Twitter pushes original content with premium video content partnerships in Asia Pacific

Twitter unveils over 50 premium video content collaborations, bringing hundreds of hours of live stream and video highlights programming, across sports, entertainment and news, to the platform. A detailed list of Twitter video content partnerships here. 

Twitter is the best place to see what’s happening in the world right now and to talk about it, especially through premium video. The announcement expands the premium video content available on Twitter to advertisers in Asia Pacific and builds on extensions of existing global and regional content deals. Red Chillies Entertainment, Vh1 Supersonic, Comic Con India, Network 18, Scoopwhoop, NDTV, Filmfare and CricBuzz are among the 12 Indian partners that Twitter will collaborate with to bring new content to audiences in the country and opportunities for Indian advertisers.

At the TwitterFronts event in Singapore, Twitter executives including Global Vice President of Content Partnerships, Kay Madati and Vice President of Asia Pacific Maya Hari presented the content partnerships to brand and agency partners in the region. They were joined by guest speakers including Christine Fellowes (@ChristiFellowes), Managing Director, NBCUniversal, Avinash Kaul (@avikaul), COO, Network18, Shanna Murady, CCO, FMA Indonesia, CK Lee, VP Of Sports Content, Astro Malaysia, Binda Dey (@bindadey), Head of Marketing, Red Chillies Entertainment, Talina Cruz (@talinacruz), Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Visual Content, Sony Music, and Serene Lee, Head of Sales, VICE, among others.

“Content is happening now at Twitter, and we have proven through the efficacy of the partnerships we have crafted, that content programming and distribution on Twitter is an essential part of any media company’s audience engagement and content monetization strategies,” said Kay Madati, Global VP of Content Partnerships, Twitter. “Asia Pacific is accelerating growth for Twitter. Our unique and strategic value proposition that positions Twitter as a complement, not competitor to traditional media companies, has delivered great success and we seek to drive forward with more live stream and premium video content partnerships in the region.”

"Video continues to be an important way to stay informed and engaged on Twitter, especially for the younger millennial audience in Asia Pacific,” said Maya Hari, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Twitter. “Building on the success of our premium video content launch at All That Matters last year, we are proud to expand our live stream and video highlights programming that is brand safe and will appeal to the audience and advertisers in APAC. The move strengthens Twitter’s presence and partnerships in the region, sharing with the world what’s happening right now in Asia Pacific and for global audiences to talk about it."

The 12 Indian partners, that are collaborating with Twitter to create premium video content for advertisers, include the following: (full list of APAC partners available here):

Entertainment

• Comic Con India: Comic Con India (@ComicConIndia) is where the comic world comes alive. As India’s biggest venue for everything superhero, fans will swarm this festival across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This year, Comic Con India will bring fans on Twitter more live-streams, Q&As and interactions with all the Cosplayers at the event.
• Diwali Culture: Pop-culture and news publisher, ScoopWhoop (@ScoopWhoop) is partnering with Twitter to produce an exclusive first-ever live show highlighting the culture of Diwali. This show will bring fans the best of the festival of lights from across the country, live on their Twitter timeline. Diwali is #WhatsHappening.
• Filmfare: Filmfare (@Filmfare) is the destination for news about the entertainment industry in India - whether it is Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi or Punjabi, fans will be able to get their fix on Twitter with Filmfare. The partnership with Twitter will offer advertisers the opportunity to own the conversation in Indian entertainment as the Filmfare Awards takes movie fans live on to the red carpet to engage with the industry’s biggest names and find out what happens behind the camera.
• Red Chillies Entertainment: A long-term partner of Twitter’s in India, Shah Rukh Khan’s production house, Red Chillies Entertainment (@RedChilliesEnt) will be launching video content from their upcoming Hindi film, Zero, on Twitter, and brands have an opportunity to leverage this Bollywood conversation. Along with this, RCE will be doing an exclusive live show only for Twitter featuring the King Khan himself.
• Vh1 Supersonic: The world’s biggest DJs flock to India every February for Vh1 Supersonic (@Vh1Supersonic), a three-day festival featuring the most popular artists across electronic music. Nowhere does this music come alive better than on Twitter. The partnership with Vh1 will showcase behind-the-scenes chat with all the talent in the Twitter #BlueRoom.

“ScoopWhoop has consistently leveraged the immediacy of twitter to help people discover and share stories that are interesting and relevant in the moment. Now we are excited to take this partnership to a new level by creating our first ever Live Diwali show exclusively on Twitter. The show aims to capture what’s happening in India during Diwali while it’s happening and Twitter is clearly the ideal partner.”

• Rishi Mukherjee, COO and Co-Founder, ScoopWhoop

“Vh1Supersonic has seen phenomenal engagement on Twitter over the years and has been one of our most engaged and active social media platforms. Twitter has played a pivotal role in helping generating buzz and excitement for the festival across the year. 2018 saw our collaboration with Twitter translate beautifully on-ground to create live content across the 3 days of the festival with Indian and global artists with the flagship Blue Room  property. With the 2019 edition as well, we are very excited to see an extension in our partnership with Twitter to build brand Vh1Supersonic on a larger scale."

• Saugato Bhowmik, Business Head-  VOOT Kids OTT Service, Consumer Products and Live Entertainment, Vh1Supersonic

Also Read: Twitter takes steps to raise awareness on suicide prevention on World Suicide Prevention Day

Sports

• Cricbuzz: Cricbuzz (@Cricbuzz) is the world’s largest mobile app for cricket. Over the next few months, Cricbuzz will be bringing LIVE episodes and clips of their flagship show #CricbuzzLIVE to Twitter featuring some of the world’s most renowned cricket commentators. The shows and clips will cover the Asia Cup, India’s home series against the West Indies and India’s tour to Australia.
• Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur): Gaurav Kapur is amongst India’s most popular sports and entertainment hosts with 1.5 million followers. Twitter will be bringing a series of #ALittleMoreGK short videos in partnership with Gaurav for the blockbuster India Australia cricket series in 2018.

News

• Auto On Quint: The Quint (@TheQuint) is a mobile-first digital publisher, that engages Indian millennials, in English and Hindi. From premium video content to a compelling LIVE program with Twitter India for #PRIDEMonth, the partnership with the Quint brings creative Auto programming to automotive fans on Twitter.
• Budget with Network18: CNBC TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) is the market leader for business programming across India. The partnership with Twitter brings a three-tiered sponsorship for video highlights and LIVE around Budget Day 2019 in India. Budget Day programming will be available on Twitter with market leaders @CNBCTV18News and @MoneyControl.
• India Today Aaj Tak Finance: Hindi channel @AajTak feature news programming in English and Hindi. As part of the partnership with Twitter, the two channels will bring diverse programming on Twitter, including the AajTak Money package, a digital-first weekly capsule of Finance ‘News You can Use’ to cater to Hindi audiences.
• NDTV Car And Bike (@CarandBike): NDTV’s premium auto content programming from @CarandBike saw the first Sponsored Moment across APAC this year, with Maruti Suzuki. Building on the success, NDTV and Twitter are introducing new customised in-stream sponsorship packages to include always-on programming via a weekly capsule of Auto Reviews featuring on-air talent for automotive fans on Twitter.
• NDTV Tech (@Gadgets360): Indian television media company @NDTV is a pioneer in Indian television and digital journalism, and one of Twitter’s earliest partners in India. As part of the partnership, NDTV brings premium tech content to Twitter through @Gadgets360. Theirs is an in-stream video sponsorship success story after featuring at All that Matters last year.

“Network18 is delighted to strengthen its partnership with Twitter. With India’s largest news network in its fold, Network18 today reaches out to 670 million television news viewers through 20 news channels in 15 Indian Languages. Its array of digital properties reach 32 million news consumers on the internet . With our massive reach and Twitter's real-time conversational capability, this collaboration sets a benchmark proposition for prospective advertisers and business partners.  We believe that this partnership will amplify the digital reach of a brand or idea to the next level of visibility and engagement.” - Avinash Kaul, Chief Operating Officer Network18 and Managing Editor A+E Networks | TV18

"We have found great value in our partnership with Twitter, especially around elections. The platform gives our content additional reach and meaningful engagement with the younger voters and opinion makers.” - Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson, India Today Group

“It was terrific to have NDTV partner with Twitter for an election result seeped in drama. We offered a simple graphic showing real-time results on twitter (auto responder) that ensures we delivered the latest twist and turn to our users.” - Suparna Singh, Group CEO, NDTV.