Mumbai: 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).

Netflix senior manager of business development, (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia) Tizar Patria 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. Vision+ managing director Clarissa Tanoesoedibjo 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 maximise opportunities  was key. WeTV and iflix Indonesia country head Lesley Simpson, 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. MNC Pictures president director Titan Hermawan saw the need to create original IP  and original stories as a big opportunity for new scriptwriters. For Visinema Group founder Angga Dwimas Sasongko, what was most important was to focus on a pipeline of talent to be able to  scale content production. However, the panellists agreed with Stew founder & CEO Abid Hussain that business models needed to change for the betterment of the producers. Netflix director- public policy Southeast Asia Ruben Hattari 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 per cent 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 monetisation of premium video in the afternoon. Publica commercial director APAC Chris Mottershead 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. PubMatic director of customer success SEAK Khin Mu Yar Soe 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 MNC Group executive chairman Hary Tanoesoedibjo 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