers.

The increase of the OTT video has taken a toll on the traditional pay-TV industry in the region, and it has changed the way consumers view the content as they can now watch programmes whenever they want, by streaming them ‘live’ or downloading them for later viewing.”

How the pandemic is transforming Asian viewing habits At the onset of the spread of COVID-19 in the early months of 2020, governments across the Asia Pacific have implemented lockdowns to curb the spread of the disease.

With more people staying at home, it is without a doubt that the pandemic has created a significant transformation in consumer behaviour in terms of streaming and viewing habits across the region.

An example of this is a shift in viewing habits and preferences leading to access in multiple screens and devices at the same time.

Hrushikesh said, “Consumers in the Asia Pacific region are gradually shifting to video-on-demand (VOD) services (OTT viewing), spending more screen time on online platforms to browse content during the pandemic which would benefit the media and entertainment players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and many others, driving new subscriber additions.”

“With COVID-19 expanding across the globe, staying updated about current news and information is of utmost importance, where consumers are spending and engaging more time in visiting and accessing some local news programming and national TV channels

COVER STORY Myleeta shared that Korean content remains to be popular in Asia, with shows like It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, Crash Landing On You, Itaewon Class, and Kingdom doing phenomenally well. Hollywood content is also popular among viewers such as Project Power, The Old Guard, Snowpiercer, and Never Have I Ever. Meanwhile, international content like Money Heist and Dark is popular with the Asian audience.

Myleeta Aga Williams, Content Director, SEA and Australia, Netflix

provided by ad-supporting Video-onDemand (VOD) services,” Hrushikesh said.

In addition to this, OTT media platforms have become more popular during the pandemic, but mostly among the younger generation as kids and teens spend more time indoors.

Hrushikesh added, “The increasing popularity of live streaming is taking over younger viewers in Asia.

There will be a shift in digital consumption as more people opt for video streaming platforms which offer a mix of ondemand labeled and live content.

Live streaming focused on niche groups like gaming are gaining popularity and attracting investments.”

The OTT perspective One of the most well-known OTT players in the market today is Netflix.

In its Q1 shareholder’s letter released in April 2020, Netflix reported that it saw a temporary higher viewing and increased membership growth.

However, as lockdowns around the world are slowly lifted, Netflix also expects viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate.

The company also noted that it has been maintaining the quality of its service while its employees around the world adapt to working from home.

Meanwhile, in Netflix’s Q2 shareholder’s letter released in July 2020, the OTT platform said that it is prioritising to restart productions safely and in a manner that is consistent with local health and safety standards.

Productions have slowly resumed and Netflix said that its 2020 plans for launching original shows and films continue to be largely intact.

When it comes to Southeast Asia viewing tastes, Myleeta Aga Williams, the Content Director of Netflix for Southeast Asia and Australia said that the market has very diverse tastes and preferences, both in terms of genres and where the content comes from. She said, “It reinforces our belief at Netflix that great stories can come from anywhere.”

What is Asia watching on Netflix?

Crash Landing On You

“Last but not least, local storytelling continues to remain a very important pillar of our programming.

In Southeast Asia, we are seeing our members local content like Tootsies and the Fake and The Maid from Thailand, Through Night and Day from the Philippines, Imperfect and Love For Sale 2 from Indonesia, and Jailbait from Vietnam,” Myleeta added.

Genre: Romantic drama, Romantic Comedy

Courtesy of Netflix, Lim Hyo Seon

Kingdom

In beefing up its original content, Netflix continues to identify the white spaces in its catalogue and stories that its audiences want and love.

The OTT giant is also working with creators from all over the world to look for unique, and best-in-class stories to produce and acquire.

Myleeta shared, “Ultimately, our goal is to keep growing our content catalogue so that there’s always something to watch for everyone and to suit every mood and need.

Courtesy of Netflix, Juhan Noh

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Never Have I Ever

We will also approach this market by market in Southeast Asia. For instance, in Indonesia, we have announced original films and in Thailand, we launched with a series.”

The pay-TV perspective Pay-TV company A+E Networks has also felt the hit of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of production.

Genre: Comedy-drama, Coming-of-age

Courtesy of Netflix, Lara Solanki

Money Heist

According to Saugato Banerjee, Managing Director of A+E Networks Asia, some of the company’s local productions were affected as a result of travel bans and lockdowns across the region.

He admitted that while it was challenging to do shoots, they were able to adapt by quickly hiring on-ground crews who were already present to navigate travel restrictions. He added, “In Korea and Japan, production has resumed, and we have been able to progress and air all projects in the pipeline.”

One of the challenges for A+E Networks was to ensure the health and safety of its team across Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul by instituting work from home guidelines. Saugato shared, “As teams have adapted and adjusted to the ‘new normal’, we have to face up to the business challenges of dealing with a

Genre: Crime drama, Suspense

Courtesy of Netflix, Tamara Arranz Ramos

Dark

Genre: Thriller

Courtesy of Netflix, Julia Terjung

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COVER STORY One of the challenges facing the industry is the supply of content to satisfy on-demand services, as mentioned, we have been able to help partners with this demand during this period,” Saugato said.

Saugato Banerjee, Managing Director, A+E Networks Asia

Saugato added that demand for content is growing exponentially across media, time, and length formats, as well as cross-border demand for international content. The global premiere of Backstreet Rookie found an audience, thanks to A+E Networks’ deal with iQIYI.

pandemic-induced global recession.

Outlook post-COVID-19

Part of this is making sure that we have a steady supply of content or repackage existing content in fresher ways. But it’s also important to increase the reach of our programming through new distribution partnerships or AVOD platforms.”

OTT and pay-TV players are adapting well to the current situation while being able to meet consumer demand for content.

Across the Asia Pacific market, Saugato shared that the popular shows from A+E Networks include Season 12 of MasterChef Australia, whose launch coincided with many of the lockdowns in the region, mirroring the growing trends that A+E Networks is seeing as home bakers and chefs learn new culinary skills.

Lifetime Original Movies continues to perform strongly for the channel, as well as its home and lifestyle shows such as #Instafamous Lives.

In addition, HISTORY also had an increase in viewership across flagship factual entertainment programs like Pawn Stars, Alone, Swamp People, and Mountain Men. For Crime+Investigation, A+E Networks also saw the continued trend of Asia-based crime programs, in addition to Surviving R Kelly Part II. Saugato said, “In Korea, we debuted, to great success, our first premium drama investment, Backstreet Rookie on Lifetime.

Our digital channels in Korea continue to set trends and be part of the cultural zeitgeist.”

Meanwhile, in Japan, HISTORY set viewership records by combining popular global titles like Ancient Aliens with meaningful local acquisitions.

Saugato shared that in March, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place, and A+E Japan was a key participant in the co-production between History US and Hulu Japan to bring the globally relevant Japanese story of Hiroshima: 75 Years Later to worldwide audiences.

Demand for more in-home entertainment increased as more people stayed home due to lockdowns. “At A+E Networks, due to our extensive catalogue and content ownership, we have been able to meet this demand easily and find ourselves in a strong position.

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The same goes for consumers as people have now adjusted to the new normal brought about by the pandemic.

Hrushikesh commented, “With the rising popularity of OTT content, it’s expected that consumption habits will continue to change, driven by ongoing advances in digital platforms and new technologies with increased speeds and network capacity.”

He continued, “As we move towards the future post-COVID-19, we expect many of these viewing habits and the way people consume content are going to stay post the pandemic.

People are going to continue to stay online, looking for new experiences that will fulfill their needs and passions.”

Hrushikesh expects that there will be a continuous leap in the consumption of content like entertainment, gaming, cooking, and exercise across platforms such as video channels, social media, and content verticals.

“TV services are certainly making life on lockdown more manageable, but it’s online video platforms, social media platforms like Instagram, and video conferencing tools like Zoom, which are uniting families and friends.

Going forward, mobile TV viewing platforms are also likelyto increase among consumers,” Hrushikesh concluded.

Asia’s top A+E Networks picks

Pawn Stars

Genre: Reality

COURTESY OF A+E NETWORKS

Alone

Genre: Reality, Survival

COURTESY OF A+E NETWORKS

Surviving R. Kelly Part 2

Genre: Documentary

COURTESY OF A+E NETWORKS

Hiroshima: 75 Years Later

Meanwhile, A+E Networks is looking forward to the changing needs of its affiliates, partners, and consumers as the world begins to emerge from COVID-19. Saugato said, “With the increase in viewership that we have seen, we will now see trends emerge around our shows, this will help to inform our ongoing content strategy.

We also look forward to partnering with more platform providers and brands across the region as we continue to invest in our brands and entertain our growing audience.”

Genre: Documentary

COURTESY OF A+E NETWORKS

ANALYSIS 3 Ways to approach OTT monetisation

By Matt Kossatz, SVP APAC, Accedo data, providers can help to ensure that the audience sees only relevant messages. This approach offers greater value, the audience is less inclined to become frustrated and are more likely to engage or at least live with the ads.

The TVOD model The transactional video on demand (TVOD) approach is a great option for monetising live premium content.

During lockdown many OTT providers saw a sharp rise in subscriptions as well as an overall increase in streaming figures. Now that society has started to open up again and audiences are enjoying a wider selection of other activities, the challenge will be to keep viewers engaged over the long term.

The OTT market offers no shortage of platforms and new contenders are arriving all the time. With a saturated market, how can OTT providers make the most of their content and monetise their service effectively?

The SVOD model The subscription video on demand (SVOD) approach often forms the default setting for a monetisation strategy. For OTT market pioneers, adopting the subscription model as standard was certainly logical. “Try before you buy” offers hooked new users and gave platforms the opportunity to showcase a broad selection of content in order to gain loyalty.

However, in markets such as Australia where subscription services are already well-established, providers need to weigh up if this method will suit their offering. Indeed, many households already have multiple subscriptions.

Recent reports from AMPD Research & Media Partners Asia show that households are now subscribed to around four SVOD services on average.

A subscription model works best when users have a sense that they are getting value for money. This means content and lots of it. A large back catalogue and new engaging content added regularly justifies the ongoing commitment of a subscription. Local providers have their work cut out if they plan to compete with the global budgets of brands 14 October 2020 television asia plus

such as Netflix and Disney. In APAC the SVOD market has increased by 19 percent this year already but local SVOD offerings such as HOOQ, iFlix, and Lightbox have all dropped out.

New entrants to the market adopting a subscription method will need a keen understanding of their target demographic to make an impact. As well as offering customers alternative value outside of the big players.

The AVOD model Advertising-backed video on demand (AVOD) offers an alternative for customers who are unable to afford the subscription price tag. As well as tempting those who are just looking to avoid additional SVOD outgoings.

Audiences have the benefit of enjoying premium content, without a cost attached, meaning new providers are able to establish an audience quickly.

It is then possible to combine the two methods and offer a paid-for premium tier, with no advertising to those viewers able to afford it.

This model is particularly successful in territories where the target audience has a low disposable income but a big appetite for content.

Last year, a report from Asia Pacific OTT TV and Video Forecasts, estimated that Asia Pacific OTT TV revenues will reach $48 billion in 2024, and AVOD made up 52 percent of this.

One of the key issues with this model is the potential for churn if the advertising becomes irrelevant.

By implementing personalised advertising technology using viewer

In the wake of the pandemic, the sports industry needs to slowly embrace live streaming to provide alternatives to traditional broadcasting. TVOD offers the opportunity for sports rights holders to monetize individual matches, games, or even the last few minutes of games either as a premium offering on their own platform or through deals with other services.

Monetising individual games in this way are likely to prove vital, as the sporting sector endures ongoing upheaval due to COVID-19.

Other industries that have previously relied on audiences packing out live venues will have to adapt to the new normal, too.

We are now seeing everything from boxoffice releases to theatre productions, streamed through a pay-per-view option as a way of monetising content during the closure of live venues.

Finding the best approach There is no one size fits all approach to monetisation, the key focus should be to select the best method based on a number of factors.

OTT providers need to think about market trends, the type and format of the content they are offering, as well as the demographic they are targeting.Some may find that dividing their strategy up to incorporate a combination of all three approaches makes the most sense.

It’s clear that there is significant competition in the OTT arena, but we certainly haven’t reached peak consumption by any means.

As more and more consumers in developing markets come online, video consumption in those markets rises.

What OTT providers will need to bear in mind, is that eager new VOD consumers will become just as selective as established viewers once the market matures. Wherever your service is based, understanding your audience and offering them the appropriate choice will be the difference between success and failure.

FEATURE STORY Meet Taiwan’s rising star of short formats

By Monina Eugenio called myVideo. Meanwhile, for the company’s second title, Fly The Jumper, Dentsu Aegis Network Taiwan joined as one of the co-producers of the show together with Taiwan Mobile.

Taiwan and beyond Currently, Studio76 is focused on releasing content aimed at the Taiwanese and Chinese audience.

Other traditional Chinese markets they are planning to tap include Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

Dennis revealed that two other interesting markets that they would love to study and work on would be Japan and Korea. He commented, “These two are very sophisticated and the size of the market itself is big enough and there is a growing appetite for Chinese content.”

Taipei-based Studio76 has been enjoying the success of its recentlyreleased titles in 2020, such as the thriller 76 Horror Bookstore: Tin Can of Fear, the youth basketball drama Fly The Jumper, and most recently, the crime investigation story, Kill For Love.

Apart from producing Chinese content, Studio76 plans to explore English content in the future and said that they are open to co-production ideas.

However, whilst the company is still in its early years, the focus right now is on the Taiwanese and the Chinese market.

The Taiwanese IP production company, which is headed by CEO and Founder Dennis Yang, aims to produce no less than 30 original titles in the next three years. The company specialises in making original web movies, short dramas, and mini-TV series that are targeted at young audiences and Asia’s robust online video sector.

With Studio76 well on its way to producing its target of no less than 30 original titles in the next three years, the company has expanded to two development teams who are each developing more content.

Dennis revealed that they have been aggressively entering script competitions and plan to run regional ones in 2021 with major partners.

Before establishing Studio76 in 2018, Dennis served as the Chief Content Officer and Vice President of Taiwanese SVOD service KKTV. The company experimented in producing its own short, genre-driven original titles, which were 100 minutes long and chopped into eight episodes aired twice a week.

One mini-series took as little as four weeks to complete, and this was a model that has never been done in Taiwan.

Studio76 is born Realising that a 15-minute episode show is easier to watch in one go compared to a 90-minute drama, Dennis concluded that the formula was good and thought about creating more short-format episodes. Dennis shared, “We realised that this cannot be done inside a service and that it has spunoff as a separate company to make a volume of this short mini-drama.”

Seeing the wealth and potential of talent in Taiwan, Dennis said, “If you look at the talents surrounding us, there are many good scriptwriters, freelance producers, actors, and actresses. They

Dennis Yang, CEO, Studio76

have a good story to pitch and are looking for short projects in between movie projects. We said, ‘Hey, this might be a good opportunity for us to create something at a much bigger scale.’”

Studio76 is backed by Taiwan’s National Development Fund for Cultural Content Investment Projects together with other investors. The company operates as the main showrunner and develops intellectual property, allowing them to cultivate up-and-coming talent in scriptwriting, directing, and acting.

Running on a different business model compared to mainstream TV productions, Studio76 pools its funds from various investors, which go into the production of its short dramas and TV series. For 76 Horror Bookstore: Tin Can of Fear, one of the investors that Studio76 worked with was Taiwan Mobile which has an OTT video service

Dennis said, “We received 431 all-original scripts mostly in Chinese for movies and TV dramas which are sent from all over the world. We are overwhelmed but happy that we need to screen those scripts in the coming weeks.”

“It’s still a long way to go to make it into a production script but you can see that there are good stories and concepts from Taiwan. Not to forget that in Taiwan, more than a thousand books are being published in a year, so there’s a story pool if you look at the books and publishing market,” he added.

Looking into the future of short video formats, Dennis believes that there will be more good stories coming that relate to the daily life of Asians.

He revealed plans of producing a digital movie and a mini-series which comprise six to eight episodes that have a running time of 30 to 60 minutes. He said, “Studio76 is an IP development company. We are not a production house. I’m more into, ‘How can I tell a compelling story, and what is the best format to tell that?’”

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FEATURE STORY Celebrating superwomen on ZEE5 Global

By Monina Eugenio

Today’s women are more empowered than ever as they take on bigger challenges and roles in society. To celebrate the many facets of women, India’s largest global OTT platform ZEE5 Global has these five content offerings that put the ladies front and centre.

Archana Anand, the Chief Business Officer of ZEE5 Global said, “As a global platform, ZEE5 brings its audiences a collection of stories from across the globe and across languages that are meaningful and relatable.

Be it the bold and thought-provoking storyline of Churails, or something relatable as Kaali, we’re bringing in newer, richer narratives through our shows like Code M, Kaali, and Kadambini, which have strong women characters as lead protagonists, and that makes me proud.”

Churails A ZEE5 Exclusive Zindagi Original series, Churails stars Sarwat Gillani, Mehar Bano, Nirma Bucha, and Yasra Rizvi.

The series focuses on the lives of four women: Sara, a lawyer that gave up her career to become the “perfect wife,”; Jugnu, a wedding planner; Zubaida, a boxer seeking independence and love, and Batool, an ex-con who was sentenced to 20years in prison formurder.

The ladies’ lives become intertwined when Sara discovers her husband cheating on her, after which the four decide to set up an agency to catch cheating husbands in action.

They covertly run the agency under the

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guise of a retail burka store called “Halal Designs”, and call themselves Churails.

When one of them goes missing, their investigation leads them to something much bigger than themselves, dominated by Karachi’s most powerful.

Kaali 2 A Telugu dubbed ZEE5 Original series starring Paoli Dam, Vidya Malavade, Abishek Banerjee, and Chandan Roy Sanyal.

The show tells the story of Kaali, who goes to great lengths and risks her own life to save the life of her only child, Sunny.

This time, she gets sucked into the world of crime and the stakes are higher than ever. The single mother agrees to help an international drug cartel claim their consignmnent right under the nose of the Kolkata Police.

But is this really the end of her woes or just the beginning of something more sinister?

Mentalhood A ZEE5 Original drama series starring Karisma Kapoor, Sanjay Suri, Dino Morea, Sandhya Mridul, Shilpa Shukla, Tillotama Shome, and Shruti Seth.

The series revolves around the different natures of mothers and showcases how they maneuver their way through unreasonable expectations as they try their best to raise their children.

The series explores the multitasking nature of different types of mothers and their ways of leading the best upbringing of their children.

Kadambini This biopic tells the story of India’s first practicing female doctor, Kadambini Ganguly set in the forward-thinking pre-independence era of Calcutta.

Ushashi Ray, the female lead from Bokul Kotha, plays Kadambini in the show.

The story brings out the struggles of women during the East India Company’s rule when women’s rights and education seemed like a far cry.

Amid this, Kadambini manages to challenge the archaic societal norms and set an example in a male-dominated society.

Along her journey, she finds a friend and supporter in social reformer Dwarkanath Ganguly, who believed in uplifting the society and women from all walks of life.

Khirer Putul Based on the children’s fantasy novel written by Abanindranath Tagore in 1896, Khirer Putul is a simple and touching tale on the sugar doll, the fate of Duo Rani, and an extraordinary monkey.

The king of Deepnagar had two queens: Suo Rani who received seven palaces, 700 female slaves, the best ornaments from the seven kingdoms, seven gardens, and seven chariots; and Duo Rani, who received a broken home, a deaf and dumb maid, torn clothes, and a dirty bed.

The drama showcases the stellar performance of Sudipta Roy who portrays Duo Rani.

TRENDING Bringing video game magic to the big screen

By Quentin Staes-Polet, General Manager, Southeast Asia and India, Epic Games intuitive process also means the crew can make adjustments during shooting, avoiding the need to compromise the final cut after shooting has wrapped.

Pushing the boundaries with photorealism Will the sense of realism and excitement be lost in virtual production? On the contrary, by replacing traditional green screens with scene projections, actors can get a better sense of the environment they are acting in and the shared vision of the production crew.

With real-time rendering, the background can adapt according to the camera’s perspective, making the entire scene more interactive.

The pandemic has pushed producers and filmmakers to be more creative in their storytelling. Despite the lockdowns in place, many stellar examples of remote production came to the forefront, showcasing the industry’s determination to create. This has opened up the pathway for the industry to deliberate on its future and how virtual and remote production can be woven into the filmmaking process.

Filming is still inefficient Over the past 40 years, technology in filming has progressed greatly.

Animation and special effects are continuously becoming more realistic, making possible what was never imagined just two decades ago.

However, the production process remains riddled with both inefficiencies and high costs, and real solutions have been hard to come by.

In the pre-production phase, planning and visualising complex scenes takes a significant amount of time, particularly when an alignment between the creative vision and technical realities is required. Complex movie sets can sometimes take months to build, and unfavourable weather and light conditions often throw the filming schedule into disarray. Even after all the footage is captured, post-production can take another year or more.

In a post-pandemic world, producers with tightening budgets can’t afford to allow inefficiencies to seep in. Virtual production and leveraging real-time video game technology might be the answer.

Reimagining filmmaking Virtual

production,

powered

by

video game technology, can be a gamechanger in the creation of content, ranging from DIY digital productions to future blockbusters.

With its ability to save on production time and costs, virtual production can be a lifeline for filmmakers of all sizes.

For instance, with the use of video game technology, filmmakers can build digital environments that mirror the quality of final frame renders. This gives everyone in the production team the same vision of the final product.

Changes can also be incorporated through an iterative and collaborative process, essentially transforming the rigid, linear pipeline of traditional filmmaking into parallel processes that cut down the overall timeline of a production. Creative decisions about shots and sequences can be resolved much earlier in the process and not left to post-production.

Another core benefit of using a game engine is that the technology is realtime, providing an incredible advantage for virtual production. When applied to filmmaking, live rendering alleviates the uncertainty of traditionally siloed preproduction andvisual effects production, as they are replaced with working imagery that is far closer to the final cut.

Extended post-production cycles are par for the course in the making of visual effects-intensive movies. As a result, it is often difficult for filmmakers to visualize final screen output while directing on the live-action set. With in-camera visual effects captured on LED stages, final frames can be previewed through the camera lens, and creative teams can manipulate lighting, virtual environments, and effects collaboratively on set. This more

The real-time nature of an LED stage also allows for movement of objects in a scene, such as the position of the sun or other light source, or trees moving in a breeze. Physical set pieces in the foreground can be merged seamlessly with digital environments and objects, heightening the sense of realism.

Overall, the ability to view shots that are very close to final helps to ensure the continuity, fluidity, and agency of each scene, which potentially shaves off days of unnecessary shooting and months off post-production.

A natural evolution for the entertainment industry Virtual production is not new. The awardwinning Game of Thrones series utilised virtual production techniques to exceed the audience’s expectations of the series.

In the beginning, virtual production was used in previsualisation to ensure the alignment of creative and technical vision across film departments. As the storylines got more complex, a virtual scouting toolset—powered by Unreal Engine—was also deployed to stage elaborate and highly imaginative sets.

In The Mandalorian Season 1, Epic’s Unreal Engine was used to project lifelike virtual environments onto massive LED screens that immersed the actors and crew in the Star Wars universe, giving directors full visibility and creative control of digitally enhanced sequences while shooting on set.

Virtual production allows film departments to work more closely in real-time, to reach the shared vision of the final product in the most time and cost-efficient manner.

At a time when the industry is grappling with the fallout of the global pandemic, virtual production may be the natural evolution for the entertainment industry.

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tradeshow MIPCOM The 35th MIPCOM goes live online

Due to the threat of COVID-19, this year’s MIPCOM festivities have been moved online. The world’s largest entertainment content market officially takes place as MIPCOM ONLINE+ that centres around the digital MIPCOM Week happening from 12 to 16 October and will include extended features pre- and post-event.

Communications, Melissa Fleming, who will deliver an address called, “No Time To Waste: Communicating In A Climate Emergency.”

Korea celebrated as ‘Country of Honour’

One of the highlights of the MIPCOM event is its Future Talks strand that delivers insights from visionary leaders and creative talent shaping the future of the global content industry. This year’s keynote addresses reflect the global theme for this year of “Change for Good”.

Korea is the first Country of Honour to be showcased on the MIPCOM Online+ platform, making its flagship content accessible to television professionals around the world. The Country of Honour showcase is sponsored by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), which is responsible for policies in Korean broadcasting and communication services.

Keynote speakers include writer and producer Tyler Perry; Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer at Netflix, Ted Sarandos; Reflector Entertainment CEO, Alex Amancio; Sky Group Chief Executive, Jeremy Darroch; Oscar-winning filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry; and the United Nations’ Undersecretary-General for Global

As a content showcase, the MIPCOM Korean focus will feature four online conference sessions. This includes Fresh TV Korea, hosted by Virginia Mouseler, The Wit’s CEO, preceded by a welcome address by KCC Chairman Han Sang-hyuk. It will be followed by two sessions: Behind Korea’s Mega Hits and Korea’s Platform and Distribution

Keynote speakers

Strategy. Meanwhile, Co-Producing with Korea will look at case studies of successful international cooperation.

MIPCOM Warm-up Beginning on 5 October, participating delegates and exhibitors can enjoy early access to make the most out of the MIPCOM digital marketplace that gives access to the Market Intelligence sessions, Content Finance briefings, and the MIPJunior Screenings Platforms, and the MIPCOM Digital Hub to help delegates plan their meetings for the MIPCOM Week.

MIPCOM Week Opening from 12 to 16 October, MIPCOM Week is a global interactive business market that includes a fully digital “Main Stage Cannes” conference and screenings programme involving Global UPFRONTS, that is an exclusive showcase by world-leading TV studios; Keynotes from top industry personalities and talents; market screenings; MIPCOM Diversify TV Excellence Awards and more. In addition, the Virtual Exhibit Hub and enhanced database allow users to conduct targeted video business meetings between distributors, producers, buyers, and all international delegates.

MIPCOM Follow Up+

MIPCOM keynote speakers include (Top row, L-R) Tyler Perry, Ted Sarandos, Alex Amancio; (Bottom row, L-R) Jeremy Darroch, Matthew A. Cherry; and Melissa Fleming.

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Missed a keynote or a conference session? Not to worry as the MIPCOM Follow Up+ runs from 17 October to 17 November that gives attendees access to replays of screenings, keynotes, and conference sessions both from MIPCOM and MIPJunior. Delegates and exhibitors can continue to conduct business through the MIPCOM Online+ interactive database tools and Virtual Exhibit Hub, as well as the use of the MIPJunior digital library.

SHOW PREVIEW The Asia TV Forum & Market to go fully digital in 2020

The Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) will be taking place online through its digital platform dubbed as ATF ONLINE+. Taking place from 1 to 4 December 2020, this year’s virtual ATF trade show will feature conferences, networking, and speed dating activities.

This year’s theme for ATF 2020 is Prelude to 2021: Be Part of the

Conversation, which aims to together the industry to review has been a challenging 2020, looking forward to a stronger

bring what while 2021.

The ATF Online+ platform promises delegates an intuitive, seamless, and user-friendly experience. Among its features are Targeted Matchmaking, which offers tailored recommendations

based on genre and regions and allows participants to directly connect with an extensive list of buyers and delegates; Click-Easy Meetings that encourages making connections with delegates via video or chat; Conferences to help delegates acquire exclusive insights and industry updates with fresh content, pitches and exclusive analyst statistics; Resource Library that offers access to exclusive research reports; and Program and Video Listings to view programmes on-demand.

Consisting of several pillars, ATF Online+ offers a trade market element, virtual conferences, and pitches that introduce new segments like Mornings with Industry Leaders, Lunchtime Buying focused on new insights for today’s buying strategies, and Coffee Hour Fresh Content that offers a spread of scripted and unscripted formats open for contracts by top sellers.

ATF Online+ will be available on-demand until 28 February 2021 and the platform can be accessed at www.asiatvforum.com.

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POST EVENT Hong Kong International Film and Television Market welcomed close to 7,000 international buyers

The Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART Online), organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), opened its virtual doors from the 26th to the 29th of August as it was attended by close to 7,000 international buyers from 73 countries and regions.

IPV: Creating Video

Remotely in Lockdown

such as China’s entertainment market, latest streaming platform trends in Asia, and technologies for developing interactive content. Featured speakers included representatives from Media Partners Asia, iiMedia Research Group, NCM Pictures, Linmon Pictures, and MXplayer, among others.

In the trade show’s online edition, FILMART Online had dedicated pages for exhibitors to help facilitate exchange and networking.

There was also a virtual screening tool that allowed buyers to enjoy previews with ease.

Participants also opportunity to use platform until 30

had the the online September.

The highlight of FILMART Online were six conferences that discussed the post-pandemic outlook for the industry, that focused on key topics

Twenty-two online conferences and fringe events took place as part of FILMART Online, drawing more than 35,000 views in total. The photo above shows four speakers at the Digital Entertainment Summit 2020 discussing how the use of 5G, cloud, and interactive entertainment technologies can bring a more immersive and personalised experience to the market.

Video content management platform IPV presented a series of exclusive Q&A sessions dubbed as Creating Video Remotely in Lockdown that took place from 9 to 11 September 2020.

The free webinar featured representatives from WarnerMedia, Sky, Biola University, and Sesame Street, who talked about how their organisations coped with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how IPV’s solutions helped them stay on track as teams worked remotely from home.

Among the topics discussed were how these companies implemented business continuity and remote working for video teams, how they kept their business on-air, how they monetised and re-used existing archives of video content, and last but not the least, how they worked securely with assets from centralised archives at home.

The invited webinar speakers included Simon Greening, Head of Operations and Technology at Sky Creative Agency; Jacob Anderson, Asset Management and Media Services and Eric Lund, Senior Manager for Post Technology at WarnerMedia; and Shadrach Kisten, SVP, Chief Technology Officer at Sesame Street’s Sesame Workshop.

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POST EVENT China Daily Roundtable: Creative industry insiders talk survival strategies amid the pandemic

AVIA hosts first virtual summit

Moderator DJ Clarke (top left), Low Kee Hong (top middle), co-moderator Chitralekha Basu (top right), Albert Lee (bottom left), Fred Wang (bottom middle) and Tang Fu Kuen (bottom right) share their insights at the China Dailyhosted webinar.

Creative industry insiders gathered for the fifth installment of China Daily’s Tipping Point webinar series on 27 August with the theme Taking the show back to the theaters in the time of COVID-19.

The goal of the webinar was to facilitate a healthy exchange for artists and creative professionals to gain new insights and opportunities amid the current challenging environment.

The webinar featured five creative industry insiders and key players that included Mr. Albert Lee, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society; Mr. Low Kee Hong, head of theater at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority; Mr. Tang Fu Kuen, curator at the Taipei Arts Festival; Mr. Fred Wang, Chairman of Salon Films (Hong Kong); and Mr. Teddy Chen, producer and director of Sum-Wood Production Ltd. Among the topics discussed was the need of a combined effort from stakeholders to help the cinema industry survive the pandemic.

Mr. Lee pointed out that cinemas are experiencing difficulty due to the reduced capacity owing to social distancing restrictions.

Mr. Low Kee Hong added, “We need to rethink the choices of platforms and how we can monetise different platforms so that artists and staff can be paid properly. It is really essential to acknowledge that art is not for free.”

The panel also talked about the new normal and the opportunities for the film industry. Mr. Lee welcomed the idea of people viewing films on multiple platforms such as cinema halls, home theatre, live streaming platforms, and television.

Mr. Fred Wang pointed out that

the film industry needs to try out new business models and observe whether the current environment can support these in a sustainable way.

While Mr. Lee predicted that it could take the film industry anywhere between three and four years to recover from the effects pandemic, Mr. Wang still sees a bright future ahead. He envisioned that the traditional film business will develop rapidly and maturely, and believed that the injection of new blood will develop a business odel in order to support the improvement of the industry at large.

Mr. Tang Fu Kuen added, “Some of the artists in the industry will remain in melancholia for the better days of the past. They may not be able to cope with the future, while others will have that will and wisdom to move on. And they will be the ones who will renovate and innovate for survival.”

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) held its first virtual conference, the OTT Virtual Summit held from 29 June to 3 July.The virtual event featured a lineup of speakers and thought leaders from across the video, advertising, and tech industry.

The conference touched on seven subject matters that are relevant to today’s industry including Challenges and Opportunites of Going D2C, the Woes and Wins of Advertising in the time of COVID, and what the Future of the Video Buy look like, and the challenge of Connecting with Consumers during and post the pandemic.

Yang Xianghua, the President of Membership and Overseas Business Group from iQIYI headlined this year’s keynote conversation. Otherkeyspeakers of the OTT Virtual Summit included Simon Robinson, President of APAC, Discovery Asia Pacific & Chief Financial Officer of Discovery International; Viu; Clément Schwebig, MD, Southeast Asia, Pacific and China, WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks; Tarun Katial, CEO of ZEE5 India, among others.

Delegates to the OTT Virtual Summit got to access a full event platform that featured meeting rooms, virtual networking opportunities, and an ondemand platform for delayed viewing.

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IN-FOCUS How a global ‘forced experiment’ has helped innovate video production in Asia

By Elliot Renton, Senior Director and Head of APAC, Grabyo When fans are allowed back into stadiums, these principles should remain. The production costs of a live event are problematic for broadcasters alongside the amount of equipment and resources needed to be transported to multiple venues.

Using cloud technology, sports media organisations can cut costs, reduce their environmental impact and create truly multi-platform content strategies across TV, online and social media.

Reaching audiences For decades, linear TV viewing dominated across households everywhere. But today it’s OTT, mobile, and social platforms that are becoming the media destinations of choice for consumers of all ages.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the lives of consumers across Asia.

Strict social isolation regulations have meant the majority of people are staying at home, mostly relying on digital technologies for remote working, entertainment, and socialising.

Across Asia, the adoption of cloud computing once lagged behind Europe and the U.S., but is quickly catching up.

Today, cloud-based computing has made its way into almost every business in some shape or form. Most media organisations probably use a cloudbased service every day—be it for storage, communication, video conferencing or hosting their company’s server.

But for video production, use of the cloud still lags behind, and the pandemic has created a type of “forced experiment.”

Rapid change Usually, digital transformation is gradual and meticulous, but the COVID-19 crisis has forced media companies and content creators to transform first and then figure out the impacts on workflows and roles and responsibilities later. When the lockdowns came, they came quickly, and change had to be immediate to keep content relevant and the channels on air.

However, many media businesses have thrived during this “forced experiment.”

Working remotely has enabled video production teams to leverage the full potential of technology, paving the way forcreativityand innovation. It has allowed broadcasters, media rights holders and content publishers to try new methods, workflows and content formats that will bring benefits to the industry that will last beyond the pandemic.

For example, Singapore broadcaster Mediacorp faced a huge challenge as the city-state headed into a general election during a complete lockdown.

Mediacorp shouldered a responsibility to ensure Singapore’s population could follow the election from home.

In what has been dubbed Singapore’s first social media election, Mediacorp rolled out a highly agile campaign to deliver live news broadcasts, election debates and updates across its digital and TV channels. It leveraged the

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flexibility of cloud-based solutions to send reporters out into the field using only a camera and laptop to deliver live broadcasts across its social channels.

Many media publishers have taken to creating bespoke social and digital video content to engage consumers at a time when no new live content was available.

The broadcaster also aired a live election debate on its Facebook page, creating a focal point for voters to watch along while showing their support, discussing the issues and debating with other voters in realtime, replacing the physical rallies that couldn’t take place. Over half a million Singaporeans tuned in to watch live.

Consumers have become accustomed to consuming more video content across social and digital platforms, responding positively to the raw and unfiltered nature of social content while enjoying its interactive elements.

Mediacorp’s strategy allowed them to be flexible by limiting the amount of personnel, equipment and travel needed to create quality coverage across its digital channels. The broadcaster was able to tailor its coverage focus and the volume of content produced. This stripped-back approach has many applications for the future of news production, helping organisations to be first to market while reaching a vast online audience.

The future of sports production One of the most prominent, and most missed absences during lockdown has been live sport.

Now back on our screens, sports broadcasters and federations are working in new ways to produce live and VOD content.

These new workflows were first trialled by the Korean Football League. K League 1 was the first major football competition to restart following the sport’s hiatus and demonstrated a blueprint for hosting live fixtures and delivering broadcasts to fans.

With only essential personnel on-site for K League’s digital team used cloudbased video production technology to produce and deliver the broadcast remotely to social media. Australiabased match commentator Simon Hill contributed to the broadcast remotely, using cloud production tools.

We are now seeing this type of production set up in sports fixtures all over the world. It is more economical, reduces the cost of equipment, travel and resources, while also decreasing the carbon footprint of each production.

Media companies must now design their video strategies to be all-encompassing.

Broadcasters and publishers need to repurpose linear TV content for multiple digital platforms, optimised for viewing across a range of devices, to extend their reach and stay relevant.

Yet, there are challenges in distributing linear TV content to digital platforms.

Traditional broadcast infrastructure and systems aren’t suited to digital distribution, they require complex, highcost workflows that restrict the potential ofdigital content and product innovation.

Engaging audiences on social media and mobile apps requires a constant output of high-quality content. The competition for eyeballs is unrelenting, so publishers need to be consistent, and at speed.

At the same time, consumers expect to be able to watch content on whichever platform and device they prefer.

Multi-platform strategies are the most successful because focusing on just one channel will greatly reduce the reach of content. Once new content is created, often it needs to be repurposed, reformatted and distributed across various platforms, optimised for its destination.

Using traditional equipment, this process is repetitive and slow.

Cloud-based production tools are built with this capability at their core, and publishers are able to produce and deliver content at scale.

The biggest challenge for broadcasters, rights holders and publishers across Asia is how they will react to this shift in consumption habits caused by the pandemic. The ability to access content online has become a base expectation, and broadcasters must equip themselves with the right tools to not only win audiences, but build loyalty that lasts.

THE FINAL WORD How 5G will change the game for Asian streaming services

By Paolo Cuttoreli, Vice President and General Manager, APAC, at Evergent game in 8K resolution in a fully immersive experience, making viewers feel that they are in the middle of the action to an extent never seen before. After the game, the 5G connection will be cutoff, and the viewer will be back on 4G. Developing nations will leapfrog legacy fixed-line phone infrastructure and skip straight to 5G connected smartphones. In 2018, 360 million people came online for the first time.

The accelerating growth in internet users of nearly a million new users a day is changing the digital landscape. But it’s also creating investment opportunities for the OTT services’ big players in Asia.

Embracing a combination of innovation and emerging technologies such as 5G are the ingredients to the secret sauce required to attract a wave of new customers while also retaining and providing existing ones with new digital experiences that can be monetised.

By 2022, there will be 280 million 5G subscriptions in the Asia Pacific alone and 5G service revenue is expected to reach US$4.5 billion. The mass deployment of 5G will change the future for many industries, including over-the-top (OTT) streaming services. Predictably, we are witnessing the transformation of video distribution as big-name players enter an increasingly crowded market.

To stay in the game, all players within the video ecosystem will need to innovate to keep up with the pace set by technological change and consumers’ evolving demands. In many parts of the world, the arrival of a global pandemic slowed down 5G rollout plans.

AIS, Thailand’s largest telco, has over 42 million subscribers and has helped implement 5G networks across 158 hospitals. It has also played an important role in ushering in a new era of telemedicine.

5G connected robots have removed the need for direct contact between medical professionals and patients when delivering medication, which reduces the risk of contact and infection.

After securing an early advantage over their neighbours, Thailand is surging ahead by expanding 5G throughout other areas, including shopping malls and Bangkok’s financial district.

However, if we zoom out to look at the bigger picture, it reveals that 5G rollouts have exploded across the entire Asia Pacific (APAC) region in 2020.

Last year, the world internet usage

index revealed that Southeast Asia has three countries in the top five.

In the Philippines, users average 10 hours and 2 minutes of screen time every day. Thailand was not far behind with 9 hours and 11 minutes, and Indonesia clocked up an impressive 8 hours and 36 minutes every day.

OTT streaming services rely heavily on technology to keep their offerings up-to-date.

Providers are also challenged with meeting the rising demands of consumers who are becoming overwhelmed with the myriad of options at their disposal.

5G promises to open new, exciting possibilities for the kinds of services that can be delivered over mobile networks.

The arrival of 5G in Asia will also intensify the OTTwar and create a virtual land grab.

Forward-thinking industry leaders are already paying close attention to predictions that 5G network coverage will support more than 35% of the global mobile user base by 2024.

Video will inevitably remain the primary driver in mobile data consumption in a world where fully immersive content with 8K resolution becomes the standard expectation from digital users.

5G infrastructure will unlock a wealth of opportunities for network operators.

Content creation is evolving and paving the way for new business models that will drive new revenue streams. Sessionbased billing of content is a model that will quickly materialise. For example, 5G will enable viewers to access a football

The big question is which service providers will catch the wind first? The big winners will be those who invest in the tech that gives access to more content to a wider range of consumers.

The next generation of networks will enjoy greater streaming capacities while fundamentally changing how and where viewers consume content.

Our devices will require networks to transmit massive sums of data in near real-time. These are just a few reasons that highlight how 5G will transform OTT streaming and give network providers options in terms of content production.

After months of being in lockdown, our reliance on a fast network with the bandwidth to stream content has dramatically increased.

5G will turn the challenge of millions of screen-addicted users hungry for more content and bandwidth into an opportunity.

For OTT streaming providers, it will open up a vast market across the Asia Pacific region for audiences demanding new digital experiences.

By contrast, audiences won’t care about the technology under the hood that brings these experiences to life.

They will be motivated by seamless access to their favourite movies, TV shows, and live events from any device anywhere, and at any time. Southeast Asia is one of the most internetaddicted regions on the planet. But the question is, who will be the providers that invest and open up new markets and services to lead the charge forward?

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