M+E Daily

The market for premium video and content is rapidly shifting in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with a number of new over-the-top (OTT) service providers now operating in places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. To remain competitive, network service providers (NSPs) will need to rethink their business models, make operational and strategic changes and engage in new partnerships, according to Jason Chao — Vice President with Technicolor’s Connected Home division in the APAC region — during a podcast interview for journalists.

“NSPs are under enormous pressure as the consumer behaviors change and new video offerings expand. The threat of cord-cutting is very, very real, and there are examples throughout the region,” he says. “NSPs need to embrace an OTT strategy.”

Global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have entered the market recently, and they’re making big waves. But they are each approaching the market a bit differently.

“For instance, Netflix seems to favor using a partnership model, whereas Amazon Prime is more looking at going direct to the consumer,” explains Chao.

Closer to home in APAC, a lot of interesting activities are happening.

“PCCW has launched an OTT service called ‘Viu.’ Within 18 months of launching they’ve reached about 6 million active users and claim to be the dominant player in the region. A company called iFlix has started a mix of local programming and global content in Southeast Asia, and they’ve quickly expanded to non-Asian countries and also the Middle East. And HOOQ, a joint venture by Singtel, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros., has reached a million active subscribers in a partnership model with telcos. Finally, there is TVB in Hong Kong. They’ve got a treasure chest of content, of over 80,000 hours of content, and it belongs to a service called MyTVSuper started just last year,” says Chao.

Technicolor is working with NSPs across the APAC region to develop an effective response to the OTT trend.

“One of the challenges if you’re a linear pay TV operator revolves around how to transition and add services in this environment. One of the things Technicolor is doing is to develop a combination of hybrid boxes and buddy boxes. Hybrid boxes are where you’ve got the current linear programming and service providers add the OTT component to the box. That means that you can provide both experiences through one interface to the consumer. On the buddy box side, this involves a separate complimentary box that can sit beside a linear set-top box from. The buddy box can take the video in from the linear programming device, combine the OTT services and then render that on consumers’ TVs using one input. That is a very straightforward way to move into the OTT space,” Chao says.