Asia is in streaming overdrive. And content owners and rights holders couldn’t be happier.

Ahead of this year’s Mip TV, which runs from 4-7 April, ContentAsia’s Malena Amzah asked programme distributors from across the genre spectrum what difference the OTT boom was making to their businesses in Asia.

All said the positive difference was significant.

“This fast-growing sector of the market has been a total game changer,” said Ganesh Rajaram, FremantleMedia International’s Singapore-based regional executive vice president, sales and distribution.

“Not only have they provided us with new business opportunities, but are also getting our shows in front of even more audiences across Asia,” Rajaram said.

High volume deals, many of which started with Chinese online platforms, were spreading to other parts of the region.

“In recent years, one of our highest volume multi-year agreements was with Youku in China, and we’re currently in negotiations for similar high volume deals with other SVOD players across the region,” Rajaram added.

Sabrina Duguet, all3media International’s executive vice president for Asia Pacific, echoed the explosion in opportunities for content.

“Firstly, the streaming platforms give us the ability to negotiate windowing and therefore maximise the exposure and revenue of our programmes,” she said.

“Secondly, the increased number of potential platform gives us chance to place programmes that perhaps wouldn’t have found a home on standard TV,” Duguet added.

This was particularly welcome, given the substantial rise in local production/content in Asia in the past few years. The trend had been squeezing acquired international content off schedules in Asia.

“Overall I believe [streaming platforms] have created a healthy competition, encouraging the channels to review their acquisition strategies,” Duguet said.

Channel operators – particularly those who own their own content – were working with long-standing traditional pay-TV carriage partners to compliment linear services with streaming options.

Companies such as Studiocanal saidcompetition among buyers for premium drama was fierce.

“High quality, event drama with well-known talent and creators has never been more in demand,” said Studiocanal’s executive vice president, sales and marketing, Katrina Neylon.

Today’s acquisitions boom was likely to be followed by a shift into original production as streaming platforms built their subscriber bases, said Keshet International Asia’s head, Gary Pudney.

Pudney added that although streaming platforms had risen quickly, their “substantial presence is already being felt as an essential part of our business”.

“We now have discussions and negotiations with streaming platforms as a matter of course, hand in hand with more traditional broadcasters,” he said.

The same went for Caracol Internacional, which had in the past partnered with players such as Viki and VuClip for Asia.

“Digital platforms have impacted significantly our content distribution worldwide,” said Maria Estrella, Caracol Internacional’s Asia sales executive.

“Nowadays, digital platforms have become a crucial way of media consumption,” she said, adding that Caracol Internacional had always considered digital platforms an important tool for its expansion plans.

Some programmers that own enough of their own content were taking the plunge with direct-to-consumer streaming services. Others were supporting traditional pay-TV platforms as they complimented linear services with streaming on-demand options.

Canadian-born global natural history brand, Love Nature, recently launched its direct-to-consumer SVOD platform, Love Nature 4K, in 32 countries, including Hong Kong. The service is available in 4K on Amazon Fire TV, Nexus Player, Philips Smart TV, Roku streaming players, Roku TV models, Apple TV and Sony Android TV and in HD on Xbox 360.

4K was a key differentiator, said Jo Parkinson, Love Nature International’s managing director.

Asia, which leads the push into 4K, “is a key growth area for us given the fact that platforms in the region are leading the way in terms of supporting 4K,” she added.

“The demand for SVOD rights continues to grow across the region and Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are leading the pack in terms of UHD capacity. Nothing looks more spectacular in 4K than natural history content and our new Love Nature SVOD service will allow us to meet the growing demand for high quality, 4K content in this category,” she said.

Scripps Networks Interactive, which operated four linear channels in Asia, was rolling out streaming options in partnership with existing pay-TV platform partners, said Leena Singarajah, head of ad sales and distribution for Scripps Networks Interactive, Asia Pacific.

“We are working closely with our affiliate partners to use our content to help them create more robust streaming platforms as a compliment to their linear offering,” she said.

At the same time, Singarajah was carefully monitoring demand for lifestyle programming from the current streaming drivers – movies, TV series and kids. “Streaming platforms are a growing market,” she said, adding: “As the need for video streaming grows, so do the numbers of options to service that need”.

Distributors said they were not only moving more product as a result of the streaming boom, they were also reshaping the way they did business.

German programmer Deutsche Welle has followed the healthy growth in sales to digital platforms with internal upgrades.

“We had to evolve our internal structures so we can deal with data that comes through,” said Deutsche Welle’s Asia representative, Mee Fung Lee, adding: “It is all good… we welcome the change”.

Published on 4 April 2016