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Jungo TV ramps up channels in Asia, biz driven “from the ground up rather than the penthouse down,” Chung says
21 September 2020
A new suite of curated specialty channels is ramping up activity in Asia, filling a gap in ad-supported digital terrestrial strategies, supporting genre-specific demands on streaming platforms, and with pay/subscription options a possibility rather than a necessity.
After a string of agreements in India, the four-year-old U.S.-based Jungo TV is powering GMA Networks’ new free-to-air digital terrestrial channel, GMA Hallypop, in the Philippines.
The Asia pop-culture channel, which carries titles such as Korean music countdown show "Music Bank" and variety show "Running Man", launched on 20 September.
Among other distribution agreements in India, Jungo has LGBTQ channel, HerePlay, with streaming service MX Player.
Jungo TV’s Asia office is headed by former NBC Universal Asia exec, Darren Distefano, who was appointed as Jungo TV’s VP for distribution and media partnerships at the beginning of the year. Distefano is based in Singapore.
In all, Jungo TV offers 20+ digital first channels. The company has acquired about 50,000 hours of content to populate its services.
The approach, says Jungo TV CEO and co-founder George Chung, is “from the ground up rather than the penthouse down”. The flexible structure custom builds channels and finds scale by, for example, marketing an Indian classical music channel as a relaxation/meditation service for viewers in, say, Kansas City.
Chung believes in “true and authentic” content curated for specific markets, with clearly defined audiences, a shared interest with local partners in the outcome, and a commercial proposition moulded to market realities.
This translates to a whole lot of ad-supported services, some pay-TV, and whatever other combo works.
Chung says Jungo TV’s timing is part of a global shift driven by tech and the ability to cater to communities gathered around specific interests.
Audiences are also more open to a broader range of content. And platforms are more wiling than they used to be to look beyond Hollywoo...
A new suite of curated specialty channels is ramping up activity in Asia, filling a gap in ad-supported digital terrestrial strategies, supporting genre-specific demands on streaming platforms, and with pay/subscription options a possibility rather than a necessity.
After a string of agreements in India, the four-year-old U.S.-based Jungo TV is powering GMA Networks’ new free-to-air digital terrestrial channel, GMA Hallypop, in the Philippines.
The Asia pop-culture channel, which carries titles such as Korean music countdown show "Music Bank" and variety show "Running Man", launched on 20 September.
Among other distribution agreements in India, Jungo has LGBTQ channel, HerePlay, with streaming service MX Player.
Jungo TV’s Asia office is headed by former NBC Universal Asia exec, Darren Distefano, who was appointed as Jungo TV’s VP for distribution and media partnerships at the beginning of the year. Distefano is based in Singapore.
In all, Jungo TV offers 20+ digital first channels. The company has acquired about 50,000 hours of content to populate its services.
The approach, says Jungo TV CEO and co-founder George Chung, is “from the ground up rather than the penthouse down”. The flexible structure custom builds channels and finds scale by, for example, marketing an Indian classical music channel as a relaxation/meditation service for viewers in, say, Kansas City.
Chung believes in “true and authentic” content curated for specific markets, with clearly defined audiences, a shared interest with local partners in the outcome, and a commercial proposition moulded to market realities.
This translates to a whole lot of ad-supported services, some pay-TV, and whatever other combo works.
Chung says Jungo TV’s timing is part of a global shift driven by tech and the ability to cater to communities gathered around specific interests.
Audiences are also more open to a broader range of content. And platforms are more wiling than they used to be to look beyond Hollywood studios for international services, he says.
Jungo TV’s original content creation budgets are modest and appropriate. “I’m not going to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars making content,” he says.
Describing Jungo as a digital media and tech company, unencumbered by legacy infrastructure and thinking, Chung highlights Jungo’s advertising network in partnership with Verizon Media. “We decided that if we were going to get into this market and succeed, we have to control our own destiny,” he says.
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