What is OnAir? OnAir is an OTT TV service trial launched in February 2015 in Mongolia by KhulanContent, a subsidiary of Mongol Mass Media Group, offering mostly local TV series, movies and music via Android TV, Chromecast and other internet-connected devices. The service is accessible to anyone anywhere.

How it all started Initially established on 10 July 2005 as a live streaming service of local TV channels, movie and audio content for Mongolians living abroad. The service ceased in April 2008 due to the economic crisis and the penetration of massive global streaming services such as YouTube, which also launched in 2005. Following that, the OnAir team worked on various streaming/IPTV projects including www.voodoo.mn (Entertainment Social Network) and Univision Anywhere (an extension of Univision IPTV). The OnAir team of eight members decided to relaunch the service in 2014 and took about a year to develop and launch the beta version in February 2015.

Who is driving the initiative... Amundra Amartuvshin, Chief Executive Officer; Erkhembaatar Mungungadas, Chief Technology Officer

The aim “OnAir fills the technological gap between digital content creators and end users.”

Average viewing time Approximately 20 minutes daily per user

Upgrades In the process of developing an app upgrade to include remote features on wearables (smartwatches, Apple Watch, Android Wear) and connected car supports (Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay)

Number of users Since trial, OnAir has 15,000 registered accounts.

Target audience “Mainly all internet users in Mongolia.” Mongolia had 1.9 million internet users, 1.7 million smartphone users and 127,000 IPTV subscribers in 2014 (source: Communication Regulatory Commission of Mongolia).

2015 take-up expectation 400,000 registered accounts (free accounts) and 40,000 premium subscribers

Price/plans OnAir is offered for free for all its content and services. The plan is to start a premium package for MNT5,000/US$2.60 a month for TV archives and premium content (without ads) soon. The free services will continue to include streaming of all live TV channels and select movies and videos (with ads).

The offering 40 live local TV channels, 14-day TV archives (drama, kids, documentaries), music videos and movies. Most of the offerings are local content. International titles include localised format Million Dollar Money Drop on Edutainment TV and movies A Family Portrait, Step, Be My Valentine, Dersu Uzala and Only Old Men Are Going To Battle.

New titles added monthly 50

Top shows NBA (SportBox HD channel), Korean drama Jang-Bo Ri is Here! (Edutainment TV) and Mongolian wrestling competitions (TV9).

Social media “We are on Facebook to promote our offerings, update our movements and to get feedback.”

Challenges “OnAir is technically challenged by the existing bottlenecks in server capacity and network bandwidth. We plan to upgrade our servers’ network bandwidth from 1Gbps to 10Gbps and connect to MIX (Mongolian Internet Exchange), a centralised switch for all Mongolian ISPs.”

Priorities “We will continue to improve our network bandwidth capacity and engage in P2P streaming technology to increase concurrent user connections. We’ve also just invested US$50,000 in network router and equipment upgrades to 10Gbps modules.”

What do you think is the biggest impact on the OTT industry in Asia in the next 12 months… “The biggest impact would be the penetration of Netflix into new countries especially the Chinese market.”