Magine on target for 100m subscribers in five years

Ambuj Goyal

On-demand platform provider Magine is set to be available in 100 countries and on target to reach 100 million subscribers in five years, according to Ambuj Goyal, CEO.

Magine has highlighted four recent partnerships with major media companies that will see its ‘TV Superhighway’ platform extend its reach to over 35 markets.

Magine now has a partnership in place with Qatar-based international pay and free TV provider, and owner of Miramax, BeIN Media Group. This deal will see Magine’s platform used to provide access to coverage of World Cup football, NFL American football, Formula 1 motorsports, and French US and Australian Open tennis championships in 16 countries.

“We launched their catch up and VOD content, including Miramax films, in MENA. Now we are working with them on global expansion and taking a step to develop something major,” said Goyal.

Another partnership is in place with former BBC documentary chief Nick Fraser’s Yaddo factual programming streaming service.

For Nick Fraser’s Yaddo, Magine is providing a platform that will enable the service, which will focus on serious documentary programming, to be streamed to over 160 countries. “For Yaddo we are building up a viewer base,” said Goyal. “We will provide an end-to-end platform including payments collection.”

Magine has also struck a deal with African content distribution platform provider AfricaXP, which provides local and international thematic channels to platform operators across Africa, Europe and North America. The company will use the Magine platform to extend its reach beyond traditional linear broadcast platforms to provide revenue opportunities to content partners via digital and direct-to-consumer distribution.

“With AfricaXP our objective is to develop a base – we want millions of people watching African content,” he said.

Magine said it had also signed an agreement with an unnamed Chinese operator to offer a cloud-based video streaming system for the Chinese market.

Goyal said that the Chinese deal was “very important because many content owners want into that market” and because its partner is licensed by state regulator SAAPPRFT.

Magine earlier this year outlined a strategy of providing its platform to third-party content owners in 20 countries this year, allowing any partner to public content online and decide what usage rules should be enforced, opening up niche local markets to global content providers in a way that is economically viable.

Goyal said Magine’s model was based on a virtuous cycle, whereby the more content owners it attracts, the more distributors it can strike agreements with. The company is focusing on striking partnerships with large scale distribution platform in order to maximise its reach in key markets.