Gearing Up for APOS?

Delegates at APOS in Indonesia next week will hear from executives from local, regional and global content, distribution and tech companies about scale, partnerships, driving consumer engagement and increasing revenues amid a rapidly transforming media ecosystem in Asia.

Our APOS edition takes a look at trends in the region’s pay-TV space as well as the growing market for Asian content internationally, and features in-depth interviews with Astro’s Rohana Rozhan and Turner’s Ricky Ow. You can read the APOS edition here.

The overarching theme of the event—taking place April 24 to 26 in Bali, Indonesia, and organized by Media Partners Asia (MPA)—is “Wider Horizons.” Key themes include innovation and transformation in China, India and Indonesia; trends in Korea and Japan; telcos and broadband rollouts; new forms of storytelling; private-equity investments in media; sports rights; online advertising; and opportunities in Southeast Asia.

The agenda kicks off Wednesday morning with opening remarks by Vivek Couto, executive director and co-founder of MPA, under the heading “The Great Convergence.” He will be followed by a session featuring five of Asia’s largest telcos and their entertainment ambitions: AIS’s Somchai Lertsutiwong, Globe Telecom’s Ernest Cu, Optus’s Allen Lew, Singtel’s Yuen Kuan Moon and Telkomsel’s Alistair D. Johnston. Next up will be a session on China featuring CMC Holdings’ Thomas Hui and Ciwen Media’s Ma Zhongjun, and then a conversation with Manuel Pangilinan, the head of the Philippines’ PLDT, which has committed to investing $1 billion in its network annually to support video consumption.

David Lynn, president and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks, will take to the stage Wednesday morning to discuss the company’s plans for continued global growth. He will be followed by a panel on Amazon’s business in India and Japan featuring James Farrell, head of content for the Asia Pacific at Amazon Prime Video, along with Excel Entertainment’s Ritesh Sidhwani and Yoshimoto Kogyo’s Akihiko Okamoto. The busy pre-lunch sessions continue with Discovery Networks International’s JB Perrette, Astro’s Rohana Rozhan, One Championship’s Chatri Sityodtong and YouTube’s Gautam Anand. The post-lunch sessions, meanwhile, include a conversation with PCCW Media Group’s Janice Lee and a panel called “Premium Content in a Streaming World” with CatchPlay’s Daphne Yang, Fox Networks Group’s Rohit D’Silva, HBO Asia’s Jonathan Spink and Turner’s Ricky Ow.

Shifting the conversation agenda to content sales, Gina Brogi of Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution is set for a session on Wednesday, which will be followed by a panel on India with a keynote address from the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and then a conversation with Hathway Cable’s Rajan Gupta, Tata Sky’s Harit Nagpal and Viacom18’s Sudhanshu Vats. The Wednesday agenda wraps with two in-depth sessions on Korea that include JTBC’s Suyoung Lee, Huayi Brothers’ Jay Ji, LYD Networks’ Joon Lee and Warner Bros.’s Hyun Park.

MPA VP Aravind Venugopal opens the Thursday conference agenda with a presentation on “The New Digital Economy,” followed by two sessions on advertising. A panel called “The New Wave of Digital Content” will feature Vice’s Hosi Simon, Fred Chong of WebTVAsia, KKTV’s Dennis Yang and Pops Worldwide’s Esther Nguyen. Netflix execs Tony Zameczkowski and Vincent Tauzia will discuss how the streaming platform is ramping up its presence in the region. Later, APOS delegates will hear from representatives from local platforms with Hotstar’s Ajit Mohan, Hulu Japan’s Kazufumi Nagasawa and SK Telecom’s Jong-won Kim. The morning agenda also includes Go-Jek’s Michy Gustavia, ABS-CBN’s Carlo Katigbak, and Emtek and Surya Citra Media’s Sutanto Hartono.

The post-lunch schedule sees sessions with HOOQ’s Peter Bithos and iflix’s Mark Britt, followed by a panel with key media investors. Later in the day is a session on Japanese content in the age of streaming with Tohokushinsha Film’s Tetsu Uemura, and then a conversation with Blue Ant’s Michael MacMillan. Discussing shifts in Australia will be Optus’s Corin Dimopoulos and FetchTV’s Scott Lorson, followed by conversations with Mediacorp’s Tham Loke Kheng and MNC Group’s Hary Tanoesoedibjo.