Unifi TV has been busy creating a furore for the upcoming Lunar New Year festivities. This past weekend, the company brought two of the hottest Hong Kong celebrities – Katy Kung and Owen Cheung – to Malaysia for its Lunar New Year kick-off for the new Ruby Plus Pack. This was done in collaboration with TVB.
Anthony SH Law (Head of Marketing & Sales, South East Asia, International Business TVB), Owen Cheung, Katy Kung, Jasmine Lee (Chief Commercial Officer, Consumer, Unifi), Andrew Pinto (Vice President, Brand and Marketing, Unifi), Ho Hock Doong (Head of Content, Unifi) launching the new Ruby Plus package at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. (Source: TM)
The new Ruby Plus pack brings the latest Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese entertainment to complement your high-speed broadband subscription. The offering comes as a part of Unifi’s digital lifestyle offerings in Unifi TV. The pack focuses on oriental entertainment bringing blockbuster series like Forensic Heros (法证先锋), Justice Sung Begins (状王之王) and more to your screens. The new Ruby Plus Pack comes with channels such as CCTV4, Celestial Movies, Now Jelli, and SETI.
TVB, one of the most successful Hong Kong broadcasters, is also making a big splash with the Ruby Plus Pack. Channels such as TVB Jade, TVB News and Xing He will be available to Unifi TV subscribers through the new pack. In addition, Unifi TV subscribers who also subscribe to the pack will be able to access the TVBAnywhere+ app. The app joins apps like Netflix, iQIYI, WeTV and Mango TV that are already available on the Unifi TV Box.
Source: Unifi TV website
Together with the Ruby Plus Pack, Unifi TV subscribers will also be able to enjoy shows from a selection of over 40 premium channels such as tvN Movies, Warner TV, Nickelodeon, AXN and Unifi Sports. Unifi TV subscribers will also be receiving the updated Unifi TV Android TV 12 box worth RM480 for free. The Ruby Plus Pack itself will be priced at RM30 a month. This includes a subscription to TVBAnywhere+.
Disney+ Hotstar has recently released the highly anticipated docuseries, BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star to celebrate and look back on the journey of the world’s biggest boy bands.
The episodic series features never-before-seen interviews, performances and other BTS (behind-the-scenes) moments with the Bangtan Boys – a name given to the collective members of BTS, including RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook.
The show has eight episodes dedicated to highlighting the band’s journey in the last 10 years. BTS fans (also known as ARMY) are taken through the highs and lows of making it in the K-Pop industry. Beyond the highly competitive trainee qualifiers and grueling training, the show captures the success of the band as it was catapulted into international fame.
The Bangtan Boys definitely leaves an impression in the series. Through the episodes, viewers embark on a journey through the BTS experience as it becomes a household name. The show also explores the thoughts of each member as they delve more into their doubts and motivations. With unexpected challenges like sudden fame, burnout, and the recent pandemic, one of the core themes centered around perseverance.
Overall, the show does a good job at giving fans an intimate look into the band’s thoughts while putting the spotlight on important milestones. However, those who are generally unfamiliar with the band or K-Pop may find it more difficult to follow along. With mentions of several band-references and references to K-Pop specific events, the docuseries is very much an ode to fans.
You can catch BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star on Disney+ Hotstar. Looking for more show recommendations? Check out our recent article on 10 movies you should not miss out on here.
iQIYI, for those unfamiliar, is one of the bigger streaming platforms in Malaysia beside Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Amazon Prime Video. The contents you can find on iQIYI, compared to the other streaming platforms, are quite unique as well. They offer mostly Asian based contents mainly from places like China, they are a China based streaming platform, after all.
iQIYI is unique not just because it offers their own Asian based contents. Now they are going into making their own localised contents for their platform. When we say localised, we mean that they are funding Malaysian production houses to create exclusive content. The shows available on iQIYI will also be available in other regions where the platform operates giving even more exposure to local production,
The first of many to come is ‘Rampas Cintaku’. It is a Bahasa Melayu title that translates to ‘Snatch My Love’ in English. It is also the first locally produced show that is produced and distributed exclusively by iQIYI in over 191 countries.
In comparison, there is one locally produced show exclusively funded by and for Netflix, but there are no plans for more yet at this conjuction. The show is also only available in select regions. Then again, there are plenty of Netflix shows and movies available in other regions that are not available locally and vice versa,
We said that ‘Rampas Cintaku’ is the first of many locally produced shows on iQIYI. That is also because iQIYI has a proper roadmap that outlines more locally produced shows to be published on their platform and to be available in over 191 countries they operate in. They have not mentioned any titles yet, but they have teased that their next locally produced show will be in partnership with FoodPanda.
The premise of more Malaysian films to be aired on an international streaming platform is quite significant. It is a sort of validation or indication that there is demand for locally produced films. It also signifies that the demand for locally produced films is not limited to the local market, but also foreign markets like China.
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
Source: iQIYI
IQIYI is not really playing guessing games when it comes to deciding where their money goes to as well. Before their exclusively produced ‘Rampas Cintaku’, iQIYI has been licensing plenty of locally produced shows with Bahasa Melayu as the spoken language. Following the increasing number and consumption pattern of the locally produced shows on iQIYI, it only makes sense for the platform to take things to the next level and start funding the local production houses to produce iQIYI exclusive shows and develop local talents even further.
Of course, there is also the aspect that iQIYI offers more creative freedom to scriptwriters in their storytelling. Taking ‘Rampas Cintaku’ as a sort of benchmark, the romance melodrama touches sensitive topics that cannot usually be shown on local television. The show touches on certain taboo topics like extramarital relationships. Obviously, the show is really made for the more mature audience group.
‘Rampas Cintaky’ is now available for viewing exclusively on iQIYI. You can either download the app from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store or access their website directly to view the series. You must also have a subscription plan to access iQIYI’s full library and ‘Rampas Cintaku’. More on ‘Rampas Cintaku’ can be found on their website.
Netflix has pretty much changed the way we consume contents. To be fair, this whole streaming business started becoming a thing when YouTube started blowing up. To be fair to that also, YouTube’s rise to popularity is contributed by the increase in interest with short form contents and independent content creators.
In some sense Netflix’s rise in popularity is a little different than YouTube’s astronomical rise. Of course, Netflix has been in the general entertainment industry for longer than we know them to be the top Over-The-Top (OTT) content streaming service known to man today. Instead of dabbling in independent film makers, Netflix dabbles is offering the big budget film and on-demand TV shows on a single platform. You can watch all that Netflix has to offer in terms of films and TV shows at any time you want and at an affordable price. It did for films what Spotify has done for music. It democratizes big budget contents that were traditionally made for a scheduled TV programme or even the theatres. It put the controls of consuming these contents right in your palms and at home.
Their disruptive business model proves to be a winner with us, the users. Netflix, currently anyway, is still the top performing content streaming platform in the world with a huge global presence. Their success in the world of end-user entertainment platform leads to plenty of “me too” products we see today like Amazon’s Prime Video, Paramount+, HBO Max, and even Disney+.
While Netflix is still the king in content streaming platforms, they want to be more than just providing watched contents. They want to dabble in interactive contents. You can see Netflix experimenting with interactive contents when you look back into Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, a kind of movie where you can decide what your ending would be. It is like playing a game, except you are doing it on your browser and it involves a live-action content.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, while a successful endeavour, is a huge undertaking though. It is time consuming to create, it is also complex to work with, which are all usually translated into the final cost of production in terms of currency. There is a cheaper way to do what Netflix wanted to do with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, create actual games and host them on Netflix itself. That is what they want to do into the future though.
Netflix’s own exclusives have inspired games like Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3. While they are not strictly games you play on the PC or even a console, they are still games that puts you in the shoes of the main characters imagined from the Netflix exclusive series, ‘Stranger Things’. Yes, we are saying that they are mobile games.
Let’s talk Netflix and gaming.
Today members in Poland can try Netflix mobile gaming on Android with two games, Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3. It’s very, very early days and we’ve got a lot of work to do in the months ahead, but this is the first step. https://t.co/yOl44PGY0r
So, Netflix is trying to make games and launch a gaming platform of their own. That is nothing new though. Since Google announced their Stadia platform, their competitors have all been jumping on board and are betting their futures with Cloud Gaming. In other words, everyone wants to get into game streaming, since the gaming industry is on a steady rise. Netflix wants that piece of action too.
Of course, at this time, Netflix has only confirmed that they are going to be integrating mobile games into their platform instead of a whole dive into cloud gaming. In that sense, Netflix Poland has already started testing their gaming platform. The experience, so far, has not been reportedly great though.
You are not accessing a completely different app, which is great news. While you are accessing the Netflix app to get to the games that are on offer though, it is not the third-party app store experience that Netflix wants you to believe at this time. The games that are on offer, at least according to current reports, are the two Stranger Things titles we mentioned earlier. They are not cloud based gaming as well, at this time anyway. You still have to download the games to play the games. Users are also led to the Google Play Store for the games to be downloaded too.
Once downloaded though, the games can only be launched via the Netflix app, which is a little counterintuitive. The games are tied to your Netflix credentials instead of your Google Play credentials though, which kind of makes sense. Reportedly also, the games you play through Netflix will not feature any ads or in-app purchases. Currently also, Netflix is focusing on bringing mobile optimised games on their platform, hence the test starts with smartphones. In some sense, it does sound a lot like Netflix is trying to create a platform that is likened to Apple Arcade. Unlike Apple’s Arcade though, membership is free as long as you have an active subscription with Netflix, for now anyway.
At the time of writing, there are only two game titles available on Netflix’s gaming section. The test is also only currently conducted in Poland with no other regions being confirmed at this time. Netflix also says that the iteration that is being tested in Poland is a very early development. While it does not feature cloud gaming yet at this time, it is not ruled out, at least from our point of view anyway. Still, would you play games on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
After months of speculation and years of patience on our end, Disney+ is finally taking its step into Malaysia. How much is it? It will set you back MYR 54.90 for three months and it starts in June 2021. If you are already a customer of Astro, there are also special packaged for the streaming platform.
For the longest time, the dominating force in the on-demand content streaming service in Malaysia was dominated by none other than Netflix. Of course, there were other competitors in Malaysia with less significant market shares like Prime Video, HBO GO, Astro GO, the homegrown iflix, Dim Sum, and even Viu. A handful of these competitors are not even direct competitors as they tend to show more Asian contents than the other platforms.
Netflix’s closest competitors in Malaysia at the current time would be HBO GO and Amazon’s Prime Video. Those two still pale in comparison to Netflix and what Netflix has to offer. This is also mostly due to Netflix’s highly aggressive marketing strategy and a whole slew of Netflix exclusives that has been churning out in the past few years. Netflix exclusives are also accompanied by very compelling licensed titles including ones from Disney’s studios. Those things made Netflix the platform to have if you want an extensive selection in great contents. Plenty of those contents are also Disney contents.
It only makes sense for Disney to get in on the whole streaming platform game. They are the largest entertainment organisation in the world, after all. In that sense, they own the largest collection of exclusively licensed contents in the world currently. If they start a streaming platform, they have the largest collection of exclusive titles in a single platform. That also means more money for Disney and that is why Disney+ was born.
Source: Disney
Disney+ Hotstar is a streaming platform that is also tailored to Malaysia. That also means that you get exclusive viewing to locally produced films on the platform. Titles like Ejen Ali, Upin & Ipin, Alif & Sofia, and J2: Retribusi, Evolusi KL Drift, KL Gangster, Gol & Gincu, and even Zombitopia are all coming to the platform. There are top selections from the rest of the Asian region too with the likes of Ip Man 4, Infernal Affairs, The Legend of Haolan, and Pandian Stores and Vishwaroopam 2 in the mix too.
Of course, when it is Disney, you expect the bigger Disney blockbusters to appear in the platform. You can now watch WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, the upcoming Loki, Frozen, Mula, Maleficent, The Lion King, Marvel’s Avengers, and so much more from Disney+ Hotstar. You even have highly acclaimed titles coming on top of the platform like Fresh off the Boat, Criminal Minds, How I Met Your Mother, and even Grey’s Anatomy.
That said, a few of theses familiar titles that you might have seen on Netflix or other streaming platforms will disappear from the other platforms as Disney+ Hotstar becomes available in Malaysia. As per reported too, Sony has signed an exclusive deal with Netflix instead of Disney. In that case, for the time being we can expect Marvel’s Spiderman movies to be available on Netflix first before airing on Disney+ Hotstar.
Disney+ Hotstar starts streaming for Malaysia on the 1st June 2021 onward. Customers can head over to Disney+ Hotstar website for more information and to subscribe to the platform. Disney+ Hotstar will set you back MYR 54.90 every three months and can be viewed on up to 2 displays at a time. Is it worth subscribing to? That is for you to decide, but we are likely subscribing just for WandaVision, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, the upcoming Loki, and the new Star Wars: The Bad Batch series.
Malaysia’s largest pay TV operator, Astro Malaysia Holdings, is looking to start a streaming service to take on deep-pocketed, international rivals such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Astro is planning to launch a new streaming service sometime in 2021. The service will mainly focus on the original content made by the pay-TV company. This includes their numerous productions spanning multiple genres such as movies, series, and variety shows. Naturally, the main audience Astro is looking at for now, is the Malaysian audience.
Source: Astro Malaysia
Astro’s ability to subsidize local content production and its understanding of the market gives it and added advantage over global competitors. The report by Nikkei also pointed out that Astro is relying on its knowledge on the Malaysian market as well as its extensive customer, marketing, and sales reach in order to attract other content providers. Astro will be a natural partner to welcome any companies that are seeking to enter the Malaysia market . Astro has so far partnered with HBO GO and China’s iQIYI which aligns with Astro’s efforts to position itself as a “super aggregator” of digital content.
As it enters the Streaming (known in the industry as over the top (OTT)) it will be looking at catering to different groups which have emerged. This can be seen from the pricing strategies adopted by its competition which caters to unique groups with different psychologies. However, it seems that one thing that may take anyone by surprise, the pay TV operator isn’t going to banking on its brand for the streaming service opting to go with a completely new brand.
