Tag: Streaming

Singapore – Live commerce and shoppable short video provider BeLive Technology has announced a partnership with Japanese entertainment platform mysta, aimed at offering interactive live streaming capabilities to artists so that they can audition and showcase their talents.

The new solution, powered by BeLive Technology means users can stream interactive auditions at both a local and nationwide level, offering participants real-time engagement and feedback. While it is possible to produce videos directly from mysta’s existing platform, this new solution goes beyond that, by supporting live streaming and immediate online interaction. 

Furthermore, BeLive Technology and mysta plan to jointly add new live video capabilities to their existing portfolio for the Japanese market in the future.

Kenneth Tan, CEO of BeLive Technology, said, “We are excited to partner with mysta and power video-first engagement for Singaporean audiences. Under Morikawa-san and Takahashi-san’s leadership, mysta has demonstrated a strong commitment to innovation and elevating the entertainment industry. We are delighted to advance the adoption of live video in Singapore with mysta.”

Meanwhile, Akihito Takahashi, CEO and president of mysta, commented, “We are delighted to partner with BeLive Technology, a leader in live streaming solutions. By harnessing BeLive Technology’s expertise, we can enhance the live streaming experience on the mysta platform, enabling content creators and aspiring talents to connect with their fans and unlock new opportunities.”

The new partnership expands on BeLive Technology’s growing number of clients, including Grab, Shopback, and Revieve.

Seoul, South Korea – Popular streaming platform Netflix has announced that it has pledged US$2.5b in investment to South Korea’s entertainment scene, including the creation of films, series, and other unscripted shows for the next four years.

The announcement was made following a meeting with Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol following the latter’s ongoing state trip in the United States.

According to Sarandos, said investment is twice the company had previously pledged in the Korean market since they started service in Korea in 2016.

“We were able to make this decision because we have great confidence that the Korean creative industry will continue to tell great stories. We were also inspired by the President’s love and strong support for the Korean entertainment industry and fueling the Korean wave,” he said.

Sarandos also added that with the partnership, they will continue to grow with the local industry while sharing the joy of entertainment with Korean storytellers to their fans around the world.

“I have no doubt our investment will strengthen our long-term partnership with Korea and Korea’s creative ecosystem. We are deepening our partnership with the Korean creative industry, which has produced global hits such as ‘Squid Game’, ‘The Glory’, and ‘Physical:100’,” he concluded.

Singapore – Global audio streaming services platform Spotify has announced new personalised and curated experiences to observe the holy month of Ramadan. They include Ramadan-centric music, podcasts, and talk content dedicated to families and communities celebrating the holy season.

Listeners can also find personalised content on the “Your Ramadan 2023” playlist and see the music and talk content that is trending in their respective countries, and podcasters are constantly developing and publishing new Ramadan-related episodes.

Previously, Spotify’s editorial teams had curated playlists, podcasts, and talk content for their users during Ramadan. Through this new announcement, Spotify aims to spotlight content that changes each day, creating personalised playlists with songs picked just for listeners, and highlighting trending content that people are listening to in their region.

Moreover, the platform is aiming at making readings from the Quran easily accessible, and listeners can also find exclusive clips and greetings from their favourite artists and celebrities wishing them a blessed Ramadan.

For Gautam Talwar, managing director for Spotify Asia-Pacific, they are proud of delivering this new Ramaden-centric experience to their listeners during this holy month of observance.

“We’re designing an experience on the platform that allows our listeners to take a more active role in discoverability as well as to foster more meaningful connections with artists and podcasters they love on Spotify,” Talwar said.

Meanwhile, Rhea Chedid, senior podcast manager at Spotify, commented that they are now seeing more and more podcasters release series that are the ultimate companions to everyone observing Ramadan.

“Everything from shows about cooking and the history of Ramadan traditions and Islam, to audio scripted series that entertain and podcasts that review your favourite Ramadan television series, we are really witnessing creators think deeply about how they can better the lives of listeners through audio during this time,” Chedid said.

Sydney, Australia – Independent omnichannel sell-side advertising platform Magnite has announced the launch of its singular supply side platform (SSP) Magnite Streaming, which combines technology from the Magnite CTV and SpotX platforms.

Magnite Streaming empowers media owners to maximise the value of their assets holistically across live and VOD inventory, CTV and OTT environments, and addressable linear, while gaining insights to more efficiently and effectively drive their businesses. 

Some of its CTV and OTT clients include Nine, TVNZ, Emtek Digital and Samsung Ads. Magnite Streaming also provides advertisers with unparalleled access to CTV and OTT inventory, audience targeting capabilities and real-time reporting.

The SSP’s features include comprehensive seller deal management capabilities to monetise all types of long-form video content, inventory curation tools purpose-built for video such as advanced podding, frequency capping and reserved/upfront inventory management, and multi-faceted audience activation features including seller defined audiences, third-party data integrations, and secure data matching, amongst others.

Juliette Stead, head of JAPAC at Magnite, commented, “Magnite’s combined expertise across all digital video formats makes us the strongest omnichannel technology provider for premium publishers to count on. Our experienced team is able to effectively address the diverse opportunities and challenges that arise in video advertising, having executed many exciting streaming video campaigns in partnership with leading broadcasters and streaming publishers throughout JAPAC, such as Nine, TVNZ, Emtek Digital and Samsung Ads.” 

She added, “Through Magnite Streaming, we’re reinforcing our commitment to address the unique needs of our clients and helping set them up for long term success to propel the progression of ad-supported CTV and OTT.”

The recent SSP launch comes after the recent news of Magnite’s global, two-year expanded partnership with Disney Advertising.

Manila, Philippines – Disney+, the subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service under The Walt Disney Company, is finally coming to the Philippines on November 17.

Disney+ coming to the Philippines comes after a year of the platform announcing its added expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

The platform first appeared in APAC through its ANZ launch in November 2019, followed by the Indian launch in April 2020 through Disney Star’s Indian SOV Hotstar. It then launched in Japan via a deal with NTT Docomo in June 2020, in Indonesia in September 2020.

In 2021, Disney+ launched in Singapore (February 2021), Malaysia and Thailand (June 2021), as well as the countries of South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in November 2021. Meanwhile, launch in Vietnam is slated for early 2023.

The Philippine launch also comes months after Disney+ has announced an adtech deal with The Trade Desk in its move to offer ad-supported plans for its subscriptions in the future.

Singapore – Popular streaming platform Netflix is finally rolling out its ad-supported plan on November 3 this year, starting off with a price of US$6.99 a month, three dollars less than the typical US$9.99 a month subscription plan. 

The ad-supported plan will first roll out in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Through the new plan, users will be presented with a much smaller library of movies and series, and will have on average 4-5 minutes of ads per hour, ranging from 15 to 30 seconds each. Users will not be able to download their favourite shows for offline viewing.

In order to roll out their ad-supported plan, Netflix has partnered with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to verify the viewability and traffic validity of their ads starting in Q1 2023. Ads can be specifically targeted by the geographical location of the viewer and the genre they are watching.

Mark Zagorski, CEO, DoubleVerify, said, “Over the past decade, the team at Netflix has done a tremendous job building one of the most popular streaming services in the world. As we continue to expand our coverage across premium video and CTV environments, DV is thrilled to extend our third-party verification solutions across their platform, ensuring campaigns meet key quality criteria while maximizing performance and outcomes for advertisers”.

Meanwhile, Lisa Utzschneider, CEO at IAS, commented, “We are excited to partner with Netflix as they introduce their much-anticipated ad-supported tier that will dramatically increase the global supply of CTV advertising inventory. IAS provides marketers with the tools necessary to monitor the quality of their media buys as they expand their CTV inventory. We look forward to offering essential coverage to brands and the ability to purchase ads on the Netflix platform with confidence.”

It should be recalled that Netflix tapped Microsoft as its adtech partner following their interest to launch an ad-supported plan.

“While it’s still very early days, we’re pleased with the interest from both consumers and the advertising community — and couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. As we learn from and improve the experience, we expect to launch in more countries over time,” Netflix said in a statement.

Netflix’s launch of the ad-supported plan comes after six months of their interest to launch said offering. The platform has been losing performance this year, resulting in a massive layoff and slow growth.

Singapore – Storyteller platform Viddsee is expanding its IP incubator Viddsee Labs in Asia-Pacific following several deals with filmmakers in the region to develop original titles for the platform. Interestingly, South Korean filmmaker Doyeon Noh is one of those who signed the deal.

The regional expansion of Viddsee Labs comes after the success of its first two ‘Shorts to Series’ projects in Singapore with ‘The Lying Theory’ and ‘Home Is Where the Heart Is’.

Viddsee Labs will work with a diverse group of storytellers from South Korea, Hong Kong/Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines with Indonesia, making up most of the slate with six projects. 

Other titles from the ‘Shorts to Series’ project include Indonesian short horror film ‘Stratagem’, Indonesian social commentary film ‘In The Middle of Blackhole’, Indonesian comedy film ‘Opor-Operan’, Filipino post-apocalyptic film ‘LOLA’, Malaysian post-apocalyptic film ‘Hawa’, Singaporean film ‘How To Bury a Dead Cat’, Singaporean original series ‘The Multiverse At 13 Hill Ave’, Indonesian tragic comedy film ‘Antar Ibu Pulan’, Malaysian film ‘Longhouse Chronicles’, and a film adaptation of the book ‘Fallen Butterflies’.

As an IP incubator, Viddsee Labs helps facilitate the growth of Asian storytelling by identifying and developing talent and testbedded IPs. Its long-term goal is to support the region’s democratisation efforts of the creator economy by disrupting how stories and talents are discovered and developed; to bring more authentic Asian stories to bigger audiences.

Derek Tan, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Viddsee, said, “We recognise talent and IPs are key aspects of our storyteller community, which encouraged Viddsee Labs to tap upon its existing regional footprint to develop these diverse range of projects. Moving forward, we hope that this first look deal will help to further support Asian filmmaking talents by enabling entertainment partners to discover the next generation of storytellers with us.”

Manila, Philippines – Local live-streaming platform Kumu has announced a collaborative partnership with Huawei Ads through the platform’s ad agency AVOW to enhance user experience by improving advertising on the platform.

In this campaign, AVOW made use of the various ad solutions offered such as AppGallery, Petal Search and display ads to balance out their ad placements to generate the best results. 

Additionally, incorporating HUAWEI Ads multiple targeting options such as location, demographics and user behaviour into Kumu’s ad strategy brought about greater brand exposure to a diverse audience base. These features collectively amplified Kumu’s presence and audience conversion rates.

Furthermore, HUAWEI Ads Data Management Platform (DMP) provided Kumu with insights on the campaign performance through a comprehensive breakdown of key metrics. This information allows Kumu to make targeted improvements that will optimise their future ad strategies, with the help of AVOW.

Alex Tshering, chief growth officer at Kumu, said, “Thanks to the delivery of premium advertisements on HUAWEI Ads, Kumu has grown to be one of the highest grossing applications in the markets. Our partnership with HUAWEI Ads have helped us to generate leads far greater than our initial campaign goals.”

Based on activity data gathered from algorithms across all Huawei devices, HUAWEI Ads identified and recommended potential audiences who fit Kumu’s target profile, which ultimately helped them broaden their target audience and user base. In addition to growing Kumu’s user base and maximising its ad performance, the algorithm detects and filters out fraudulent inventory, effectively countering the issue of inflated ad performance metrics.

Meanwhile, Rei Xiao, director of mobile ecosystem business growth at Huawei Asia Pacific Region, commented, “Our partnership with Kumu highlights our commitment to delivering high quality ads that drive user growth and engagement. We have dedicated teams that work closely with our clients to get the best returns on their investment. We greatly look forward to deepening our strong partnership with Kumu, and to continue working as one team to meet their business objectives.”

Singapore – Streaming giants Netflix and Disney+ are going head-to-head with their ad-supported subscriptions this year by announcing its latest adtech tie-ups. Disney+ has tied up with The Trade Desk while Netflix has tied up with Microsoft.

Both streaming platforms previously operate on an ad-free subscription basis, but have shifted to these ad-supported ones following competition and expansion to other regions, including Asia-Pacific. Disney+ had announced its intention to do so by late this year, and Netflix as well after reporting substantial loss in subscriptions in 2021.

In the tie-up between Disney Advertising and The Trade Desk, advertisers can access Disney’s portfolio of premium supply, rooted in secure data collaboration and powered by automation through Disney’s Clean Room technology.

In addition, said agreement will enable a first-of-its kind integration between Disney’s proprietary ‘Audience Graph’ and the open-source identity framework, Unified ID 2.0, within a secure environment. As a result, buyers will be able to discover more addressable, biddable inventory across the Disney portfolio, all validated by Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph.

Rita Ferro, president for advertising sales at Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said, “Disney Advertising had a bold vision backed by proven results from the start, and we’re thrilled to continue to deliver on our commitment to power greater automation and addressability for our customers through this expanded deal with The Trade Desk.”

She added, “We have spent years investing in our data and technology strategy to create innovative solutions for advertisers to engage their audiences with greater precision and accuracy in a privacy-focused way. This first-to-market capability sets the stage to empower access to the Disney portfolio, validated by powerful audience insights, in a way that’s automated and accessible.”

Meanwhile, Tim Sims, chief revenue officer at The Trade Desk, commented, “With this agreement, Disney and The Trade Desk are pioneering a new approach to audience addressability in a post-cookie environment. By creating interoperability between Unified ID 2.0 and Disney’s Audience Graph, we are unlocking the opportunity for our customers to activate their first-party data at scale programmatically, against some of the world’s most premium content, across all channels. As a result, advertisers will be able to deliver relevant advertising, while ensuring consumers have more control of their own privacy.”

On the other hand, the partnership between Netflix and Microsoft is that it allows marketers to look to Microsoft for their advertising needs and will have access to the Netflix audience and premium connected TV inventory. All ads served on Netflix will be exclusively available through the Microsoft platform.

Greg Peters, COO at Netflix, said, “Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we together build a new ad-supported offering. More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members.”

He added, “It’s very early days and we have much to work through. But our long-term goal is clear: More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers. We’re excited to work with Microsoft as we bring this new service to life.”

United States – Global streaming giant Netflix has announced its second wave of layoffs amidst its weak performance this year. This new wave of layoffs included 300 staffers–the majority of which are from the US and the rest are from other countries.

Netflix had already laid off around 150 employees in May after reporting the platform lost around 200,000 subscribers in its most recent quarter.

“While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth,” Netflix told Reuters in an exclusive statement.

In another report from Reuters, Netflix said that they are now in talks with several companies for advertising partnerships, including reportedly with Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google; and with Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal for marketing tie-ups.

“We’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say ‘hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads’,” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO at Netflix, said during the recently-concluded Cannes Lions 2022.

Netflix’s move into ad-supported subscription stems from their first quarter 2022 earnings call in April this year, where they reported the company’s slow growth.

“Our revenue growth has slowed considerably as our results and forecast [show]. Streaming is winning over linear, as we predicted, and Netflix titles are very popular globally. However, our relatively high household penetration – when including the large number of households sharing accounts – combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds,” the company said in its letter to shareholders.

During the earnings call, Wilmot Reed Hastings, co-CEO at Netflix revealed that one way to increase the price spread is advertising on low-end plans and to have lower prices with advertising. This is despite his reluctance to deal with advertising complexities.

“I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense. So that’s something we’re looking at now,” Hastings said.