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11 - 15 September 2020
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Streaming service Mubi has launched in India, with the aim of developing a niche following in the already competitive market.
Film specialist streaming platform Mubi launches at an inaugural price of $2.75 for the first three months, with two new channels for the region, Mubi India and Mubi World.
Subscription holders will be charged $7 a month after the first three-month trial and $66.75 for an annual subscription.
In a statement, Mubi chief executive Efe Cakarel said: “I can’t wait to see people enjoying the incredible lineup of films we have, and I’m delighted that we can now spotlight local filmmakers and cinema through Mubi India every single day.”
Mubi India is a channel dedicated exclusively to Indian cinema, The streamer has inked partnerships with several distributors including the National Film Development Corporation, Shemaroo, PVR Pictures, Ultra and FilmKaravan.
Launch titles include Kamal Swaroop’s cult classic Om Dar-B-Dar, Kanu Behl’s Clermont-Ferrand title Binnu Ka Sapna, and Mani Kaul’s Duvidha.
Mubi World will feature films including Amy, 12 Years A Slave, and A Bigger Splash.
Mubi content advisor and producer Guneet Monga who joined the company in September this year, said: “I’m thrilled we have launched a dedicated channel for Indian cinema as it means that film lovers can now watch amazing films like Salaam Bombay and Andaz Apna Apna, alongside globally renowned gems like Moonlight.”
In June this year, Mubi launched in Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia and with another six territories in the region following.
The service has a unique approach to its content strategy in that it offers one new film per day, available on the service for just 30 days.
Speaking at IBC last year, Cakarel said: “Subscription is becoming the dominant form of content consumption, the market is growing really fast and we are growing with it, in fact, we’re growing faster than the market.”
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Amazon has agreed an exclusive output deal with Lionsgate Movies, to be the UK’s go-to streaming choice for the studio’s recent releases and upcoming theatrical films.
The multi-year deal announced on Thursday was confirmed as starting from the 1 January 2020. It means Amazon Prime Video in the UK will exclusively launch Lionsgate feature films including Knives Out, Midday and Bombshell.
Lionsgate president of worldwide television and digital distribution Jim Packer said: “We’re delighted to expand our longstanding relationship with Amazon to bring our films to their Prime Video service in the UK.
“It is a great new collaboration with an important content partner in the worldwide arena, underscoring the breadth and depth of the Lionsgate slate.”
The Lionsgate titles join the thousands of TV shows and movies available on Prime Video which are available to download temporarily on mobile devices and tablets to watch offline.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed but the announcement confirmed that Prime users, as well as those subscribing to the monthly standalone video service, will have access to Angel Has Fallen and Rambo: Last Bloody as well as the series starring David Copperfield.
Prime Video head of content UK Martin Backlund said: “We’re excited to be bringing Lionsgate’s slate of compelling movies to Prime Video.
“Our customers will be delighted that Lionsgate’s Hollywood and British blockbuster movies are coming to Prime Video.”
The deal comes as Amazon is faced with new competition, in the wake of Apple launching its Apple TV+ streaming service and Disney+, which went live in the US and Canada this week.
While, UK streamer BritBox, a service combining content from networks ITV, the BBC and Channel 4, launched earlier this month.
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Delivering live esports production at scale requires seamless technology integration and tight workflows to optimise the operation and produce esports for massive international audiences.
An IBC365 webinar on Delivering live esports production at scale went behind the scenes to understand the technology and workflow behind producing live esports events with industry experts offering insight on methods to engage audiences and techniques to optimise live productions.
The global popularity of esports, the attention from the broadcast and media industry and the overall phenomenon has risen rapidly in the last few years with more eyeballs and revenue growing at an unprecedented rate.
The live production business plays an increasingly important role for technology and service providers, building on their traditional sports experience to deliver some of the biggest transmissions of live events which prove to be complex and technically challenging.
The challenge is turning multidimension live game play into engaging content for millions of viewers across the globe.
Ayesha Frederick, freelance broadcast production specialist has been working in esports production for around a year and a half, mainly as a vision mixer, technical director and in game replay operator for a variety of companies and games.
As a vision mixer, Frederick said: “I try to split it up in my mind,” she explained the challenges of the game play elements, players and the post-production element, “it helps if you know the game and have a good relationship with the in-game observers and in-game team.”
Most recently she has worked as a vision mixer and technical director for ESL Pro League, ESL One New York and Cologne B Stream’s, the PES League World and EU finals, the FACEIT ECS Finals, the ESL UK Premiership finals and at Insomnia Gaming Festival.
Frederick has previously worked as a replay operator on a variety of games, including CS:GO, DOTA 2, Fifa 19, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Rainbow Six Siege and World of Warcraft at events including the FACEIT CSGO Major and ECS Finals, Playstation’s Showcase at Paris Games Week, ESL Pro League, BLAST Pro Series Madrid and Los Angeles and the HP Omen Challenge.
Esports tournaments usually consist of two teams made up of around five players but could be less, from a production point of view the technical challenges lie with the multiple screens, player cameras from difference angles and depending on the game the main screen could host the characters the players are playing on a LED screen as well as commentators.
Jake Hukin, production and technical manager has worked exclusively in esports and gaming content since graduating. He started out as studio manager for Game and Belong he has worked on content ranging from grassroots, community esports tournaments to managing tech and production for major esports events on the world stage.
He currently freelances in a variety of production roles and has helped deliver projects for companies such as Nintendo UK, Red Bull and Microsoft. He continues to be a regular face at Game as well working as technical manager for esports content at the Insomnia Gaming Festival events and is currently working with them on the ninth season of the Belong Arena Clash.
On the challenges for making esports work for television, Hukin said: “Certain games the players will finish playing before we see the end of the game.
“We will record their reactions and cut to that at the end of the broadcast.”
IBC365’s Alana Foster spoke with industry experts on overcoming the pitfalls of production in broadcasting esports, asking is measurement is the key to success?
Creating a niche narrative
Frederick and Hukin agreed the narrative, visual elements and replays are critical in curating a rich narrative for audiences to ensure engagement is at the forefront of their viewing experience.
Frederick explained how it can be “tricky but worthwhile” to capture the key moments in a game because there is “a lot to deal with and every game has a different element.”
The physical set up of esports is consistent but the visual elements are complex and different from traditional sports.
Asked if game publishers support the production team, Hukin said: “It varies a lot from game to game.,” noting some games are more challenging to see the statistics and location of the players than others, it’s clear the role is challenging and fast paced.
Frederick said: “People who are not familiar with esports could mistake the games as being very similar,” however she clears up the differences, “between the games there is a lot to deal with.”
World of Warcraft, Fifa and Rainbow Six are among the tournaments she has worked on all with “different elements.”
Same same but different
Producing a live esports event differs drastically from traditional sports.
Hukin said: “I have never had an event rained off before.
“We have other hazards, network issues, IT issues are a major problem.”
He explained once filming a tournament in Barcelona, the game received an update and they had to stop production and update the game on 100 computers.
He added: “For live events, scheduling is very difficult compared to most traditional sports games.”
Speakers agree that every technical team requires someone in their crew who has played a lot of games, particularly when it comes to framerates.
Hukin said: “Almost exclusively we are producing in 1080p and 59-94 Hz because most of the time people play it at home that way and audiences are used to watching the game in that quality and most of the time if you broadcast at a lower rate they will call you out in the chat because they can see the difference.”
Frederick added its likely people are playing and watching across different platforms and as such “we have a lot of converters… there isn’t really a way to capture it otherwise.”
Both Hukin and Frederic agreed the kit they use is mostly traditional as there has not been new esports-centric technology introduced by vendors.
The business of esports is attracting record-breaking audiences as quickly as it is gaining interest from advertisers, however, the measurement of ad success and audience engagement is as complicated as it is dense with competition.
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