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NEWS & VIEWS
March 2018
iflix streaming live
football to ASEAN fans
JOHOR BAHRU – South-east Asia
is one of the regions in the world
where you can find some of the
most vociferous and passionate
support for football, or soccer,
depending on where you hail from.
To keep up with this insatiable
appetite for football, subscription
video-on-demand (SVoD) service
iflix has announced a joint venture
with Football Malaysia LLP to bring
live streaming of local football to
a new Football Malaysia on iflix
channel.
This collaboration, according to
Mark Britt, iflix Group’s co-founder
and CEO, should be regarded not
as a traditional rights deal, but
a game changer. He explained
to APB: “We have set out to re-
envision sports entertainment for
fans. It is an enormous long-term
undertaking in resources and logis-
tics, which requires brave thinking
and visionary people to execute.
“Together, we aim to demo-
cratise game, and make football
iflix Group's Mark Britt: iflix's
collaboration with Football Malaysia
LLP to live stream local football is
more than just a traditional rights
deal — it is a game changer.
available for the first time to fans,
regardless of their geographical
locations or financial status, and
reconnect Malaysians throughout
the country with one of their great
loves — football.”
The collaboration with Football
Malaysia LLP comes on the heels of
a similar deal in Indonesia last year,
where iflix is working with free-to-
air broadcaster tvOne to stream live
local football.
And perhaps this is just the
beginning, as Britt believes that
the rise of the Internet, along with
mobile device adoption, has led
to a “huge shift” in consumer be-
haviour. “Over the next few years,
we will see unparalleled growth
in media streaming, and by 2020,
75% of all mobile data traffic will be
video,” he added. “What this trans-
lates to is that every one of those
millions of smartphones can be,
and will be used as a personal TV
set for people to watch whatever
entertainment they want.”
Arguably, live sports will be
the jewel in the crown, particularly
when the big boys circle. Amazon
reportedly is ready to disrupt the
traditional pay-TV ecosystem of
sports by bidding for the rights to
stream the wildly popular English
Premier League — alongside Face-
book.
S Korea a ‘pioneer’ in 4K/UHD broadcasting
1
8
initially in the Seoul Metropoli-
tan area last year, South Korean
broadcasters have been expanding
the 4K/UHD content market both
locally and globally. Lee Sang-Gyu,
senior deputy director of engineer-
ing, research centre, MBC, added:
“South Korea’s terrestrial 4K/UHD
broadcast is a pioneer in the media
industry, providing not only high-
quality and high-definition broad-
casting service, but also transmit-
ting various services merging 4K/
UHD broadcasting with other
mobile HD-quality broadcasting.
“Moreover, there have been
enquiries on South Korea’s 4K/
UHD TV broadcasting from other
Asia-Pacific countries, and we are
ready to support should there be
requests from other Asia countries
on launching 4K/UHD broadcast-
ing.”
During the Winter Olympic
Games held last month in Pyeong-
Chang, South Korea, 4K/UHD
broadcast was further expanded to
five other regions in South Korea,
said Dr Amal Punchihewa, director,
technology and innovation, Asia-
Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).
Asia-Pacific
Broadcasting
Union’ Dr Amal
Punchihewa:
South Korea will
progressively
increase native 4K/
UHD delivery by
5% annually, and reach nationwide
4K/UHD coverage by 2027.
TIVIVA is a terrestrial 4K/UHD
interactive service jointly launched
by three South Korean broadcasters
— KBS, MBC and SBS — alongside LG
Electronics and the Allied Platform.
Moving for ward, Dr Amal
added that South Korea will pro-
gressively increase native 4K/UHD
delivery by 5% annually, and reach
nationwide 4K/UHD coverage by
2027.
Another terrestrial broadcaster
who has successfully launched a
4K/UHD channel is Vietnam Digital
Television (VTC). Calling the launch
a “big change” in Vietnam’s TV set
market, Phan Tien Dung, CTO of
VTC, revealed that the network is
planning to produce 4K/UHD con-
tent in 2018 for both its terrestrial
TV channel and online platform.
He continued: “VTC TV station
is planning to launch a VTCNow
app across platforms such as iOS
VTC’s Phan
Tien Dung:
“VTC TV station
is planning
to launch
a VTCNow
app across
platforms such
as iOS and
Android.”
and Android. Like the South Korean
broadcasters’ collaboration with
LG Electronics, VTC is also looking
forward to working with smart TV
sets manufacturers so that we are
able to interact with viewers via
the a