What's new with Media Prima's subscription based streaming service one year on

It has been seven years since Media Prima officially launched its video-on-demand (VOD) portal tonton which streams catch up episodes of live events, TV shows and breaking news for free. 

Having built a solid user base, 6.8 million and counting, exactly one year ago the company kick-started a new business model and a refresh on all its apps through its premium service, tontonVIP

Director of tonton, Licensing & Merchandising, Television Network Media Prima Berhad, Airin Zainul in conversation with MARKETING shared, “We have pivoted the service from an ad-based video on demand (AVOD model) to a subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) product this year since we feel Malaysians are now ready to pay for quality content. So far, the results have been encouraging.” 

In the past 12 months the service has gone from strength to strength with over 125 live HD events being broadcasted to the 22,000 registered tonton users. The company has even seen a 200% growth in its VIP Subscription with its users streaming 300,000 hours of both content from Media Prima’s channels and tonton original series. 

The success of tontonVIP stems from the group’s investment in promoting the online platform. A brand new star-studded ambassadors line up for tontonVIP includes Redza Rosli, Ayda Jebat, Thomas & Jack and Dato’ Seri Vida, dubbed as Queen of tonton, for the service to promote the platform to their followers. 

Taking its promotions offline the platform kicked off specially branded tontonVIP kiosks in Sri Pentas, Balai Berita and other locations soon. 

This year also marked tonton’s inaugural concert to celebrate tontonVIP first anniversary; the #jomtonton concert featured some of Malaysia’s top artist including Ayda Jebat, Ning Baizura, Bunkface and more.

With its success in Malaysia tonton is now setting its sights for regional success. The platform recently launched in Singapore via a partnership with Singtel Cast.

Commenting on the new partnership, Airin shared, “We are excited that we get to experience the development of tonton SVOD in such a short time span. Through this partnership with Singtel, tonton will definitely expand to greater heights.”

“We hope that with the content offerings to Singaporeans this can be the start of tonton’s expansion of the brand and its content reach in order to cater to the needs of our fans who reside outside of Malaysia while helping to share our local content to the world,” she added.