who’swhostreaming...
Voot About Ad-supported VOD platform offering original and library content from Viacom18 networks Owned by Viacom18, managed by Viacom18 Digital Ventures Launched May 2016 No. of users 55 million monthly active users, with about 50 mins daily time spent What’s on 60,000+ hours of content from Viacom18’s Colors (Hindi and regional services: Kannada, Bangla, Marathi, Gujarati), Nickelodeon, MTV, Content Around Content, Voot Originals and kids content. Streams a mix on in-house, commissined and third-party content How much Free (ad-supported) Who’s in charge Gourav Rakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures
Viu
taneous devices on one account. Downloads only for registered members Content partners Annapurna Studios, Endemol Shine India, Lone Ranger Production, Mango People Media, among others Distribution partners Samsung, Amazon Fire Stick, Flipkart, Paytm, Xiaomi Mi TV, Staqu
Watcho About/owner Part of DTH platform Dish TV’s strategy to become a complete digital entertainment provider. Targets younger audiences across India Launched April 2019 No. of users Not disclosed. Dish TV had a DTH subscriber base of more than 23.6 million at end 2018 What’s on 1,000+ hours of library movies, short films and TV shows, as well as originals and UGC content in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu Originals Vote the Hell, featuring comedians and their satirical take on on the Indian elections; action/thriller drama Mission Breaking News, comedy drama Chhoriyan; and thriller drama Rakhta Chandana Costs Free, including non-subs of Dish TV (as of June 2019) Who’s in charge Anil Dua, executive director/group CEO; Akash Tyagi, head OTT
Love, Lust and Confusion 2
See Regional listings Owned by PCCW Launched in India Mar 2016, for Hindi/Telugu/Tamil speakers Who’s in charge Vishal Maheshwari, country head of India Originals Viu’s India unit had original production in its blood from the start. The latest additions to the slate include virtual cricket tournament game show – iB Cricket Super Over League – in Feb 2019 for India and the Middle East, followed in March 2019 with the second season of webseries Love, Lust and Confusion. The 13-episode romantic dramedy is directed by Victor Mukherjee and produced by Mango People Media. Season one premiered in March 2018. Pricing Premium ad-free Rs99/ US$1.50 a month. Unlimited simul14
YuppTV See Regional listings Launched Oct 2015 Costs From Rs99/US$1.40 a month
Zee5 Global See Regional listings Distribution Airtel, Gaana, GrabOn, Idea Movies & TV, PayTM, Vodafone Play How much Both free and paid premium content. Monthly subscription costs from Rs49/US$0.70 a month each for the Tamil or Telugu or Kannada packs to Rs99/ US$1.40 a month for the All Access pack Originals 2019 original series include Arjun Rampal’s thriller The Final Call (premiered Feb 2019), 78-minute LGBTQ drama Sec 377 (Mar 2019), mystery thriller Poison
(April 2019) and crime series Auto Shankar (April 2019). Zee5 plans to launch 72 new originals in six languages in 2019/20.
Indonesia Indonesia has the full range of streaming/online apps, including Amazon Prime Video (free sevenday trial, then US$2.99 a month for the first six months, then US$5.99 a month); and Netflix which has been ramping up its local acquisitions and ventured into local originals in October 2018 with Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes for Us. Apple has been offering movies and songs through iTunes, but not TV shows, and hasn’t yet said whether its new AppleTV+ service will be available in Indonesia. There’s no shortage of Indian/South Asian content accessible directly to Indonesian consumers, including online platforms such as AltBalaji (US$1.40 for three months); Eros Now (US$1.80 a month); YuppTV (from US$9.99 a month), and Spuul (from Rp29,000/US$2 monthly for the Premium Lite subscription), as well as, in the case of Eros Now, with local telco/broadband providers. Regional streamers, including CuriosityStream distributed out of Singapore by Monty Ghai’s brandwith, and iWonder from former iflix programming head James Bridges, are standing on the border looking at options. Bridges says iWonder is available in Indonesia through iflix and is considering a direct-to-consumer play. So far, Indonesia’s population of 264 million seems underwhelmed by the video abundance; the real numbers of paying subscribers to streaming services is thought to be less than one million, maybe way less. On the other hand, there’s lots of growth potential, which is, if you think about past dashed dreams of building pay-TV businesses in Indonesia, as it has always been. The biggest stumbling block this time is the cost of data. Will Indonesia, like India, be transformed by its own Jio? That’s not looking likely right now. But never say never.
Catchplay on Demand See Regional listings Launched June 2016 (IndiHome), July 2016 (standalone), April 2017 (Telkomsel), April 2018 (First Media) How much From Rp16,000/ US$1.10 for single title rentals to Rp60,000/US$4.20 a month No. of subs Undisclosed
Dens.TV About Streaming linear/VOD/ catch-up platform available on multiple devices Owned by Digdaya Duta Digital, a part of CBN Group Indonesia Launched May 2015 No. of users/subs 20,000 IPTV + 30,000 OTT What’s on 50+ live TV channels and 1,000 hours of VOD content, including independent local shortfilms, kids, GE, lifestyle, movies and sports How much Offered as part of fibre broadband packages starting from Rp299,000/US$21 a month (50 Mbps) to Rp799,000/ US$56 a month (200 Mbps) Content boss Ario B. Widyatmiko, chief content officer
Eros Now See Regional listings Distribution Eros Now entered the Indonesian market through a TV content partnership with Xiaomi’s smart TV brand Mi TV in Sept 2018, followed by a deal with telco provider XL Axiata in Dec 2018 Pricing Rp26,000/US$1.80 a month or Rp260,000/US$18 a year
FirstMediaX About A geo-blocked TV anywhere extension of cable/DTH TV service HomeCable Owned by First Media Launched Feb 2014 as First Media Go and relaunched in June 2016 What’s on 100+ live streaming channels and a seven-day catch-up service plus more than 500 hours of on-demand mov-
contentasia issue three, june 2019
