KUALA LUMPUR: Integrated media group Media Prima Bhd (MPB) is partnering with the US-based video sharing platform YouTube through the “Player for Publishers” service to strengthen its position in the digital media industry in Malaysia.
Through the collaboration, high quality video content produced by MPB including from television networks, radio, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd (NSTP) and Media Prima Digital are now available on YouTube.
MPB group managing director Datuk Kamal Khalid said the group was expanding its digital presence and the collaboration would strengthen its position as the largest digital media group in Malaysia.
He said there was high demand from audience and advertisers for its digital contents.
“With our popular local contents as well as greater adoption of YouTube among Malaysians, we see this as a sustainable solution to highlight the full potential of our contents to generate higher revenue,” he said at a press conference on the partnership here today.
Kamal said the partnership would also allow MPB to reduce cost by incorporating video players on its platforms as well as giving viewers an opportunity to enjoy better video viewing across multiple devices.
“This will enable MPB to generate sustainable revenue through programmatic advertising, one of the fastest growing digital revenue segments,” he added.
Also present were Google managing director for Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and new emerging markets Sajith Sivanandan, NSTP chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Jalil Hamid and Media Prima Television Network chief executive officer Johan Ishak.
On whether the collaboration would affect the “over-the-top” (OTT) Tonton content, Kamal explained that they both served different audiences.
“For now I think Tonton has different audiences because it offers subscription-based services. In fact, there are some exclusive contents that will only be accessible on Tonton.
“But, it will come to a later stage that we need to decide which model is most effective in terms of allowing viewers to access our video contents,” he said.
Kamal said MPTV was targeting a double-digit growth of the group’s digital sector by this year and hence, it was important for the company to innovate to achieve the target.
Meanwhile, Sajith said with more local contents on YouTube, there would be more inventories for advertisers to reach their customers.
“We therefore thank Media Prima for helping to further enhance the landscape of YouTube Malaysia. We at Google and YouTube are the major fans of local contents and recognise that we are all part of the same ecosystem,” he said.
Youtube’s “Player for Publishers”, which was launched in Europe in 2015, has now been used by more than 100 publishers in 25 countries and MPB would be the first media company to use this service platform.