Lionsgate Play, a premium OTT app, will soon foray into the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh markets after having launched in India late last year and Indonesia earlier this year.

Confirming the development, Rohit Jain, MD, Lionsgate South Asia and Networks – Emerging Markets Asia, yesterday said the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh launches would be “sometime in April”.

He was participating in a fireside chat at the three-day OTT Virtual Summit organized by Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), an Asian media industry trade organization.

Asked about LionsgatePlay’s Asian expansion and the rationale behind foraying into countries where the volumes may be missing, unlike India, Jain, who was earlier COO of Videocon D2h DTH company, explained that it was exciting to be in Asia as the markets are in “different stages of growth”.

Pointing out that Indonesia may be in a different stage of evolution as a market for media consumption, he added, “Sri Lanka and Bangladesh might be a little more out (in terms of development). You just need to stay put invested in these markets that much little longer…and we understand that.”

According to Jain, OTT was an infrastructure business also in a way, apart from being all about delivering compelling content, and so “anybody who doesn’t have the patience (to play long-term) is clearly in the wrong business”.

Dwelling on the strategy behind Asian expansion of LionsgatePlay, Jain said that the plan involves catering mass premium content to a very specific audience. “Our audiences worldwide are very young and mature, typically 20+ (years old) audience. That makes us complimentary to large (OTT) networks…for younger audience it (LionsgatePlay) becomes an interesting add-on,” he added.

Starz, a Lionsgate company, is a leading global media and entertainment company that produces and distributes premium streaming content to worldwide audiences across subscription television platforms.

In December 2020 while announcing the launch of Starz’s direct-to-consumer OTT app Lionsgate Play in India, Jeffrey A. Hirsch, President and CEO of Starz, in a statement had said, “India has always been a key market for us. The large and diverse population, increased data usage in urban and rural markets, and adoption of OTT across all demographics created an exciting opportunity for us to launch Lionsgate Play. We’re confident that our unique, exclusive and exceptionally curated content will generate a great response from Indian audiences.”

Recently, the Mint newspaper reported earlier this month that Lionsgate had announced its second local original, a college romance drama titled U-Special. The announcement came on the heels of LionsgatePlay kicking off its slate of original and exclusive content last month with the Indian adaptation of the hit Lionsgate US series Casual, to be directed by Kunal Kohli, starring Lara Dutta and Prateik Babbar.