Video-on-demand (VOD) platform iflix has attained more than 15 million subscribers in emerging markets of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Claiming to have grown its customer base 250% since January 2018, the Kuala Lumpur-based company pins its growth on engaging localised programming that targets both mass market users and younger digital-savvy demographic groups. Iflix aims to quadruple its commissioning slate by 2019 with 12 original television series, 30 feature movies and 75 short form films.
A particular success is the TV series instalment of Indonesian box-office hit Magic Hour. Magic Hour: The Series, while another iflix original (also adapted from a film) KL: Special Force, gained 34% of total viewers. International titles that performed well included The Flash and top Korean drama Goblin.
Its live football streaming joint venture with Football Malaysia LLP this year resulted in an 80% boost in activations with the highest conversions to view thus far, claims iflix. It is has also added Bangladesh cricket, Formula E, and for African audiences action from the FIFA World Cup, as well as music events, including a concert from K-pop’s BTS and Myanmar pop star, Sai Sai’s Annual Birthday performance.
Overall, claims iflix, content consumption has doubled in the last five months for an overall 22.84 billion minutes (43,500 years) streamed since the service launched.
“2018 is already a transformational year for iflix,” said Mark Britt, co-founder and group CEO, iflix.
“We continue to be passionately obsessed with what emerging markets customers need and want. The huge growth we’ve seen across the business is a testament to that commitment. We have one goal and that is to make iflix ubiquitous across emerging markets. To achieve this, we will continue to learn and innovate to build global culture and find new audiences for extraordinary world class content.”
The company is now launching iflix 3.0, with four newly defined content pillars: Free, Kids, News and Originals. The subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform also offers upgraded personalised functionality, including feed and daily collections.
The service now offers 40,000 hours of content from 600 studios and content creators, as well as 40 free-to-air (FTA) channels. By the end of the year, iflix said it would offer 80 TV channels of which 60 will be available to users for free.