Twitter Introduces over 35 Premium Video Content Partnerships to Asia Pacific

Twitter, the first place to see what’s happening, unveiled a robust slate of premium live and in-stream video content deals across sports, news and entertainment this morning at All That Matters. Over 35 collaborations were announced, bringing hundreds of hours of new exclusive video and live original programming, live games and events to the platform. The announcement includes extensions of existing global live deals and brings new always-on premium video content on Twitter to advertisers in Asia Pacific. In relation, Twitter rolls out in-stream video advertising offering to the region starting with Australia – more details here.

Twitter executives including Global VP of Revenue & Operations Matthew Derella, Managing Director of Asia Pacific Maya Hari, and Director for Live Partnerships, Bo Han, presented the video content offerings to brand and agency partners. They were joined by guest speakers including Dan Rosen, CEO ARIA, Anjali Kapoor, ‎Head of Digital, Asia Pacific – ‎Bloomberg LP, Alexander Broun, ‎Director, Digital solutions APAC at FOX Sports, Diane Ho, Head of Screens, Seven West Media Limited, among others.

“Live is at the core of Twitter. In Q2, we streamed over 1,200 hours of live premium content globally from leading brands across sports, esports, news, and entertainment,” said Matthew Derella, Global VP of Revenue & Operations, Twitter. “Asia Pacific is the growth engine of Twitter and we could not be prouder to extend our success with both live streaming and in-stream premium video content in the region.”

“Digital video consumption is growing rapidly in Asia Pacific and estimated to grow to over a billion by 2020,” said Maya Hari, Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Twitter. “Introducing over 35 live and in-stream video sponsorship deals today to APAC advertisers will strengthen the success of our only-on-Twitter experience in the region and globally, combining high quality streaming video with conversation on what’s happening in the world right now.”

Attendees were given an overview of the different ways marketers can “be what’s happening” by advertising against premium video content to influential, connected audiences. New live and in-stream video content announced on stage included the following:

Sports

• International Cricket Council (ICC): Cricket is the most popular sport in multiple Asia Pacific countries, and Twitter lights up around international matches every year. Fans will be able to experience replays and highlight videos on Twitter from the International Cricket Council (@ICC)’s events in 2018.
• Channel 7 Sports: Tennis fans in Australia will get a closer look at the first tennis grand slam of the year via @7tennis on Twitter as they bring highlights and videos from the Australian Open throughout the two weeks of the event.
• Fox Sports Asia: Fox Sports Asia (@FOXSportsAsia) is one of the region’s largest sports broadcasters and have been leaders in the production of snackable video content for fans on Twitter. From the US Open tennis to Asian football, motorsport to golf, Fox Sports Asia will be bringing fans their most premium real-time highlights videos on Twitter in 2017 and 2018.
• Riot Games: Riot Games (@RiotGames) is Twitter Australia’s partner on League of Legends, the world’s highest participation eSports title. The partnership has seen two full Live stream experiences for League of Origin and Oceanic Premier League Grand Final, as well as ten live broadcasts via Periscope Producer. The partnership will see more eSports action coming for fans in the Asia Pacific region.

Entertainment

• KBS Music Bank Weekly Shows: KPop is absolutely massive on Twitter, and Twitter is teaming up with one of South Korea’s biggest broadcasters, KBS World TV (@KBSWorldTV), to reward KPop fans on the platform. KBS World TV and Twitter will livestream an original KPop content ‘Music Bank’ series every week from Oct, 2017. KPop fans on Twitter can enjoy live streamed performances of popular KPOP bands like BTS, EXO, TWICE, GOT7 and newly emerging groups.
• Filmfare Awards: India’s most established and most popular Bollywood Awards will continue to strengthen the partnership with Twitter in 2018 with nomination announcements, Red Carpet clips, behind the scenes action and exclusive interaction with winners. This year, as a first for any Indian awards, Bollywood fans across the globe will get to watch a premium live stream on Twitter from a special show around the Filmfare Awards (@Filmfare).
• ARIA Awards: The ARIA Awards (@ARIA_Official) are one of the premiere entertainment events in Asia Pacific, honouring Australia’s top artists and biggest global stars. In 2016, we saw #ARIAs trend globally on Twitter, as users had their say by voting for an award exclusively on the platform. This year, ARIA and Twitter raise the bar with the partnership again, broadcasting the ARIA Awards Red Carpet coverage exclusively live on Twitter around the world. No matter where you are, Twitter will bring you a front row seat to the ARIAs action.

News

Bloomberg Asia Pacific: Bloomberg (@BloombergAsia) will be bringing its unrivaled Asia Pacific programming from daily market updates, the latest technology news, to bi-lingual business insights from Japan, to Twitter. This new in-stream video collaboration will reinvent the digital breaking news experience and offer new opportunities for brands to align with Bloomberg’s premium content.
Buzzfeed Japan: BuzzFeed Japan (@BuzzFeedJapan) is cooking up a storm in one of the tastiest nations on earth. @TastyJapan will be serving up new and original cooking video series exclusively on Twitter, offering the best recipes, tips and secret ingredients in snackable video Tweets. The in-stream video collaboration is an extension of our partnership with Buzzfeed globally.
Network 18: Network 18 is India’s leading media conglomerate across financial, general and digital news, with channels including CNN-News18 (CNN’s India affiliate), CNBC-TV18 (CNBC’s India affiliate) and firstpost.com. Building on their successful partnership for Budget Day 2017, Network18 and Twitter are working to expand their partnership for Budget 2018.

“Over the past few years, partnering with Twitter has been a key part of generating buzz, excitement and tune in for the ARIAs. Twitter is a leader in delivering great, live content, and we are very excited to now extend our partnership by becoming the first awards show outside of the US to livestream our Red Carpet coverage exclusively on Twitter, taking the ARIAs live from Sydney to music fans all around the world.” – Dan Rosen, CEO, ARIA

“We’re excited to be embarking on this journey with Twitter to reinvent the digital breaking news experience. By combining Bloomberg’s high-quality journalism and data-backed objectivity with Twitter’s global immediacy, we are creating the world’s fastest and most credible modern news source.” – Anjali Kapoor, Head of Digital, APAC, Bloomberg

“We, at Worldwide Media are pleased to associate with Twitter once again for the Filmfare Awards. Last year, we explored some never-before-seen opportunities with Twitter such as introducing first ever emoji for any Indian awards. This year too we look forward to bring exciting and out-of-the-box ideas to engage the huge number of Filmfare fans. This partnership will further enhance the massive reach of Filmfare Awards.” – Deepak Lamba, Chief Executive Officer, Worldwide Media Pvt. Ltd.

“We are your premier window with a nonstop 24X7 stream of the latest and the most popular Korean content capturing the imagination of audiences worldwide. With Twitter’s unique ability to reach mass audiences across the globe, we are excited to reach Kpop fans all over the world with LIVE streaming performance of popular KPOP bands like BTS, EXO, TWICE, GOT7 and newly emerging bands, every week. This real-time engagement with the ever-growing global fan base adds a new dimension to our original content like the ‘Music Bank’ series, bringing it to their fingertips anywhere in the world.” – Dong Seol Geum, Sr Manager, KBS World TV

“As a leading media and entertainment company we offer news and original content relevant to the evolving needs of the Indian consumers. People come to Twitter with a discovery mode and Network 18’s current affairs, financial news and original content will offer them a unique glimpse into what’s happening in the world right now. Our interesting perspectives and powerful storytelling, aligned to Twitter’s real-time engagement and reach will create more value for our viewers.” – Avinash Kaul, Managing Director, A+E Networks | TV18 and President – Strategy, Product & Alliances – Network18

“Our philosophy at Riot Games is that we put the player-experience first. We want our players to have choice when it comes to where they watch their esports and to be able to watch on the platform that provides them with the the interactive experience they prefer. Twitter allows fans to connect with each other and the event in a unique way which the stats show they’re enjoying.” – Daniel Ringland (@RiotStupendous), Head of eSports Australia and New Zealand, Riot Games