“It is a pivotal time for the media industry,” says Singapore-based Phil Hardman, senior vice-president and general manager, BBC Studios Asia. “We are at a really exciting moment, particularly across Asia, where streaming strategies are becoming more agile and innovative every day.”
“Almost all industry players have made significant investments in technological capabilities, marketing, content and production to meet the expectations of streaming audiences.” Which means standards cannot slip.
“We’re in an increasingly competitive space with an audience that won’t tolerate anything below expectations,” he says. “No one service is ever likely to be the panacea for an individual consumer’s entertainment.”
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Why Jet Li’s Danny the dog role in Unleashed didn’t help him crack Hollywood
It is a view echoed by Mark Chan, vice-president and managing director, Taiwan and Hong Kong, at Walt Disney, which owns Disney+.
“Our goal in this region and in Hong Kong is to be one of the must-have streaming services of choice,” he says, with that choice increasingly likely to favour platforms offering high-quality, APAC-generated content.
“Consumers come to Disney+ for great storytelling, which has the power to connect them across demographics and generations, and for globally branded content: Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic and Star,” he says. But tastes are evolving.
“In APAC and Hong Kong, we are seeing a growing preference for local content, especially Korean dramas and Japanese anime,” he says. “In response to growing consumer preferences, we will continue to invest in local content production and APAC originals and continue collaborating with the region’s leading content creators, including top production houses.”
“The streaming industry has opened new doors of opportunity for APAC content creators and storytellers to show their excellence to the world,” says Chan.
Hardman shares the sentiment.
“At BBC Studios Asia we know the power of locally relevant content,” he says. “And building a pipeline of Asian content is one of our goals for the next five years.
“There is something magical about the strength that streaming services give all of us to take risks that might not be taken elsewhere, providing opportunities to create unique content and making sure it can reach a wide range of communities.”
That is also true of BBC Radio, which, through audio streaming, is handily positioned to take advantage of thriving global podcasting.
The newfangled means of consuming TV programmes, meanwhile, has found eager technology partners.
“Audience consumption habits are evolving constantly and we must evolve with them,” says Hardman. “We know audiences are often watching on the go and viewing on mobile devices, with short-form video content increasingly becoming the norm.
“Our response to this trend has been an extensive digital transformation, expanding our footprint on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.”
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Which, in our headlong charge to embrace the new, returns us, curiously, to where we started: linear TV.
Although supreme television-world disrupter Netflix has long been adding new shows to its roster at breathtaking speed, it doesn’t have Disney’s deep portfolio of own-brand films and TV shows.
Many of Disney’s titles (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, anyone?) will always enjoy treasured status; and for such “heritage” material, it is the same at the BBC.
Since TV sets featured cathode ray tubes, the BBC has been making what Hardman calls “some of the most well-known content in the world”, including Doctor Who and Sherlock. But even he sounds taken aback by recent developments.
“The wonderful thing about the streaming industry is that it can still surprise,” he says. “We launched BBC Player on Amazon Prime Video in India last year and were excited to see a hugely popular reaction to our British comedy catalogue, with titles like ’Allo ’Allo!, Blackadder and Ghosts.” And the proceeds from such success are doubtless welcome where new investment is required.
“In Asia … we can leverage the strength of our linear-channel businesses while building our streaming audience,” says Hardman. “These businesses are built to work together and have helped us find opportunities in an ever-changing industry.”
In the world of streaming, it really is a case of back to the future.