Streaming platforms in Cambodia put focus on content

The market for streaming video on demand, or SVOD, has become a whole lot richer in Cambodia in recent months, with three new paid platforms launching since July to join international heavyweight Netflix.
 The four Internet television services are now competing head-to-head for subscribers, but their biggest challenge is not each other, but rather persuading budget-conscious Cambodians to pay for video conฌtent in a market awash in free and pirated offerings.
Malaysia-based streaming platform iFlix, which launched in August, is the latest paid SVOD contender to enter the Cambodian market. Its arrival comes 18 months after the launch of Netflix in the Kingdom, but iFlix executives are confident its cheaper monthฌly rate (about $3 per month), emphasis on local and regional programming, and a distribution tiein with mobile network Smart will fuel a faster-growing subscriber base.
While Netflix does not report subscriber figures for individual countries, and iFlix keeps its figures closely guarded, iFlix country manager Adeana Greenlee said Cambodia has been one of the company’s fastest growing subscriber bases to date.
“iFlix is doing really well in Cambodia,” she said. “We’ve grown past other countries in the region that launched before us, in terms of the amount of subscribers we have. This is one of the better markets we’ve seen thus far.”
Competing against Netflix, which puts out toprate original programming such as “House of Cards”, “Orange Is the New Black” and “First They Killed My Father”, is no easy feat. One key to iFlix’s impressive growth in its 21 markets in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East is a tailored lineup of local and regional content. “We don’t take a cookie-cutter approach,” Greenlee said.
But the company has also found an ideal distribution vehicle in a three-year exclusive partnership with mobile operator Smart Axiata. About half of iFlix’s Cambodian subscribers have joined through Smart.