Starz-owned streamer, Lionsgate Play, announced its multifaceted non-exclusive strategic partnership with Indonesian telco, Telkomsel, this morning, turning up the dial even more in Southeast Asia’s most-coveted video entertainment market.

The kick-off date for new services involving Lionsgate content has not been confirmed. The companies only said new data+content packs would be available “very soon”.

Phase one involves Lionsgate Play-branded content on Telkomsel’s  MaxStream, which is built along genre lines. 

A standalone Lionsgate Play direct-to-consumer app will roll out in the next few weeks, Lionsgate told ContentAsia. 

In addition, a standalone premium bundle with Telkomsel that will be sold a la carte.

Additional telco deals for Indonesia are expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

Today’s announcement in Jakarta comes about two months after Lionsgate Play publicly put Indonesia on its list of 2021 goals and at the end of a week in which domestic media mogul Hary Tanoe, furiously trying to protect his TV turf, yet again proved his capacity to attract funding.

The agreement gives Telkomsel subscribers access to franchises such as “The Hunger Games”, “The Twilight Saga”, and “Now You See Me”, along with TV series such as “Mad Men”, “Power” and “The Spanish Princess” and third-party titles such as “The Aviator” and “Babel”.

Content will be offered on Telkomsel’s Maxstream video app. 

Rohit Jain, Lionsgate’s MD of South Asia and networks in emerging Asian markets, said the partnership “is another affirmation of the enormous role that telcos are playing in shaping the digital age of content”.

Lionsgate has not yet said whether Indonesia will follow India into original production. Two original series have been greenlit for India so far.