WebTVAsia moves towards Dailymotion

MIPTV: Asian multi-channel network (MCN) WebTVAsia is stepping up its presence outside the region through a deal with France’s Dailymotion.

Fred Chong

The Malaysian outfit has agreed to add 100 of its web channels to the French OTT video-on-demand service. The deal also includes the two firms coproducing content aimed at the Asian market.

The deal was announced here in Cannes by Fred Chong, group CEO of WebTVAsia, and Marc Eychenne, VP of content of Dailymotion.

The news comes in a week that WebTVAsia was counted among MipTV’s Digital Front 2015, pitching its content alongside the likes of Awesomeness TV, CDS, Dailymotion, Vice, YouTube and Zoomin.TV.

WebTVAsia owns more than 160 digital channels on YouTube targeting various audiences all over Asia and describes itself as the biggest premium content network in Asia.

The company – part of 10-year-old Prodigee Media Group of Kuala Lumpur – claims an average of 150 million views of its YouTube channels per month, from over three million subscribers.

“Our content is very much aimed at Asian millennials, with lifestyle programming, films, animation and comedy,” Chong told C21 here in Cannes.

“Most other Western MCNs see Asia as one market, but we don’t as we’re from Asia. So we have different, local programming in different markets like China, Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand.”

He added that one of his missions at MipTV is to find Western formats or programming that WebTVAsia could adapt for the Asian markets. “Some of our successful Chinese content is inspired by French comedy, so we’re looking for Western content to adapt.”

WebTVAsia was appointed by China’s biggest online video platform, Youku-Tudou, to manage its Youku Original content marketing and promotion. WebTVAsia also has a channel management deal in place with Tencent of China.

Although Dailymotion has a big presence in Europe, Chong said the deal with the Paris-based company wasn’t about targeting Europeans with Asian content but more about adding Asian content and developing a presence outside YouTube.

“The main reason we partnered with Dailymotion is that a lot of our content is already on their platform, uploaded without our permission, so either we take it down or monetise it ourselves and grow a platform outside YouTube. We feel Dailymotion is growing in Asia,” Chong said.