The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) hosted over 200 delegates at its recent Indonesia in View conference that took place in Jakarta on August 31. 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.
Tizar Patria, Senior Manager of Business Development (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia) at Netflix, was optimistic about the market as it continued to grow for the platform, 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 the market to maximize 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 of MNC Pictures, saw the need to create original IP and original stories as a big opportunity for new scriptwriters. For Angga Dwimas Sasongko, Founder and Director of Visinema Group, what was most important was to focus on a pipeline of talent to be able to scale content production. However, the panelists agreed with Abid Hussain, Founder and CEO of Creative Stew, that business models needed to change for the betterment of the producers. Ruben Hattari, Director of Public Policy Southeast Asia at Netflix, said that the industry needed to work on broadening its skills base. Indonesia is also the only country without a production incentive scheme, so more is needed to be done there to support the growth of the industry.
At the same time, piracy is still a major issue in Indonesia, with AVIA’s Coalition Against Piracy’s most recent annual consumer survey 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 August 30 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 at 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 at 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 of 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 monetized 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. Lastly, when asked about rumors 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.