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...VTV PlusVTV Plus is an over-the-top (OTT) and second-screen TV application allowing users to watch TV content on multiple devices, including Android-, iOS-, window- and web-based devices. The aim is also to offer viewers interactivity over some of the live TV shows on VTV Plus.Target users VTV Plus mostly targets youth and white-collar workers. What is the average daily viewing time? One hour Owned by Vietnam Television Cable Corporation and technology partner Medianet Corporation Is the service geo-blocked? Most of the in-house content is available globallyWhy did you call it VTV Plus? “We called it VTV Plus because we can bring to the online audience more than just online TV, in terms of the content and the user experience. It is more than just a TV.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien, director of VTV Digital] Launched Preparation took about six months and the platform officially launched in January 2013. What was your aim in creating VTV Plus? “Our aim is to personalise and improve TV user experiences. Moreover the internet infrastructure and the mobile market in Vietnam now are better and stronger, enabling our product to be available any time, any where and on any device.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien]The offering 70 TV channels, including 40 VTV- branded channels. VTV Plus currently offers live streaming TV channels such as news, entertainment, sports and education channels. International channels include several digital Russian and Korean channels. The video-on-demand service will be available soon. Subscription/pay-per-view rates Subscription is free for all VTV-branded TV channels and a list of Vietnamese in-house channels. Users pay US$2 a month for a premium subscription package to watch all 70 channels.Three most-watched genres News, films and sports/ football channelsWhat would you like to add? “We consider VTV Plus a cable TV service on-the-go. We hope to develop a new, customised, exclusive internet TV channel – maybe an entertainment or sports channel – featuring short-form content for mobile users.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien] Subscribers/registered users Over three million subscribers after one and a half years in operationTake-up forecast by the end of 2014 Four million subscribers Is there anything that has surprised you about the way people are using VTV Plus? “We got a lot of positive feedback from users because it is a brand new TV experience for them. They especially like to use the second-screen feature/VTV Plus for interaction with other users. There is also the time-shift viewing (12 hours). One example is the interactive feature we programmed on one of VTV6’s entertainment quiz shows called Happy Lunch. Users were happy because with VTV Plus they were able to discuss with one another and be entertained at the same time.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien] What’s the biggest challenge you are facing in 2014? Copyright/piracy issues. “We are also facing infrastructure challenges. We need to prepare a strong backend structure to withstand peak hours, where there could be 100 times the number of viewer traffic than during offpeak periods. We need to foresee technical challenges to ensure there is no interruption and the service runs perfectly.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien] The best thing that has happened to VTV Plus in Vietnam so far this year is...“There are more users using the service now not only in Vietnam but Vietnamese living around the world. VTV Plus is like their portable TV, TV on the go.” [Dr Pham Anh Chien]* 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