FEATURES
Platforms: StarHub TV Anywhere
03 September 2014
3 September 2014: Analysts might not be over the moon about the short/medium term profit prospects of OTT, but there's clearly no shortage of companies in Asia willing to give multi-screen options a go. Malena Amzah spoke to 19 online/OTT platforms in the region about what they have, what they would like to have, and the biggest things they think are standing in their way. Analysts might not be over the moon about the short/medium term profit prospects of OTT, but there’s no shortage of companies in Asia willing to give multi-screen options a good go. This includes established free- and pay-TV broadcasters, who are moving lock, stock and tech barrel into non traditional delivery, leveraging the rights they own in new spaces and creating – or hoping to – original content for online services. Channels and acquisitions execs are also pushing hard for as many rights as possible, hoping to drive online viewership, engagement and revenue. What are these and their stand-alone online platform rivals most concerned about? Interviews with 19 platforms* in Asia showed that piracy is the top concern along with access to and cost of rights, and censorship, which drives users away. Priorities include presenting a simple and easy-to-use entertainment service, available everywhere with broad content choices at the right price models and designs that serve multiple user groups’ needs. Here’s what else they said...StarHub TV AnywhereStarHub TV Anywhere is Singapore telco Star- Hub’s OTT service offering streaming of linear, in-house channels, on-demand/VOD content and Red Card Sports Radio, which offers ‘live’ English Premier League match commentary, real-time match updates, live scores, team line-ups and statistics. The service is geo-blocked for Singapore."We are expanding our platform distribution with partnerships so the application is easily accessible." Lin Shu...
3 September 2014: Analysts might not be over the moon about the short/medium term profit prospects of OTT, but there's clearly no shortage of companies in Asia willing to give multi-screen options a go. Malena Amzah spoke to 19 online/OTT platforms in the region about what they have, what they would like to have, and the biggest things they think are standing in their way. Analysts might not be over the moon about the short/medium term profit prospects of OTT, but there’s no shortage of companies in Asia willing to give multi-screen options a good go. This includes established free- and pay-TV broadcasters, who are moving lock, stock and tech barrel into non traditional delivery, leveraging the rights they own in new spaces and creating – or hoping to – original content for online services. Channels and acquisitions execs are also pushing hard for as many rights as possible, hoping to drive online viewership, engagement and revenue. What are these and their stand-alone online platform rivals most concerned about? Interviews with 19 platforms* in Asia showed that piracy is the top concern along with access to and cost of rights, and censorship, which drives users away. Priorities include presenting a simple and easy-to-use entertainment service, available everywhere with broad content choices at the right price models and designs that serve multiple user groups’ needs. Here’s what else they said...StarHub TV AnywhereStarHub TV Anywhere is Singapore telco Star- Hub’s OTT service offering streaming of linear, in-house channels, on-demand/VOD content and Red Card Sports Radio, which offers ‘live’ English Premier League match commentary, real-time match updates, live scores, team line-ups and statistics. The service is geo-blocked for Singapore."We are expanding our platform distribution with partnerships so the application is easily accessible." Lin Shu Fen, Head of Entertainment and SmartLifeAvailable since June 2012 with 12 channels. Today, the service carries more than a third of the content offered through the set-top box. Targeting StarHub TV subscribers. Also seeking out new segments and customers. “This platform al- lows us to do more targeting and personalisation of service propositions”. [Lin Shu Fen]Biz/pricing models The service currently complements the main StarHub TV subscription and offers some content a la carte. Who’s driving the initiative... Lin Shu Fen, head of entertainment and SmartLifeHow many new titles are added a month? Not disclosed. Lin only says that the number of streams being delivered has more than tripled since last year “and is growing significantly monthly”. She also mentions improved quality HD streams and promises “more new service features this year that will enhance the way our customers enjoy the content”.Why did you call it StarHub TV Anywhere?“The name is simple, easy to remember and conveys the service proposition well.” [Lin Shu Fen] Take up expectations for 2014 Utilisation is expected to reach at least half of StarHub’s 535,000 subscriber base.What are you hoping to achieve? “With the proliferation of smart devices and increasingly busy lifestyles, we are seeing a fast shift in the way people consume content,” Lin says. This drives StarHub to provide not only wider choices of content, but also to improve accessibility to content across multiple platforms. She adds that StarHub is sparing no effort to ensure the experience across TV and devices is seamless and consistent. She also promised that customers can expect more in terms of the quality and experience of the content stream. One of the live streamed events has been the StarHub TVB Awards.What’s the biggest challenge? “One of the challenges is obtaining rights for OTT delivery. Another is trying to reduce the gap in the window and original format of the content offered on this platform to ensure we offer a compelling proposition. This is important for us to fight online piracy.” [Lin Shu Fen]What is the most-watched content so far?Education and sports channels. “Kids’ [content] is big simply because of the ‘digital nanny’ phenomenon. Our ‘free-to-cable’ channel, SuperSports Arena, does phenomenally well, especially for ‘live’ sporting events.” [Lin Shu Fen]How are you using social media? “We will soon announce our social sign-in service that allows users to use their social net-working logins to manage their service credentials... In addition, our second-screen app, StarHub TV Buddy, allows our customers to share their favourite programmes via Facebook. The app houses an electronic programme guide and gives users access to additional content, which complements our programming in real time. Available on Android and iOS, it serves as a content engagement platform.” [Lin Shu Fen]Priorities for the next six months... “We are expanding our platform distribution with partnerships so the application is easily accessible. Customers can expect announcements of new service features and content – on linear and on-demand – on this platform and we are already working with content providers in this area. We are also building up the a la carte content, which can be sold to anyone inSingapore and not just StarHub customers.” [Lin Shu Fen]* All information and opinion was supplied by the platforms themselves and fact checked for accuracy as far as humanly possible. ContentAsia has not road-tested all the platforms and offers no opinion on how well any of them work or what the strengths and weaknesses are from a consumer perspective.Issue Three 2014