HOOQ Grows Thai Footprint

HOOQ is strengthening its footprint in Thailand with two partnership deals and plans to launch six new original productions in the country by the first half of 2020.

HOOQ has newly partnered with Grab and renewed its longtime exclusive deal with M Pictures. The company’s new deal with Grab enables customers to use Grab reward points to redeem a one-month HOOQ subscription voucher and a movie rental ticket. In order to cater to a wider range of consumers nationwide, HOOQ is also increasing offerings on the free-to-air layer, delivering free content through an ad-funded model.

The renewed partnership with M Pictures brings Thai blockbusters such as Love Battle, Khun Bun Lue and Necromancer 2020 to viewers. The deal also entails producing HOOQ originals rooted in Thai stories, including The Cave and Someone, and adding an esports platform, which includes King of Gamers and a PubG game battle between the Indonesian and Thai teams. Viewers are also now able to watch new episodes from Channel 3 only two days after they air.

Piyanuch Meemook, managing director of HOOQ Thailand, said, “Our viewers these days prefer watching content on their mobile devices from wherever they may be. HOOQ Thailand’s vision for 2020, in line with our mission Made in Asia, For Asia, is to bring even more local productions and HOOQ originals to our viewers as quickly as possible, allowing access anywhere, anytime. With the significant investment towards Thai content and partners, we are proud to increase the number, variety and genre of our HOOQ Originals, and in turn, increase user base and engagement on the platform.”

“Based on data viewed year-on-year for the past three years, we’ve noticed that the most popular shows on HOOQ Thailand’s platform is local content,” said Jennifer Batty, chief content officer of HOOQ. “These consumption habits drive our decision to keep laser-focused on creating even more localized content across all genres and segments, and to make that content more accessible to everyone—anywhere, anytime. Filmmakers from Thailand showed a lot of promise in season three of HOOQ’s Filmmakers Guild last year, a ground-breaking initiative designed to give a voice to budding filmmakers, elevate new talent, and bring the most compelling and captivating stories to an audience in Asia who crave high-quality content.”

Peter Bithos, CEO of HOOQ, added: “HOOQ was born and raised in the heart of Asia. We know Southeast Asia and remain 100 percent focused on creating a truly Asian video platform for millions of subscribers. There is such a unique heritage in Thailand with so many local stories to bring to life. Our tie-ups with like-minded partners who want to push boundaries together allow us to deliver fresh and unique stories to our viewers across the country.”