HOOQ\u2019s Peter Bithos, iflix\u2019s Mark Britt, Viu\u2019s Janice Lee and Amazon\u2019s James Farrell discussed their\u00a0acquisition and commissioning strategies and the key to finding success in Asia in a panel at the Asia TV Forum.<\/p>\n
The panel, \u201cThe Evolution of Storytelling,\u201d took place during a pre-market day of conferences at the Asia TV Forum, which officially kicks off in Singapore on Wednesday. It was moderated by Robert Gilby, a board member of the IMDA and chairman of the advisory board of the Singapore Media Festival.<\/p>\n
Gilby kicked off the session by asking the panelists about their overall content strategies.<\/p>\n
Farrell, head of content for the Asia Pacific at Amazon Prime, said that at the top level, some content travels universally, notably top-rated global series and big movies, which consumers will expect when they access Amazon. Beyond that, it\u2019s about \u201ccreating value and stickiness\u201d with original content.<\/p>\n
Lee, managing director of PCCW Media Group, which operates Viu, said the platform is focusing on Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. As such, it is offering \u201cpan-regional content that appeals to a lot of these clusters,\u201d including shows from Japan and Korea. In the last year, it has begun producing content locally. \u201cBy the end of this year we are producing about 170 episodes of shows, about 24 titles, and we\u2019re looking to double that next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britt, the co-founder and CEO of iflix, echoed Farrell\u2019s views, adding that if you have \u201cenough of a portfolio across enough segments, you can generate enough data to learn and understand what works. Some of the things that don\u2019t work will surprise the hell out of you.” He added, “Linear pay television is an old metaphor.\u201d Being an on-demand millennial model requires more experimentation to see what\u2019s working. \u201cIt\u2019s an expensive way of getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bithos serves as CEO of HOOQ, which has always had global content as part of its core proposition alongside Asian stories. \u201cWe match local content with Hollywood content. We try to do that deeper and in a more extensive way than any other player. Any country we\u00a0operate in in Southeast Asia, we really invest in the local community, local content. Increasingly, originals play a large part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that a key factor is, \u201cWhere do you get your best return on investment relative to performance? Some things will surprise you about that journey. Increasingly it\u2019s a combination of what drives viewing and engagement, but also what drives viewing and engagement with the highest returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bithos then talked about the HOOQ Filmmakers Guild, which was set up to discover new talent. \u201cTelling great stories that haven\u2019t been told is really hard,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have about 20 projects right now, in various stages. About half a dozen of those come out the HOOQ Filmmakers Guild, an open call for young, up-and-coming talent that couldn’t get their stories told. We had over 400 submissions across Asia; we are producing six pilots out of those submissions. We\u2019ll see how many series we actually produce.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key lesson learned, he noted, is that the whole ecosystem is learning to tell stories in a new way. \u201cWe want the edginess and production quality of a movie, but we want the engagement format of an episodic. That doesn’t exist in Asia today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amazon has also been investing in high-quality originals in both India and Japan. \u201cIn India, the theory was, we have a lot of great partners on the licensing side; what our service was lacking was premium original local content,\u201d Farrell said. The idea was to go to top Bollywood companies to make shows to fill that gap. The first was Inside Edge<\/em> and more are premiering in the coming months. \u201cThat was almost like trying to create a new medium. It\u2019s been tough; it\u2019s tough to get actors to commit to multiple seasons\u201d and to get production schedules in place in order to deliver season after season. The payoff, however, is worth it, he said.<\/p>\n In Japan, the success has been on the variety side, especially with content featuring top comedians.<\/p>\n Britt said that at iflix, \u201cWe went to the creative community and said, Go crazy.\u201d The platform has also been experimenting significantly with live shows, notably the simulcast of the Mayweather\/McGregor bout, a recent eSports competition and streaming a concert with Korean boy band BTS. \u201cEvery single one of those tests has broken records,\u201d he said, added that iflix will \u201ckeep learning and keep pushing the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n Viu is working with local talent in many markets, such as Indonesia, where it held a festival focused on female storytellers. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to discover talent,” Lee said. “The fresh content complements the wide range of pan-regional content we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilby asked the panelists about the efforts that haven\u2019t worked well. Farrell at Amazon mentioned original documentaries out of Japan. \u201cIt\u2019s expensive to make super high-quality documentaries. We still look for documentaries, but licensing is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Britt said there\u2019s a big shift happening in the industry when it comes to the value of licensed content versus impactful originals. \u201cScaling original productions is hard.\u201d He tipped his hat to Netflix for its pace in delivering original shows of a consistently high quality.<\/p>\n He mentioned an iflix original stand-up comedy series out of Malaysia, which did very well. The platform wants to expand it to 12 other markets, \u201cThat\u2019s probably a 12-month exercise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another challenge with originals was discussed by HOOQ\u2019s Bithos. \u201cThe writers and to a certain extent the directors, they are so ingrained in what they have been briefed on in the past. It\u2019s either a two-hour movie that has a happy ending or 100 episodes shot at a very, very low budget that doesn\u2019t stray from the mainstream. There\u2019s this huge gap in between. We say, We want to do something interesting that lasts several seasons and has a story arc and complex characters. We find it way harder than expected to get that output. The iterations that we\u2019re now having to go through on scripts and concepts is a lot more [than we were expecting.]\u201d<\/p>\n Iflix\u2019s Britt brought up a point about the shifting barriers between original and commissioned in the global content landscape. \u201cThe differentiation between direct commissioning versus genuine originals versus exclusive first-run licensing and wrapping your brand around it and calling it original or just third-party licensing\u2014that whole world is getting very messy. It confuses us in terms of how we think about our commissioning strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n The conversation then moved to licensed content and what role that plays on services, especially as rights owners, including Disney, Fox and HBO, roll out their own streaming platforms.<\/p>\n Licensed content WILL\u00a0remain significant for HOOQ, Bithos said, given the challenges of scaling up originals.<\/p>\n For Britt, it\u2019s less about licensed versus original and more about Western versus local.<\/p>\n Viu\u2019s Lee, meanwhile, said it\u2019s about what\u2019s widely available in the market versus what isn\u2019t. \u201cWe won\u2019t go into English-language original content, because there\u2019s already so much of it available.\u201d<\/p>\n Farrell said that at Amazon, \u201clicensed content is one of the more straightforward decisions we make every day. People love Mission Impossible <\/em>and Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/em> and Salman Khan movies. The vast majority will [continue to] be licensed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOOQ\u2019s Peter Bithos, iflix\u2019s Mark Britt, Viu\u2019s Janice Lee and Amazon\u2019s James Farrell discussed their\u00a0acquisition and commissioning strategies and the key to finding success in Asia in a panel at the Asia TV Forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":4628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[659],"class_list":["post-4626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-asia-tv-forum"],"yoast_head":"\n