Indonesian streaming platform Vidio moves into 2023 with at least three content superpowers, led by sports and original premium production. Managing director Monika Rudijono talks about hopes and priorities. 
 

In the past few months, Indonesian streaming platform Vidio has smashed one viewing record after another with original productions about everything, from mid-life crises in "Suami-Suami Masa Kini", a comedy from MVP Pictures about four middle-aged men, teen investigative drama "My Nerd Girl" and YA romance "Married with Senior" from Screenplay Films, to blockbuster sports properties like the Premiere League. There are also Nia Dinata’s 18+-rated satire, "Suka Duka Berduka", rooted in Indonesian upper-middle class’ obsession with status and wealth, and the Wattpad-based, "The Sexy Doctor is Mine", about two girls vying for the attentions of, what else, a sexy doctor, which drew more than two million viewers in the 14 days after its August 2022 release... plus a slew of others as Vidio outpaces, outraces and outperforms rivals itching for a piece of Indonesia’s streaming action. 

If competition has driven up quality in Indonesia, the biggest impact is on viewers, who have become spoiled for choice. “There are so many different OTTs in the market now and there’s something for everyone, so to speak,” says Vidio managing director, Monika Rudijono. “But that is also exactly what keeps us on our toes.” 

Vidio is Indonesia’s most aggressive commissioner of original premium series, in addition to tapping the content ecosystem of the broader Emtek/SCM empire, which includes two of the country’s largest mass-market free-TV broadcast channels – SCTV and Indosiar. This provides Vidio with current content as well as a vast library of new and longer-tail shows, including films and sinetron that, for all the boxes it doesn’t tick for premium series, retain massive reach and remain well-loved. Vidio also licenses international content from Hollywood, Korea, Bollywood and elsewhere. Gaming is another content pillar.  

For the year to end 2022, Vidio will have produced something like 37 originals, with plans for more in 2023. Rudijono credits that volume in large part to the way Vidio structures its production network, including investments in production houses such as Screenplay Films, Base Entertainment and Sinemart. All produce for Vidio as well as for others. 

“Our joint ventures with production houses in Indonesia are among our competitive advantages,” Rudijono told delegates during her 
ContentAsia Summit 2022 opening keynote. 

“In Indonesia, the pool for filmmakers, for talent, for creative people is limited. So, joint ventures with some of these production houses helps us do a few things. The first is to secure our production flow and volume. It also gives us, to a certain degree, first choice in terms of creative ideas. At the same time, joint ventures helps us to manage our costs better. So, all in all, a combination of being able to get the stories, the production flow, the creative talent as well as competitive advantage in terms of costing really helps us to propel our original productions. Without these joint ventures, it would be impossible for us, for example, to produce more than 30 titles in a year.” 

Vidio works with Indonesia’s top creators, including director Tommy Dewo, who won Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme in the 2021 ContentAsia Awards for "Serigala Terakhir" from Screenplay Productions, writer/director Gina S. Noer, directors Pritagita Arianegara, Ody C Harahap, Monty Tiwa, Kutz Agus and Hadrah Daeng Ratu, among others. 

In the relatively short time from 2019 that Vidio has committed to originals and notwithstanding the impact of Covid, the platform has expanded beyond its focus on tried-and-tested IP, which involved partnering, for instance, with story-telling platform Wattpad and adapting popular film IP into TV series. “These brought us much success,” Rudijono says. The shows also helped to build a viewer and subscriber base, and, crucially, gave Vidio invaluable insights into audience habits. “We started to understand what it is that our audience wants. Now we aim to experiment more,” she adds. 

"Suami-Suami Masa Kini", produced by MVP Pictures Indonesia for Vidio, is one of the results of moving more boldly into start-from-scratch original stories. The series, written by Imam Darto and directed by Ody C. Harahap, was one of five titles nominated for Best Comedy in this year’s ContentAsia Awards. The show follows four middle-aged men – Yuda, Raka, Ical and Tobi – who have been besties since high school. Now 40, they gather for a raucous boys karaoke evening and end up stuck in an elevator. When all efforts to summon help fail, they resign themselves to a night in a cramped space waiting for the morning shift to arrive. Tired, hopeless and drunk, the four start sharing truths about the real state of their lives and relationships.  

Sky Films’ "Virgin Mom", which has a second season coming in 2023, is another of Vidio’s true originals. The romantic drama, directed by Hadrah Daeng Ratu, is about an accomplished badminton player and virgin who discovers she is pregnant, shocking her family and her community. But she has never had sex. Amanda Rawles and Ahmad Al Ghazali star. 

“These kinds of originals are something we will continue to look at while still maintaining producing series from proven IPs,” Rudijono says. 

Originals are one part of Vidio’s superpower, with its mix of local, licensed, production and sports properties. 

“Indonesians still enjoy local content more than they do international,” Rudijono says. “So this is one of our big advantages... the combination is what attracts subscribers”. 

Sports is a key differentiator. “We are the only OTT in Indonesia that offers sports in a significant way,” she adds. Rights include local leagues, NBA basketball, volleyball, F1, tennis, and, the crown jewel, the Premier League, which shifted platforms to Vidio from this year. 

Rudijono says Vidio was determined to surround its Premiere League presentation with world-class commentary and content of its own, including bringing in former England footballer Michael Owen as pundit for the Manchester United vs Liverpool match in August.

With the Premiere League we exposed ourselves to a more premium audience and we want to make sure that when we bring content that is world class that everything we do around it is also world class,” she says. “We want to make sure that fans and football lovers feel that Vidio is really serious, that we understand what they want and we understand what they need.”

In 2022 alone, Vidio’s paying subs increased from two million to 3.5 million, according to analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA). Is it possible to attribute the 75% increase to sports? Or drama? Or anything else?  

“What we have seen in the last year is that premium Vidio original production is increasingly contributing to our subscription,” Rudijono says. “In previous years, we have depended a lot on sports to bring in subscribers. And in the past, a lot of our original production served as retention rather than hook content. Starting last year and especially this year, we see that people are coming onto our platform to watch a Vidio original series. And Vidio original titles are sometimes neck and neck with sports titles, in terms of how much subscription they’re bringing into the platform. This is something that made us very, very happy.”

Published in ContentAsia's October 2022 magazine for Mip Junior/Mipcom