INDONESIA REMAINS A MARKET TO WATCH AS LOCAL PLAYERS FOCUS ON GROWTH, LOCALISATION AND EXPANSION BEYOND ITS SHORES

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) hosted over 200 delegates at its recent Indonesia in View conference that took place in Jakarta on 31 August. 

The conference opened with industry leaders from across the TV and streaming space sharing their views on the state of TV and video in Indonesia, where total video industry revenues are expected to rise from US$2.5 billion in 2023 to reach US$3.7 billion by 2028, according to the latest research by Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Tizar Patria, Senior Manager of Business Development, (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia), Netflix, was optimistic about the market as it continued to grow for Netflix, with a focus on content that works for the market coupled with a quality experience for consumers. Clarissa Tanoesoedibjo, Managing Director of Vision+, added that an ecosystem was needed that reinforced all other parts, from pay TV to free to air and streaming, and that finding strategic partners in market to maximise opportunities was key. Lesley Simpson, Country Head, WeTV and iflix Indonesia, also concurred that growth in OTT is here and can be achieved through strategic partnerships.

With Indonesia representing Southeast Asia’s largest video content market, the battle for content remains fierce. Titan Hermawan, President Director, MNC Pictures, saw the need to create original IP and original stories as a big opportunity for new scriptwriters. For Angga Dwimas Sasongko, Founder, Director, Visinema Group, what was most important was to focus on a pipeline of talent to be able to scale content production. However, the panellists agreed with Abid Hussain, Founder & CEO, Creative Stew, that business models needed to change for the betterment of the producers. Ruben Hattari, Director, Public Policy Southeast Asia, Netflix, said that the industry needed to work on broadening its skills base. Indonesia was also the only country without a production incentive scheme so more needed to be done there to support the growth of the industry.

However, piracy was still a major issue in Indonesia, with AVIA’s Coalition Against Piracy’s most recent annual consumer surveys showing that 54% of consumers in Indonesia access pirate services, the fourth highest incidence of piracy in the region.  In a major collaborative effort towards the fight against piracy, CAP and the Video Streaming Association of Indonesia (AVISI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Jakarta on 30 August at CAP’s State of Piracy Summit which ran alongside Indonesia in View. The MOU represented a significant step forward for AVIA and AVISI in combining their resources to combat online piracy in Indonesia and protect Indonesia’s creative and media industries.

Indonesia in View shifted focus to the monetization of premium video in the afternoon. Chris Mottershead, Commercial Director APAC, Publica, said that with advertisers not planning as far ahead these days, programmatic was likely to play a bigger role in monetization. Sharing insights from other markets, Mottershead also added that FAST was a good way of bringing back consumers who dropped out of the pay ecosystem, as they could churn from OTT, go to FAST and then come back to OTT when they could afford the subscription. Khin Mu Yar Soe, Director of Customer Success SEAK, PubMatic, also said that the programmatic space will continue to grow and evolve, with a more integrated approach on both the buy side and sell side, as well as at a technology level.

The conference closed off with a keynote conversation with Hary Tanoesoedibjo, Executive Chairman, MNC Group, who outlined the next phase of his ambitious plans to shift focus to becoming primarily a content and entertainment company.  He shared his plan to combine RCTI+ and Vision+ into a super app where a two-tiered service will be offered under one brand combining FTA content which will continue to be monetised through advertising as well as a premium subscription service.  The plan was also to create a bigger ecosystem and grow the service to target all of Asia by investing in more quality content.

When asked about rumours of the sale of MNC Play, Tanoesoedibjo shared that they will come to an arrangement to sell the data infrastructure part of the business while keeping the IPTV business and continuing to bundle the services for both existing and future subscribers.

Indonesia in View is proudly sponsored by Gold Sponsors Vidio and Vision+ and Silver Sponsors A+E Networks Asia, Akamai, INVIDI, MEASAT, NAGRA VISION, Publica and PubMatic.

-ENDS-

Categorised in: AVIA News, Industry News

This post was written by AVIA PR