VOD/FAST platforms
Australian-based VA Media is the largest enterprise partner of YouTube in APAC. Managing over 100 global YouTube channels, the company has over 15 millionsubscribers, 300 million monthly views and almost 1 billion lifetime views across its network of channels. Mark Ashbridge is the CEO and recently the company has opened operations in the Americas, with Kristen Bedno as Head of Content Partnerships and Acquisitionsin ordertoexpand its operation worldwide and make it easier to do what issometimes difficult: generate digital monetization.
Ashbridge: ‘We’ve started our current business model just 4 years ago, so we can say we are growing fast. VA Media had its originsin digital music distribution toSpotify, Apple and other streaming platforms and then used those learnings to expand our expertise into video,completinga deal with Cartoon Networkto manage their channels in AsiaonYouTubesome time ago now. From there we’ve evolved as a specialist business in social video monetisation on YouTube, using ourEnterprise CMS (Content Management System) to manage YouTube channels we provide our partners with important services above and beyond what individuals can do on their own: to ensure IP protection, analyze metrics, develop metadatato curate products, manage advertising, activate SEO, and to develop full content strategies’ that ultimately result in increased revenue and engagement. ‘The digital world is very complex, it is difficult to achieve monetization, unless you have the focus and tools to optimise the content from the different data sets generated by YouTube. But doing the things right daily, analyzing performance through 30, 60 and 90 days, you get results, not only for the channels, but also for the individual titles we are publishing, which is much appreciated by our different content partners. YouTube started as social media network, today it is making AVOD truly global’.
‘We are expanding our operations in Los Angeles,on the back of our other business model, our licensed content model. VA already has a strong audience in the Americas, as about 35% of our global views on the networkalready come from the US already, and we are working with over 35 content partners hereand growing fast. We have a further 15 + partners Europe and even more in APAC. We provide an important businessby licensing content from third-party providers to monetize on YouTube channels that we own and operate and this is a high growth part of our business for our licensed clients. Expanding onto the Americas allows us to be closer to our current partners, establish new alliances, diversify content, and we are planning two launch two big brands to FAST TV this year, both in North America and Europe’.
‘Recently we have had a success launching foreign language channels. We’ve developed three alike channels with Sony in APAC, for Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and have done the same for a recently launched global Spanish language channel called Movie Central enEspañol, which is our quickest growing channel at themoment. For the future, we see that AVOD & FAST will continuing to grow at speed, creating a great opportunity for more and more niche channels. AI is something we are considering seriously for 2024, both from a content creation perspective, especially with short form content and also to improve optimisation and intelligence across our Network.
