Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) Archives

Asia Video Industry Association Wraps Up 2024 Harnessing the Power of Advertising to Spur the Industry Forward

Between December 4-6, the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) closed off 2024 with three days of high-level meetings and conferences, covering Piracy, Policy, the annual OTT Summit alongside the advertising Upfront Showcases from leading streamers and publishers and the Annual General Meeting. The conferences brought together over 300 international and regional industry executives.

Piracy Over The Top hosted by General Manager of the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), Matthew Cheetham on 4thDecember saw a series of lively discussions with BBC Studios, beIN Sports, Meta, Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (MDTCL), NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Premier League, and TikTok, revolving around content protection, piracy trends, enforcement solutions and exclusive insights into what to expect in 2025. Key takeaways from these discussions highlighted the urgency of deeper collaboration between government, industry and intermediaries to clamp down on bad actors.

The annual AVIA Policy Roundtable held behind closed doors and under Chatham House Rules saw a very high number of regulators from all around the region engaged in conversation with industry about the challenges and opportunities both face.

The AVIA OTT Summit on 5th December this year turned to the world of advertising highlighting transformative trends and actionable insights for advertisers and media owners across the region. Kicking off the first session, Dhivya T, Lead Analyst – Head of Content & Platform Insights, Media Partners Asia (MPA), emphasized the growing shift to Connected TV (CTV) as traditional TV viewership declines, driven by its personalized, measurable appeal. CTV penetration is surging across APAC, with Japan and Korea expected to reach 80-85% active household penetration, and emerging markets like Thailand and Indonesia exceeding 50%. While user-generated content (UGC) dominates mobile platforms like YouTube and TikTok in Southeast Asia, premium streaming options like SVOD and Freemium retain significant scale. The Premium AVOD market in APAC (excluding China) is forecasted to grow at a 25% CAGR to over USD 8 billion over the next five years, with BVOD and SVOD as key drivers. Dhivya concluded by highlighting the growing opportunities in the Premium AVOD category and the undeniable dominance of YouTube and TikTok in mobile engagement.

Raj Parekh, VP & Head of Digital Sales, Mediacorp, emphasized the role of innovative and engaging ad formats in driving user engagement, a sentiment echoed by Kanika Manglik, Vice President-Investment Strategy at GroupM. Speaking on the trends to expect, Jason Barnes, Chief Revenue Officer APAC, PubMatic, highlighted ongoing market consolidation and the evolution of Connected TV (CTV) into a full-funnel solution. Kanika further noted the growing consumer preference for watching content on larger screens, underscoring the shift toward more immersive viewing experiences. Both, Anannya Paliwal, Regional Director – Digital Solutions, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific, and Sunil Naryani, President Partnerships & Product Solutions, dentsu APAC noted that the difference in production techniques between UGC and professional content may be narrowing, but the category and nature of content is likely to remain very distinct.

AI remains as one of the key trends to expect in 2025 for Jonathan Smith, SVP Product Data & Tech, GroupM and Anson Tan, Country Head – Singapore, Viu. Jonathan emphasized how generative AI is lowering barriers for smaller companies to create impactful advertisements while Anson highlighted the importance of collaboration between brands and agencies. Both Anson and Jonathan encourage advertisers to embrace experimentation and collaboration with media partners. In the other panel, Megan Reichelt, Country Manager, South East Asia, Hong Kong & Taiwan, Integral Ad Science, also foresaw a lot of close collaboration between tech parties and publishers to give confidence to advertisers while Christine Lau, Director of Yield Management, Viu, was confident that shoppable ads and deeper e-commerce integrations is expected to gain traction.

James Wildbore, SVP & GM Global Ad Sales, BBC Studios, underscored the importance of maintaining the trust of audiences through BBC Verify. As the industry is evolving with more consumers using smart TV, Jolene Sng, Head of Agency Development, Samsung Ads shared that around half of all smart TV shipments will be within APAC by 2027 and advertisers should understand their consumers to ensure effective ads on various platforms. The preference for large screen viewing experiences and the benefit of getting traditional TV advertising with a modern and cost-effective approach was once again mentioned by James Ross, CEO, Lightning International, and Bhuvnesh Kanwar, Vice President, Revenue and Head of FAST, KC Global Media. The push for standardized audience measurement metrics remains critical in the discussions around addressing the challenges in programmatic and measurements for Erin Williams, Sales Director, APAC, CNN and Yann Courqueux, VP Entertainment, StarHub Ltd.

In the closing discussion with AVIA’s CEO, Louis Boswell, on expanding content overseas, Ed Love, Head of Samsung TV Plus ANZ & South East Asia, Samsung Ads, highlighted how FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) removes cost barriers, enabling efficient cross-market distribution. Having launched with 20 channels in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand they are looking to aggressively grow this number and partnerships are key to this. Sharing insights into their plans over the next 12 months, Ed stressed that the focus will be on “local, local, and local”, leveraging FAST’s lower market entry barriers to create a compelling linear offering.

Running parallel to the OTT Summit, the Upfront Showcase spotlighted cutting-edge content and advertising opportunities from leading streaming and broadcasting publishers BBC Studios, iQIYI, Samsung Ads, StarHub and Viu. Attendees were treated to an exciting half day of insight and innovation.

At the Annual General Meeting AVIA were pleased to announce the appointment of two newly elected Board members: Debra Richards, Director – APAC Content, Studio & Production Affairs – ANZ Public Policy, Netflix and Tim Harris, Vice President Transactional Sales and Emerging Media Asia Pacific, Sony Pictures Entertainment. AVIA also wishes to express its thanks to Yoly Crisanto, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer, Globe, and Nick O’Donnell, former APAC Head of Public Policy of Netflix, for their contributions during their tenure.

Also at the AGM, AVIA paid tribute to Matt McDonald, Senior VP and GM at Sony Pictures Television. He was presented with an award for distinguished service to the Asian video industry after many years of leading initiatives from ensuring channel frequencies were not affected when 5G services were rolled out to helping manage continuity of services throughout the pandemic, and especially in the first wave of lockdowns.

Thanks to NBCUniversal and Netflix for their support for the Policy Roundtable. The OTT Summit was proudly sponsored by Gold Sponsors Irdeto, Publica and TV5MONDE; and Silver Sponsors INVIDI, Magnite, PubMatic and Shemaroo

Visit our media gallery for photos from event.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

For media enquiries and additional background information, please contact:
Charmaine Kwan | Tan Teck Wee
charmaine@avia.org | teckwee@avia.org
www.avia.org | www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia|X: @AsiaVideoIA

Asia Video Summit Returns in 2022 with a Focus on a Future of Growth and Sustainability in Asia

The annual marquee event of the Asian video industry, the Asia Video Summit (https://asiavideosummit.com), will return as a full hybrid event this year on 1-2 November 2022, with physical events in both Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as a live stream of all sessions to be made available on its interactive event platform.

The Asia Video Summit is organized by Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) with Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the Lead Sponsor. The aim of the Asia Video Summit (Summit) is to tell a holistic story of the state of the video industry, looking at all aspects of it and articulated by its decision makers, to provide its delegates with a comprehensive view of the state of the video industry today.

In the post-COVID-19 era, media and entertainment companies have been the darlings of Wall Street. This narrative has recently changed, however, and arguably irrational exuberance has given way to irrational pessimism. But is the streaming business model fundamentally flawed, or is this just a recalibration in an era of inflation and post-pandemic trauma? How do the trajectories of investment vs monetization balance each other? And where does Asia sit compared to other parts of the world? Do subscriber numbers foretell a golden period of growth in Asia that can counter negative narratives from the West?

At this year’s Summit, we will be speaking to the people who are determining the future of the video industry in Asia. Besides the State and Future of the Video Industry, we will also explore the growing role and Advance of Advertising, the technology Behind the Customer Experience, a detailed look at the role of News and Sports today and the burning topic of Environmental Sustainability.

Some of the key speakers of the Summit include:
Saugato Banerjee, Managing Director Asia, A+E Networks
– Johan Buse, Chief, Consumer Business Group, StarHub
– Kirana Chew, Deputy Director, Planning & Business Development, Strategic Content Group, True Corporation
– Vivek Couto, Executive Director, Media Partners Asia
– James Gibbons, President & Managing Director, Western Pacific, Warner Bros. Discovery
Phil Hardman, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia, BBC Studios
– Nicholas John, Vice President, Head of Sports, Astro
– Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5
– Mike Kerr, Managing Director Asia, beIN Asia Pacific
– Sidd Mantri, Head of Product – Developing Markets, Disney Streaming
– Vignesh Narayanan, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Ads
– Parminder Singh, Chief Commercial Officer & Chief Digital Officer, Mediacorp
– Jay Yang, Chief Executive Officer, TVING
– Nini Yusof, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Media Prima Television Networks

Join us in person at the Asia Video Summit 2022, where, bull or bear, optimist or pessimist, we will ask those who are making the decisions and deciding the destiny of the Asian video industry the hard questions all of us are thinking. All sessions of the Summit will also be livestreamed on the event platform. For more details of this year’s Summit programme and speakers, visit www.asiavideosummit.com

The Asia Video Summit is proudly sponsored by Gold Sponsors Brightcove, BytePlus, INVIDI, PubMatic, Tencent Cloud, TV5MONDE, Silver Sponsors AsiaSat, Broadpeak, Dolby, Edgio, Google, Gracenote, InvestHK, Irdeto, Magnite, MEASAT, Mirada, Nagra, SES, Synamedia. Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the Lead Sponsor supports the Community Outreach Programme that provides complimentary passes for local video and creative industries-related SMEs and tertiary students to participate in the virtual Summit. Complimentary in-person Mentoring Workshops will also be held on 10 November to provide insightful tips about the media industry.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

About Create Hong Kong

Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) is a dedicated office set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) in June 2009 to spearhead the development of creative industries in Hong Kong. From 1 July 2022 onwards, it is under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. Its strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia’s creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community.

For media enquiries and additional background information on Asia Video Summit 2022, please contact:

Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org |LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia |Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Disclaimer: Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organisers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.

AVIA Releases OTT Study in Singapore at its First OTT Upfront Showcase Presenting Premium Content at its Best

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has released a new research study entitled Premium OTT – Building its Rightful Place in the Digital Market, to understand the usage of different video services in Singapore and attitudes towards them. The independent research study conducted by Milieu Insight was unveiled to agencies, advertisers and brands at AVIA’s first OTT Upfront Showcase where two of the region’s top premium video services, iQIYI and Viu, presented previews and highlights of their upcoming slate of content to the audience at a closed-door event.

The research shows that Premium OTT streaming services (OTT) are clearly differentiated from videos viewed on social media or video sharing sites. OTT was highly valued by consumers in Singapore for having the highest quality content. 58% of respondents indicated that they felt premium OTT services had high quality content, compared to only 36% for social media and video sharing services. Similarly, when asked which video services they generally felt captured the highest levels of attention while watching, 49% of respondents selected OTT streaming services, compared to only 35% who selected social media and video sharing services.

Levels of engagement were also entirely different with 51% of people feeling immersed when watching OTT content as opposed to only 39% for social media & video sharing. Top emotions elicited when watching OTT were happiness and amusement whereas for social media and video sharing, the top emotion was “nothing”.

When looking at the impact of advertising, linear television remains the place where it is most noticed (76%) and ads are thought to be the highest quality (41%), although it is in social media where ads feel most intrusive (37%). Linear was again the winner when it came to prompting brand or product searches (25%) and prompting purchase (19%). Louis Boswell, CEO, AVIA, commented that this “Bodes well for the OTT industry. There is a clear link between linear television and OTT from a content perspective, and with more OTT services looking at advertising, I strongly suspect it is simply a matter of time before the effectiveness of ads on OTT matches that of linear television.”

Dinesh Ratnam, Country Manager, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, iQIYI International, commented, “AVIA’s research further cements the rise of OTT and the appreciation for the premium content on OTT platforms. As the OTT industry continues evolving and becoming more accessible, its audience is also looking for more diverse content. With the global success of shows such as iQIYI’s original costume drama Story of Yanxi Palace drawing a global audience larger than that of Game of Thrones, the rise of Asian content is also drawing in larger, more diverse audiences. We are thrilled to be a part of AVIA’s inaugural OTT Upfront Showcase in Singapore and to have the opportunity to showcase our exciting slate to advertisers and partners.”

AVIA thanks its members Magnite, PubMatic, The Trade Desk, and Xandr for supporting the OTT Upfront Showcase and the same companies plus Index Exchange for supporting the research.

A link to the research study entitled Premium OTT – Building its Rightful Place in the Digital Market can be downloaded here (https://bit.ly/3L4lrMD).

About the Premium OTT Study

The study, Premium OTT – Building its Rightful Place in the Digital Market, was conducted in Singapore by Milieu Insight Pte Ltd, with online fieldwork using Milieu Insight’s online panel. The sample size was n=1200 and was representative of the Singapore adult population aged 16+. Premium OTT Services listed in the study were as follows: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Go, iQIYI, meWATCH, Netflix, Singtel Cast, StarHub TV+, Viu and WeTV. Social Media and Video Sharing Services listed were: Daily Motion, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, Vimeo, WhatsApp and YouTube.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Manila Protection of Online Content Summit Builds Off High Hopes for Efficient and Effective Site Blocking Measures in New House Bill

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) and the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) hosted a seminar earlier today in Manila to promote the protection of online content in a country that continues to have some of the highest levels of online piracy in Asia Pacific, levels that impede economic growth and pose serious risks to consumers. AVIA, and local industry partners involved in the seminar such as Globe and Kroma, held the event to highlight the need for the revised IP Code recently presented to the House to address rampant online piracy via the implementation of efficient and effective site blocking procedures.

The seminar brought together some of the leading content industry and government players in the Philippines, including the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines’ (IPOPHL) Deputy Director General, Teodoro C. Pascua, Congressman Joey Sarte Salceda, the Film Development Council of the Philippines and representatives from Globe Telecom, Disney, NBA and Kroma. Speakers at the seminar discussed the revised IP Code, the impact of online piracy in the Philippines, including the harm posed by piracy such as malware infections, as well as looking at best practices to combat online piracy, including reviewing what measures other countries in the region have taken to address online piracy.

Matthew Cheetham, CAP’s General Manager, noted. “We know from a recent YouGov survey that the Philippines has some of the highest online piracy rates in the Asia Pacific, with more than 60% of consumers admitting they watch pirate content online.” The same survey shows that site blocking is the preferred method of reducing piracy. Added Cheetham, “More than 49% of consumers believe a government or court order for ISPs to block pirate sites would be the most effective measure to reduce piracy in the Philippines.”

However, the good news is that consumers are also being educated about piracy with more than 40% being aware of the negative impacts of piracy on the local creative industry, as well as the risks of malware infections from accessing pirate sites. Cheetham illustrated the stark reality of the consumer risks from pirate sites highlighted in their “Time to Compromise” report from earlier in the year with a video presentation showing a user being infected with fake ransomware within 30 seconds of searching for pirate Philippine movie content.

There is some hope that the revised IP Code bill, HB0799, filed in early July, will address the rampant online piracy. However, while the bill does provide the potential for the government to block sites due to copyright infringement, the procedures for doing so are not clear. Cheetham noted that “Malaysia has some of the best site blocking measures in the region and it’s no surprise that Malaysia’s online piracy rates have plummeted by 60% since the Malaysian government implemented its rolling site blocking measures in early 2020.”

“The transformation brought about by the last two years has drastically changed the ecommerce landscape and technologies in all sectors have adapted accordingly. Protection and enforcement of intellectual property especially in the creative sector will perforce, adjust and adapt as the developments in ecommerce evolve and stabilizes. Failing to do so will drastically destroy the cadence of development already began and bring more loss than gains,” said Teodoro Pascua, Deputy Director General, The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

“Revising the Philippines’ intellectual property code is urgently necessary to ensure that we protect the Philippines’ creative industry and content users. To complement regulatory efforts, Globe has been implementing its anti-piracy campaign #PlayItRight since 2017 to educate customers on how to become responsible users of online content across the film and music industries, and the areas of digital literacy and education. We also vigorously monitor, and block validated illegal piracy sites. Adding teeth to the law will further boost these initiatives,” said Yoly Crisanto, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer at Globe.

Added Ian Monsod, CEO of Kroma Entertainment, “Kroma is committed to develop world class entertainment as well as to elevate Filipino artistry and content to the world stage. We will continue to vigilantly work with industry stakeholders to uphold the IP rights protection as a backbone and path to the creator industry sustainability.”

About the Asia Video Industry Association

Korean Content Powerhouse Shaping the Entire Asian Video Landscape

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) welcomed over 200 delegates from across the region for its first ever Korean focused conference and its first in market event since 2019, with Korea in View, which took place on 30 August at the Westin Josun, Seoul.

To set the scene, AVIA CEO Louis Boswell presented key highlights from AVIA’s Korea in View 2022 Report. Ranking 10th among the world’s largest economies and 4th in Asia, South Korea had risen from one of the poorest countries in the world to a developed, high-income country in just one generation. The pay TV market continued to show growth of 2.7% per year, now dominated by IPTV, while streaming services were accelerating at breakneck speed, seeing paid subscribers increasing from 20.4% of the population in 2020 to 34.8% in 2021.

In his opening speech, keynote speaker, Vice Chairman Ahn Hyoung-hwan of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) shared that while OTT growth was an opportunity for the content industry to grow, it was also resulting in a sense of crisis for existing legacy media. Hence the KCC was preparing the Audio-Visual Media Service Act and was pushing for innovative deregulation of the existing regulations on advertising and programming.

The day spanned multiple conversations about the strength of Korean content and how that was fuelling the success of both Korean streaming platforms as well as international, with Marianne Lee, Chief of Content Acquisition and Development, Viu and Junbeom Jeon, Chief Leader, Wavve, both agreeing that this investment in local content was the key to survival. Such demand, however, was also clearly fuelling a rapid escalation in content costs and while Hyun Park, Senior Vice President, Global Division of Studio Dragon commented that from a Hollywood perspective Korea still presented great value for money, there needed to be a cap on costs before they got out of hand. He also noted, “We are definitely not at the peak of production, we are only at the beginning.”

The roles of international and Korean streaming platforms were also examined with Esther Ahn, Vice President, Streaming, Korea, Paramount, explaining the recent introduction of Paramount+ to the market in partnership with CJ-backed TVING. The partnership spanned making Paramount content available within the TVING service in Korea as well as co-producing Korean content with a view to Korean and international audiences. TVING CEO Jay Yang also talked about the desire to be able to take the best Korean content overseas and deliver it through a Korean streaming platform, although he did not believe Korean content should only be on Korean platforms. But as in the same way Korean content was on international platforms, the Paramount+ deal also saw international content on a Korean platform. Ultimately streaming platforms wanted the best content no matter its origin.

The advertising market was also seeing the traditional markets of TV, Print and Radio declining but there has been significant growth in digital. This was an opportunity that both Bong-Su Kim, Addressable TV Ad Team Leader, SK Broadband and Vijay Kunduri, Regional Vice President, OTT/CTV, APAC, PubMatic, felt needed to be exploited with the growth of ad supported VOD or streaming services, with both being confident that this space would evolve quickly in the next two years in Korea.

Rounding up the day’s sentiments, Louis Boswell highlighted the importance of the Korean market not just because of the impressive growth it had seen for video content, but because of the influence Korean content has had across the region, and also the early stages of Korean streaming platforms looking to enter other Asian markets. “It is not possible to look at the Asian video industry without looking at Korea,” added Boswell.

Korea in View is generously sponsored by Brightcove, BytePlus, Conviva, Google Cloud, Irdeto, NAGRA, Paramount and TV5Monde.

About the Asia Video Industry Association:

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) is the trade association for the video industry and satellite ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. The AVIA is the interlocutor for these industries with governments across the region, leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry.

For media enquiries and additional background, contact:

Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

The Future of Video in India is Bright, as Video Becomes Increasingly Democratized and Consumers Have It All

The Asia Video Industry Association held its third Future of Video India virtual conference to much optimism as industry leaders remained bullish on India’s long-term view, after its fifth straight quarter of economic expansion, with all round economic recovery and an economic rebound that is much broader based and across multiple sectors.

Mihir Shah, Vice President, India, Media Partners Asia, opened the conference with an outlook on India’s video market, which showed a sharp rebound in the TV advertising market, after a depressed 2020. The market grew 37% last year and stood at U$S3.8 billion now. While the broader Pay TV industry continued to see a lot of pressure, Free to Air revenues have surged, and the pandemic has resulted in the rapid adoption and consumption of Connected TV especially in the urban centres. With a Total Video Market worth US$12 billion and growing at 9% CAGR in the next 5 years to US$20, the AVOD market was also predicted to remain buoyant and tripling in the next five years, with SVOD doubling as well.

This optimism for the market continued with the keynote conversation with Sunil Rayan, Head, Disney+ Hotstar India. With the mission to making the streamer as accessible to as many people as possible, Disney+ Hotstar India had made a significant shift to an SVOD offering while maintaining their freemium ad-supported model, which continued to be much larger than SVOD. “We’ve had significant growth in the SVOD side. But India is a highly price sensitive market and AVOD gives scale so we are always trying to balance the two,” said Rayan. Their content offering had also evolved into ‘cricket plus entertainment’, with a shift both in investment and quality of entertainment that is digitally native. Rayan was also of the view that the streaming market was highly vibrant, and there was certainly room for multiple operators. However, as the ecosystem developed, the content needed to be targeted at specific audiences, and while consolidation was already happening, it will continue to evolve.

Megha Tata, Managing Director, South Asia, Warner Bros. Discovery, was also positive on the outlook for both linear TV and OTT. “There are multiple scenarios which are evolving in the country each India needs to be catered to in a different way,” said Tata. This was also not just about pricing and product but also content. “It’s not an ‘either or’ market yet, but an ‘and’ market, both can survive and will survive,” added Tata. But how the share of wallet would play out continued to be an evolution every day. Gourav Rakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, added that the holy grail was to create habit in your consumers. “Real estate on the phone is small, real estate in the mind is even smaller,” said Rakshit. Sharing her views on the road ahead, Tata also pointed out that revenue and monetization today was still coming from linear, and funding all the investment that was needed in digital. “We need to take care of the now or there is no future,” said Tata.

The future was certainly going to be made brighter with the advent of 5G, as the session’s panellists spoke about the challenges that 5G alleviated and the opportunities it presented. Manoj Gurnani, CTO & Head of Strategy, India, Nokia, shared that a new generation of technology was going to bring more capabilities and more efficiencies. With 5G bringing on fixed wireless capabilities, it was going to be a great enabler, which would lead to the enhancement of the quality of experience. Mahendra Nath Vyas, Executive Director, Planetcast Media Services, also added that while AR/VR and gaming were the future technology that would ride on the 5G networks, there was also a huge opportunity to unlock content creation in remote areas with 5G.

However, content creation in itself had also evolved with OTT. Nimisha Pandey, Chief Content Officer, Hindi Originals, ZEE5, shared that OTT had enabled the content creators and the entire ecosystem to create content for small taste clusters, with the decision making no longer based on the mass audience. The biggest challenge faced by content creators now was the need to evolve at the pace that the audience was evolving, as audiences were evolving too fast and keeping in synch with the pace was the biggest challenge. Ultimately, Pandey also believed that it all began with a great story, and it was important to give value to both passion and craft.

Avinash Kaul, CEO, Network18, Managing Director, A+E Networks TV18, summed up the optimism for the industry in his closing keynote. With video now having been democratized, consumers have never had it better. And with the online video ecosystem having opened up, funding and content had also poured in, with money coming into the ecosystem from all sources. With a greater investment in technology and data, content was also getting shaped because of analytics and there was also a new future for data driven companies to tap into funding. All of this would have led to better content all round, and even tailored content for cohorts of audiences. From a consumer’s point of view, it was now utopian. “The future of video has always been bright and will continue to shine brighter and brighter,” said Kaul.

The Future of Video India is generously supported by Bharucha & Partners, Brightcove, Google Cloud, Netflix, Synamedia and Xandr.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:

Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

Indonesia Continues to Lead the Way in Site Blocking

The Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) has been tracking traffic to sites that have been blocked in Indonesia, as well as overall traffic to pirate sites and legitimate sites. The Indonesian government started blocking illegal sites in the middle of 2019 and by April this year the total number of sites blocked in Indonesia had topped 3,500. CAP’s latest data also showed traffic to all pirate sites in Indonesia was down by 75% as of January this year compared to when tracking first started in September 2019. Encouragingly traffic to legitimate sites in Indonesia had also tripled over the same period.

The effectiveness of the blocking is backed up by the most recent YouGov consumer surveys undertaken by CAP in which more than 50% of Indonesian consumers say that they have stopped or rarely access pirate services as a result of blocking. Perhaps more importantly, 76% of Indonesian consumers say they are accessing more legal content and pirating less, and 26% say they have subscribed to legitimate sources as a result of illegal streaming sites being blocked. Blocking as an educational tool may also be evident in 95% of Indonesian consumers agreeing that online piracy does have negative consequences – the highest in the region.

Local movie producer Edwin Nazir, the Chairman of Asosiasi Produser Film Indonesia (APROFI) was greatly encouraged by the ongoing blocking efforts and the positive traffic data. “It is through collective consciousness and continuous effort that we can stand against piracy and bring the Indonesian film industry forward,” said Nazir.

Matthew Cheetham, General Manager of CAP, noted, “Indonesia is leading the way when it comes to regulatory site blocking in the Asia Pacific region, if not the world, and the Indonesian government is to be congratulated for the strong stance they have taken in this area. Local industry is clearly benefitting from the actions, as are consumers who are not only being directed towards legitimate content, but in being blocked from accessing pirate sites, they are also protected from the serious risks that previous CAP studies shows are inherent in accessing pirate sites.”

CAP’s most recent YouGov consumer surveys show that while piracy continues to be a major concern around the Asia Pacific region, particularly in Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, where 61% of consumers admit to accessing pirate services in each country, site blocking, and in particular government regulatory blocking, is having a noticeable effect in stopping consumers accessing pirated content online.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:
Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org

Singapore Court Orders Largest Block of Illegal Streaming Sites in Singapore

The Asia Video Industry Association‘s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) commends the Singapore High Court for granting an Order to block 30 illegal streaming sites and almost 150 associated domains responsible for the distribution of considerable quantities of illegally streamed content in Singapore.

The Order was obtained by CAP members, BBC Studios, Discovery Communications, LaLiga, the Premier League and TVB International against illegal streaming sites that were offering access to some of the most sought-after content including premium sports, drama and entertainment. The Order covered the greatest number of sites and domains yet sought by CAP members. Under the Order Internet Service Providers must disable access to these illegal sites and their associated domains.

The Order is part of CAP’s ongoing campaign in Singapore and around the region against illegal streaming sites. “Illegal streaming sites are simply illegal,” said CAP’s General Manager, Matthew Cheetham. “Piracy is not a victimless crime and hurts not only content providers but also consumers who can be exposed to viruses and malware when accessing illegal sites, including malware that can access a user’s sensitive data such as banking details.”

The Order comes shortly after the release of a new study commissioned by CAP, “Time to Compromise”. The study showed that a typical user visiting illegal streaming sites could be infected by ransomware, several trojan horses, and other Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) within 42 seconds on a Windows machine, and 78 seconds for an Android device. The results support the hypothesis that there is a nexus between illegal streaming sites and malware infections, where site operators generate significant revenue from allowing malicious ads to be placed on their sites. Malware authors can in turn gain access to consumer PCs and mobile devices, and all of the data held in storage, including access to banking login details and other sensitive logins.

A study on the online content viewing behaviour in Singapore, commissioned by CAP and conducted by YouGov shows that blocking sites is effective with the percentage of Singaporean consumers accessing illegal streaming sites and using Illicit Streaming Devices (ISDs) dropping in recent years. “Enforcement is key but so is consumer education,” said Cheetham. “This Order carries a dual purpose in not only blocking access to illegal content but also informing consumers that the sites are illegal.”

About the Asia Video Industry Association

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:

Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA

AVIA Appoints Matthew Cheetham as General Manager of the Coalition Against Piracy

The Asia Video Industry Association has appointed Matthew Cheetham as General Manager of the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) with immediate effect.

Over the last four years CAP has made real inroads into the systemic problems of video piracy faced by the broadcast and streaming video industry in Asia Pacific. The blocking of pirate sites is becoming more common in many markets, laws have been introduced to limit access to infringing set-top devices, constructive relationships have been forged with intermediaries to limit access to pirate services and investigations and prosecutions have been effected. And yet the problem remains the single biggest impediment to the growth of the legitimate content creation industry and ecosystem.

As the General Manager of CAP, Cheetham will take over from Aaron Herps and build on the accomplishments achieved by CAP to date, with the aim of creating a stronger and healthier environment in which the video industry can prosper.

Cheetham is a qualified lawyer specializing in intellectual property, more specifically copyright protection, with over 20 years’ experience working in Asia-Pacific (APAC) for some of the largest content producers in the world. Prior to taking up his role at CAP, Cheetham was the Premier League’s Head of Business Affairs, Asia Pacific. In this role, Cheetham opened and headed up the Premier League’s APAC office in Singapore, the Premier League’s first office outside the UK, and oversaw all enforcement, policy and outreach efforts for the Premier League in APAC.

“CAP is critically important to AVIA and the industry as a whole and I am delighted that in Matt we have such a seasoned and experienced executive taking over. Matt will bring his own ideas and energy to the role and I am confident CAP and the industry’s anti-piracy efforts will grow in strength under him,” said Louis Boswell, Chief Executive Officer, AVIA.

Prior to working for the Premier League, Cheetham spent ten years as the Motion Picture Association’s (MPA) Regional Legal Counsel and Assistant Policy Officer for APAC following which he was the Managing Director of the MPA’s New Zealand office, the New Zealand Screen Association (NZSA) that oversaw all enforcement, policy and outreach efforts for MPA member companies in New Zealand.

About the Asia Video Industry Association

For media enquiries and additional background please contact:

Charmaine Kwan
Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: charmaine@avia.org
Website: www.avia.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/asiavideoia
Twitter: @AsiaVideoIA