LIONSGATE Play stabilizes subscriber base in Southeast Asia
LIONSGATE Play, the global streaming service of entertainment company Lionsgate, is planning to stabilize its subscriber base in Southeast Asia this 2023 by seeking out mobile and broadband partnerships in the region and continuing to provide adrenaline-fueled action and suspense content.
“We launched in the Philippines last year and we’re very happy having partnered with broadband service provider PLDT. The awareness of our streaming platform among PLDT users is 70% upwards,” said Amit Dhanuka, Lionsgate Play’s Executive Vice President for South Asia and Southeast Asia, at a media event in August.“Asia is a significant contributor to the app’s growth even though we only entered the market in 2019,” he said, adding that it grew four or five times during its first year in the Philippines.
Lionsgate Play is hoping to be the biggest provider of the content they specialize in, which are “edgy, provocative, thrilling” action films and TV series, according to Mr. Dhanuka. Known titles on the platform include The Hunger Games, the Twilight saga, John Wick, Saw, and Mad Men. It also streams awards shows like the Emmys and the Golden Globes. Its latest offering is an espionage drama called Gray, which premiered exclusively in the Philippines on Aug. 18. New titles are added every Friday.
PLDT HOME PARTNERSHIPLionsgate Play Philippines’ country manager Ma. Cecilia Marino said that their exclusive partnership with PLDT Home gives Fiber users full access to the platform. “We can really deliver compelling stories to the Filipino audience by building partnerships with mobile and broadband,” she said. Mr. Dhanuka added that once the subscriber base is stable, they will consider producing more local content for the Philippines.
“We have around 20 million subscribers globally and we expect Southeast Asia to be crucial in growing that number,” said Mr. Dhanuka.
Early in August, Lionsgate Play even rebranded its service in the region, changing to a multicolored iridescent design and upgrading the look and interface of the app. The rebranding is meant to show that the platform’s content has “the variation of a prism,” according to Ms. Marino. Its app rating on the Play Store is currently at 4.0 stars.
For more information, visit https://pldthome.com/lionsgateplay. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Brontë H. Lacsamana
