11 Jan, 2016 – PCCW Media Group, announces the launch of Viu, its OTT multi-screen video service in Singapore, as a further step in its regional expansion.

Meanwhile, Viu has clinched a pan-regional deal with the top four Korean broadcasters – SBS, KBS, MBC and CJ E&M, giving Viu an exclusive window and rights to 95 per cent of their latest telecast dramas, as well as variety shows from South Korea. This landmark agreement is the very first time the top four Korean broadcasters ever signed a pan-regional agreement with an OTT service provider, offering their latest content with an exclusive head-start window.

Read more at Advanced Television

11 Jan, 2016 – US streaming service Hulu has signed a multi-year agreement content with Sony.

The deal gives Hulu streaming rights to series including The Shield, Party of Five, Dawson’s Creek and Damages as well Sony’s movie archives. The agreement also includes series Happy Endings, all episodes of which were recently made available on the service.

All Sony properties will be available through Hulu’s No Commercial and Limited Commercials subscription packages.

Read more at Advanced Television

8 Jan, 2016 – Time Warner Inc.’s strategy against Netflix is taking shape.

Hoping to keep viewers who are dropping cable subscriptions for online streaming services, Time Warner is negotiating to make full seasons of more shows available to pay-TV customers on demand, according to Time Warner Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill.

Time Warner’s cable networks, which include TNT and TBS, have “made it clear” to Hollywood studios that they want so-called “stacking rights,” or the ability to air full seasons of shows they buy, Averill said. Meanwhile, Time Warner’s Warner Bros. studio recently sold a new show, “Lucifer,” to 21st Century Fox Inc., that allows cable subscribers to view the entire first season on demand — the first time that Warner Bros. has granted full-season rights to a broadcast network, he said.

Read more at Bloomberg

9 Jan, 2016 – The advent of the on-demand Internet streaming Netflix in India has no doubt created waves across the country. While Netflix is available free for a one-month trial it will then charge between Rs 500 – 800 for its three packages. In what can be termed as a direct reaction to this, direct to home (DTH) provider Tata Sky has declared its Everywhere TV service free for users.

Tata Sky earlier charged users Rs 60 per month for the same service. Users can stream TV channels on the go through Everywhere TV on the official Tata Sky app. The service will feature channels subscribed by the viewers on the Tata Sky connection.

Read more at Indian Television

HONG KONG (January 7, 2016) – Turner International Asia Pacific Limited today announced the promotion of Mark Eyers to Senior Vice President. As Chief Content Officer, Eyers oversees every aspect of Turner’s Kids content business and portfolio of leading Kids brands across Asia Pacific including Cartoon Network – the No.1* international Kids Pay TV channel in the region – Boomerang, Toonami and POGO.

Based in Hong Kong, Eyers will focus on strengthening the planning process for these brands, identifying and developing fresh animation talent on local, regional and international level as well as opportunities to further develop and distribute hit properties and content franchises across the company’s multiple platforms – TV, web and mobile. He is also accountable for spearheading new channel development across the region.

Ricky Ow, President of Turner International Asia Pacific said, “Under Mark’s leadership, Turner’s Kids brands has not only dominated the genre but also expanded tremendously across the region. He has spearheaded the growth of our Kids brands across multi-platform while also leading numerous international original animation productions, including the award-winning Monster Beach and recent series Exchange Student Zero. His promotion is a timely acknowledgement of his contribution to the importance of the Kids brands to Turner’s business in this region and the confidence we have in him to further build upon it.”

Eyers first joined Turner International Asia Pacific’s creative services team in 2004 and was previously Vice President of Kids Content. In this capacity, he was responsible for the implementation of a unified programming vision across all Turner brands by integrating the original production and development unit within the programming division.

-ENDS-

*In measured markets including Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Pakistan, S. Korea, Japan. Period: November 2015 (except Japan). All Time. Monthly Reach among kids in CS homes. Target: kids 5-12 (AU), kids 4-14 (MY, TW, TH, KR, SG, IN, PK), kids 2-12 (PH), kids 4-12 (JP). Reach refers to viewing for at least 1 minute. Data source: Nielsen (MY, TW, TH, KR), OzTAM National STV (AU), Kantar Media (PH national, SG), BARC urban & rural (IN), MediaLogic (PK), Video Research October 2015 (JP).

About Turner International Asia Pacific
Turner creates and distributes award-winning brands throughout Asia Pacific. In the region, Turner runs 59 channels in 13 languages in 38 countries, including CNN International, CNNj, CNN, HLN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, POGO, Toonami, World Heritage Channel, Warner TV, Oh!K, TCM Turner Classic Movies, truTV, WB, MondoTV, TABI Channel and HBO in South Asia. Turner also manages distribution for HBO Defined and HBO Hits in India. Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company.

For more information, please contact:

Gregory Ho
Vice President – Corporate Communications and Marketing
Gregory.Ho@turner.com
Tel: + 852 3128-3536

James Moore
Director of Communications
James.Moore@turner.com
Tel: +852 3128-3720

4 Jan, 2016 – Turner is looking to turn its TV networks into one big platform for native advertising.

The cable programmer, whose channels include TBS, TNT, CNN and Cartoon Network, among others, is introducing a new native advertising unit at the Consumer Electronics Show this week with the goal of reimagining commercial breaks.

Turner will work with marketers to replace traditional commercials with pods that tell a brand story, said Dan Riess, head of content partnerships at Turner.

Read more at Ad Age

5 Jan, 2016 – GroupM, the media buying arm of WPP, has reached a deal with Fullscreen to help the advertising firm’s clients work with key social media influencers, particularly YouTube creators.

As part of the initiative, called “Playa,” GroupM and WPP clients will have first-look access to content produced by Fullscreen talent, and Fullscreen will provide the agencies with exclusive access to the company’s proprietary data and analytics tools, the companies announced Tuesday.

Read more at Wall Street Journal

6 Jan. 2015 – At CES 2016 Sony Electronics has unveiled its newest line-up of Ultra HD televisions, the XBR-X930D/XBR-X940D and the XBR-X850D series, built to support the highest standard in picture quality with HDR (High Dynamic Range) compatibility and unique backlighting technologies in an ultra-thin design.

HDR reproduces a greater dynamic range of luminosity or brightness levels, bringing greater contrast to the screen. This increased contrast reveals the subtle nuances of the image, from detailed blacks and shadows to the brightest whites and colours. With HDR compatible televisions, and Sony’s unique X-tended Dynamic Range PRO and TRILUMINOS Display technologies, viewers will enjoy higher brightness, higher contrast and more vibrant colours, resulting in more depth and detail than ever before.

Read more at Advanced Television

6 Jan, 2015 – Ooyala’s State of the Broadcast Industry Whitepaper reports that 2015 was the year that premium OTT video content moved decisively to centre stage. The shift from traditional TV continues and shift-deniers have been pushed to the curb. Broadcasters and operators have accepted OTT as a fait accompli, and the repercussions are affecting all areas of the business.

Meanwhile, consumers continue to demand change across the whole of their viewing experience ― from the content they watch, to the devices they use to watch it and the methods they choose to pay for it.

Ooyala’s 2nd annual report looks at the end-of-year broadcast landscape and what lies ahead for 2016.

Read more at Advanced Television

(January 6, 2016 – Hong Kong) Letv, a global leader in smart device technology, today announced that its next generation smartphone devices will be powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), starting with the Le Max Pro smartphone. As the world’s first tech company to announce the use of the new Snapdragon 820 processor, Letv continues to demonstrate innovative product development with the ultimate in connectivity, graphics, entertainment, mobile photography and power efficiency.

“Letv has already established itself as one of the world’s top innovators and our decision to include the Snapdragon 820 processor in these new devices demonstrates our commitment to creating and delivering the best technology available to our customers,” said Jun Liang, chief operating officer at Letv. “Once the marketplace sees the dramatic performance enhancements in our smartphones, we are confident they will not accept anything less.”

The Le Max Pro boasts a robust set of features, including Snapdragon Sense ID fingerprint technology, the mobile industry’s first comprehensive ultrasonic-based fingerprint biometric solution, providing a more secure, reliable alternative to capacitive-based fingerprint sensors. Snapdragon Sense ID fingerprint technology now includes a new liveness detection feature, helping to ensure that an actual finger is being used for biometric authentication, and making the solution even more difficult to spoof. The Le Max Pro is the first commercial device with Snapdragon Sense ID fingerprint technology and will be the first with the new liveness detection capability as well. The Le Max Pro also features Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 2.0 for up to 75% faster charging than conventional methods.

Additionally, Letv will be the first to roll out commercial devices integrating 802.11ad multi-band wireless connectivity for multi-gigabit speeds and nearly uncompressed content transfer. By offering up to 4.6 Gbps PHY and bringing bandwidth-rich 60GHz spectrum to Wi-Fi’s fold, 802.11ad will be one of the tools to address the burgeoning data demand in homes, enterprises and carrier networks. Some of the 11ad use cases include lag-free docking and screen mirroring, 4k streaming to multiple devices, near instant access to multimedia and blistering fast upload and downloads.

“We are very pleased that Letv is first to bring compelling and advanced smartphones to consumers that are powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor and feature Snapdragon Sense ID fingerprint technology. Letv is leading the charge for next-gen mobile technology and giving consumers everywhere the performance and capabilities they’ve craved,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies. “The collaboration between Qualcomm Technologies and Letv underscores the importance of 802.11ad solutions in allowing users to interact with Wi-Fi like never before, including moving content onto and off of devices in seconds, and unwiring virtual reality (VR) glasses.”

Letv’s wide array of products feature what the company calls an “ecosystem user interface,” or EUI. The Letv EUI provides a consistent user experience across all products from the brand, and is made possible in part because of the Snapdragon processors and 802.11ad solutions used across its mobile device offerings.

With an ability to move content between devices in near real-time, and with an uncompressed signal, QTI’s technologies in Letv’s ecosystem of products maximize the user-experience, as well as the display quality on beautifully designed mobile and television devices. Content can be transferred from the Snapdragon 820-supported Le Max Pro to any brand TV through Letv’s specialized 802.11ad-powered dongle for an uncompressed, instant and in real-time HDMI display.

The Le Max Pro is the latest addition to Letv’s Le Superphone family, which sold more than one million units last November.

– END –

About Letv
Founded in November 2004 by Jia Yueting, Le Holdings is committed to creating the “Letv Ecosystem,” a next-generation Internet engine that is vertically-integrated to offer an online platform complete with content, terminals and applications. Le Holdings is engaged in a rich array of businesses, spanning from Internet TV, video production and distribution, smart gadgets and large-screen applications to e-commerce and Internet-based electric vehicles. Le Holdings comprises a number of subsidiaries, including Letv.com, Leshi Zhi Xin, Le Vision Pictures, Wangjiu.com, Letv Holding, Letv Investment Management and Le Mobile. In 2014, the aggregate sales of Le Holdings amounted to approximately RMB 10 billion.

Letv.com made history on August 12, 2010 when it was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, making it the world’s first IPO company in the sector. Letv.com was also the first video company listed on China’s A-share market. Prolific as well as successful, Letv.com currently offers more than 100,000 episodes of TV dramas and over 5,000 movie titles. In addition, the site draws an estimated 250 million page views per day, 350 million users per month, 100 million daily content viewers on mobile devices, and 10 million daily content viewers on large-screen TVs.

Letv Hong Kong, as the headquarters of Asia Pacific region, was officially set up in August 2014, marking an important milestone of the company’s expansion in the overseas market. The company provides Hong Kong with an established vertically integrated ecosystem of “Platform + Content + Terminal + Application”. Letv has held 13 online flash sales in Hong Kong, with thousands of smart devices sold on every occasion. Currently, Letv Hong Kong offers various sales channels for users, including online pre-ordering services and 1,800+ offline outlets in Hong Kong and Macau. As the only entertainment platform with over 1,500 hours of 4K programs in Hong Kong, Letv has always been committed to providing rich and diverse online content including movies, dramas, variety shows and concerts to its fans.