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...CrunchyrollCrunchyroll is a video streaming platform focusing on Japanese anime and Asian con- tent. The service is available on the Crunchy- roll website, iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, Playstation3, Playstation4, PlaystationVita, Xbox 360, AppleTV, Roku, internet-enabled TVs and set-top boxes.Launched Officially launched in 2009. Based in San Francisco, with offices in L.A. and Tokyo. Has more than 70 staffers in the U.S.Target users Anime and Asian drama fans around the world. Has more than 300,000 pre- mium global subscribers Who’s driving the initiative... Kun Gao, co-founder and CEO; Brady McCollum, COO; Vincent Shortino, EVP, Crunchyroll Japan Channels Geo-blocked Some content is geo-blocked but many of the titles are available worldwide. Why did you call it ‘Crunchyroll’? “‘Crunchyroll’ is a California roll that has been breaded with Panko and deep fried. When you bite into it, there is a ‘crunch’. We like to think that we are taking sushi, which is very traditionally Japanese, and adapting it for international tastes.” [Kun Gao] The aim “Our goal is to focus on providing all Japanese anime shows within minutes of original TV broadcast in high quality and professionally subtitled.” [Kun Gao] How it started “Originally it started as a community video platform. The community contributed a lot of content that was not accessible outside of the content’s country of origin. We realised that there was a huge demand for watching anime right after original Japanese TV broadcast, and went to Japan to meet with all the broadcasters and anime creators. They were extremely supportive of our platform, and gave us licences to stream the content. They saw Crunchyroll as a way to reach their international audiences in a way that was not possible before.” [Kun Gao] The offering Delivers more than 25,000 episodes and 15,000 hours of licensed content from Asian media producers directly to viewers translated in multiple languages within minutes of TV broadcast. Most of the offering is anime. The rest is Korean drama and live-action. Content partners include TV Tokyo, Aniplex, Nippon Television Network, MBC and KBS. Crunchyroll also offers eCommerce, news, community features and a free/premium digital manga offering. Pricing Free streaming and premium from US$6.95 a month. Premium subscription offers same-day access for simulcast titles, up to 1080p quality and no advertisements Priority for 2014 “To continue to expand Crunchyroll’s content offering and global reach”. We recently announced our partnership with Fuji TV to offer 21 Japanese drama titles. We also launched kdrama.com, a Korean drama streaming site currently available in the U.S. and Canada.” [Kun Gao] New titles About 50 simulcast titles, mostly updated every week What rights do you buy? All rights Three most-watched shows Naruto Shippuden, Attack on Titan and Bleach What would you like to add? “We are already simulcasting more than 90% of our targeted anime series broadcast in Japan. We hope to bring more Japanese drama titles and more catalogue anime titles... In-house production is definitely something on our mind and we hope to bring original content to our users in the near future. Crunchyroll currently has user-generated content under ‘pop’ section.” [Kun Gao] Social media Facebook and Twitter, managed by a dedicated social media team The biggest challenge “Delivering the same level of services to users in international regions.” [Kun Gao] The best thing that has happened to the OTT industry in Asia so far this year is... “The increasing support of legal streaming among users.” [Kun Gao] The best thing that’s happened to Crunchyroll in Asia this year... “We are excited to exclusively bring Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure to audiences worldwide outside Japan.” [Kun Gao] What do you think will have the most impact on the OTT industry in Asia in 2014? “The proliferation of smartphones and tablets will indeed facilitate the growth of OTT industry in Asia.” [Kun Gao]* 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