Compiled by Bob Jenkins
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Top 50 OTT Platforms 2015 Compiled by Bob Jenkins 1 Ricardo Seguin Guise What’s Inside... Publisher Introduction 3 Anna Carugati Regional Focus: Europe 4 Group Editorial Director Regional Focus: Asia 5 Mansha Daswani Regional Focus: Latin America 6 Editor Regional Focus: MEA 7 Genre Focus: Kids’ Programming 8 Kristin Brzoznowski Acorn TV 9 Executive Editor Amazon 11 Joanna Padovano Break Media 13 Associate Editor CinemaNow 14 Clarovideo 15 Sara Alessi Crackle 16 Associate Editor CraveTV 17 Joel Marino Crunchyroll 18 Assistant Editor CuriosityStream 19 Dailymotion 20 Bob Jenkins DramaFever 21 Special Project Editor Flimmit 22 Victor Cuevas FlixFling 23 Production & Design Director HOOQ 24 Hopster 25 Simon Weaver Hulu 26 Online Director Hulu Japan 27 Dana Mattison Icflix 28 Sales & Marketing Manager iflix 29 iQIYI 30 Alain Remise M-GO 31 Sales & Marketing Manager maxdome 32 Terry Acunzo MyVideo 33 Netflix 34 Business Affairs Manager Nolim Films 37 OzNoz 38 Pickbox 39 Pongalo 40 Presto 41 PrimeTime 42 Ruutu+ 43 Ricardo Seguin Guise shomi 44 ShowMax 45 President Sohu 46 Anna Carugati Spuul 47 Executive VP and Stan 48 Group Editorial Director Tencent 49 Toggle 50 Mansha Daswani TonTon 51 Associate Publisher and Toon Goggles 52 VP of Strategic Development Videoland 53 Vidi 54 World Screen Special Reports Viewster 55 © 2015 WSN INC. Viki 56 1123 Broadway, #1207 Vimeo 57 Vonetize 58 New York, NY 10010 Watchever 59 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Wuaki TV 60 Fax: (212) 924-6940 XiveTV 61 Youku Tudou 62 No part of this publication can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the This report is for individual use only. publisher’s authorization. Dissemination to others is strictly prohibited. For a free subscription to our newsletters, please visit 2 Subscriptions.ws Introduction The OTT business is booming across the globe, and new services are appearing every day. Netflix continues its aggressive interna - tional expansion plan, while single-country and pan-regional plat - forms are emerging as competitors to the global OTT giant. The number of global SVOD homes is forecast to reach 306 mil lion across 200 countries by 2020, a sharp increase from the 28 million reported in 2010, according to a report from Digital TV Research. The total for SVOD homes by end of 2015 is forecast at 197 million, meaning a growth of 42 million homes this year alone. In this report you’ll find profiles of 50 of the leading digital plat - forms around the world. Many, like Netflix, are broad offerings, appealing to mass audiences with a mix of movies and series, kids’ programming, docs and more. Many others are carving a space for themselves by going niche: Bollywood movies, tele novelas, preschool, documentaries, and on. There’s also plenty of variety when it comes to business mod - els: SVOD, AVOD, TVOD, etc. Dedicated SVOD services are largely paying a standard license fee. Ad-supported platforms offer revenue shares and/or license fees, depending on the content. Many of the services here are still doing large volume deals as they focus on building significant libraries for their cus - tomers. The more established players are shifting their em phasis to doing deals for high-profile individual titles, as well as dip - ping their toes into the original programming space. The platforms covered here represent just a fraction of the digital content services in operation across the globe, and as the market intensifies, expect some to succumb to competi - tion and the increasing costs associated with scoring the rights to the best content on the market. You can also expect more services to launch in the coming months as companies look to claim a share of the continually expanding base of streaming customers worldwide. Top 50 OTT Platforms 3 Acorn TV ON THE RECORD: Matthew Graham, VP, Acorn TV PROFILE: Subscription service available in the U.S. and Canada. The platform largely features British programming, but it is expanding into sourcing content from other markets. Acorn TV is a division of RLJ Enter tainment. CONTENT STRATEGY: “Acorn is known for high-quality tele - vision drama and mysteries from the U.K., but we’ve been ex panding our acquisition efforts to include other territories, like Canada and Australia, as well as other genres, such as comedy and documentary. We serve a discerning audience, so we look for programs with sophisticated writing, strong acting, and high production values. We are willing to take cre - ative risks to bring truly unique programming to North Amer - ican au diences, and we are eager to find the cutting-edge titles that will make waves with critics and audiences alike.“ Graham calls detective mysteries and dramas the “corner - stones” of its content offering, which also includes comedies and documentaries. This content comes from the “wide vari - ety of content providers, from major global distributors to in dependent producers,” with which the company works. “In addition to staples like Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders , and Doc Martin , the contemporary programs we’ve been ac quiring have been performing very strongly. A Place to Call Home , the Australian TV series from ABC starring Marta Dusseldorp has built a very enthusiastic fan base. Also from Australia, the comedy series Kath & Kim is one of our most- watched programs. Blue Rose , the crime drama from New Zealand, is another hit from the southern hemisphere. From the U.K., top performers include the mini-series Secret State , starting Gabriel Byrne, and the detective series, Vera .” He explains that having exclusive rights to the content Acorn TV airs is increasingly important, as the service has “grown to be the destination for exclusive premieres of much of the very best programming coming out of the U.K. Much of our audience values the ability to see this programming first on Acorn TV, so having those rights is key.” Original programming is also important. Graham notes that there is a slate of original programming in various stages of production and development from the company’s U.K. production arm, Top 50 OTT Platforms 9 Acorn Media Enterprises (formerly Acorn Productions). He says that over the past year, RLJ Entertainment, through Acorn Pro ductions, has co-produced and premiered the final episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Foyle’s War , as well as the brand- new Partners in Crime , which is also based on Christie’s work. Plus, Acorn TV became the first niche streamer to receive an Emmy program nomination, with this year’s outstanding televi - sion movie nomination for Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Curtain, Poirot’s Last Case , according to Graham. LICENSING TERMS: “Frequently, the SVOD rights for Acorn TV are acquired as part of a larger package of rights (physical, digital, broadcast), which are exploited by other divisions of RLJ Entertainment, our parent company. Those deals vary, but frequently include minimum guarantees and royalty provi - sions. Acorn TV does occasionally acquire only the SVOD rights to titles, in which case our standard approach has been a license fee.“ CONTACTS: Purchase the full report for contact information for AcornTV and 49 other platforms. Top 50 OTT Platforms 10.