BT understands that iflix has liabilities from the debt investments of its late-stage backers as well as from debt owed to production studios. The company had entered in years-long media rights contracts for expensive Hollywood content, one industry source told BT.
BT understands that Crown Media was not just looking to turn around iflix's struggling business, but had even been exploring buying some assets from Singtel's failed streaming service, Hooq, to further strengthen iflix.On Wednesday, homegrown film producer mm2 Asia said that it will launch an on-demand movie streaming platform, Cathay CineHOME. Earlier this month, Indonesia's Gojek raised external funds for its nine-month-old streaming service GoPlay.
To tap this potential, however, market players must find the right model. Mr Wang of EY said that, in South-east Asia at least, a sustainable model would be either advertising-driven or be a hybrid of advertising and low subscription fees. Associate Professor Nitin Pangarkar of the National University of Singapore Business School said there is still room for growth even if few may match Netflix's scale.