APAC Media And Entertainment News

Related Media and Entertainment Industry News

• September 2024: Dolby unveils a new comprehensive range of cloud video products and solutions supporting real-time interactive streaming. This comes on the heels of Dolby’s recent acquisition of THEO Technologies, a leading provider of high-quality video streaming tools embraced by top sports, media, and entertainment companies worldwide.
• July 2024: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has unveiled a slew of special streaming features and innovations for its coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including timeline markers, gold medal alerts and more. Timeline markers will allow viewers to easily navigate back through an event timeline to key moments. This feature is available across all platforms for discovery+ users, covering 15 sports, including beach volleyball, handball, tennis and more.

• April 2024: WPP and Google Cloud announced a pioneering collaboration to propel generative AI-driven marketing to new heights. This partnership is poised to redefine marketing's efficacy and impact by leveraging Google's prowess in data analytics, generative AI technology, and cybersecurity alongside WPP's comprehensive marketing solutions, vast creative reach, and deep brand insights.
• February 2024: IPG made waves by unveiling a strategic collaboration with Adobe. The partnership aims to revolutionize content creation and activation within IPG's global operations. IPG stands out as the inaugural corporation to seamlessly incorporate Adobe GenStudio, a cutting-edge tool leveraging generative AI. This integration empowers brands to accelerate their content ideation, creation, production, and activation.

• April 2024: Ogilvy introduced 'Health Influence,' a suite of global influencer marketing services. This initiative merges Ogilvy PR's influencer team with Ogilvy Health experts, connecting medical insights with public understanding and granting pharmaceutical, healthcare, and wellness brands specialized access to the influencer landscape, as per the agency's statement.
• January 2023: Teneo bolstered its communication prowess by acquiring Tulchan, a London and Singapore-based specialist in public relations. This acquisition, valued at over GBP 65 million (USD 80.85 million), expanded Teneo's public relations team to 200 professionals, contributing to a global workforce of 1,600 employees across 50+ offices.

• January 2024: Hong Kong-listed movie producer Alibaba Pictures announced a collaboration with Tokyo's renowned animation studio, Studio Ghibli. This partnership aims to host exhibitions and create animations tailored for the Chinese audience. As part of this strategic alliance, Alibaba Pictures is set to co-develop Studio Ghibli's latest film, "The Boy and the Heron", which has yet to debut in Mainland Chinese theaters.
• July 2024: Hollywood's visual effects company, Digital Domain, announced an investment of HKD 200 million (USD 25.6 million), laying the groundwork for a global innovation and research center. Renowned for its visual effects work on blockbuster films like Titanic and The Avengers, Digital Domain has ambitious plans. The company intends to channel its investment by the close of 2029, focusing on advancing AI virtual humans, visual effects, digital assets, and AI-driven visual production. Digital Domain is also eyeing a team of at least 40 experts at the science park. It plans to file five patent applications in Hong Kong, underscoring its commitment to scientific innovation and bolstering intellectual property rights.

• July 2024: Evolution Malta Holding Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evolution AB (publ), signed an agreement to acquire Galaxy Gaming Inc. This move aligns with Evolution's strategy to become the world's premier provider of casino games, delivering top-tier gaming content to its clientele. By acquiring Galaxy Gaming, Evolution strengthens its foothold in the US market and bolsters its status as a dominant licensor of proprietary table games within the online gaming sector.
• May 2024: ASUS revealed plans to unveil its ROG Ally X handheld gaming console on June 2. Similar to its predecessor, the ROG Ally, the new X edition will run on the Windows 11 platform and be driven by the AMD Z1 Extreme chipset. In addition, ASUS has stated that the console will feature a 7-inch LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and will be available in a sleek black finish.
• April 2024: Sony is renewing BRAVIA as a brand for watching movies to enrich the ultimate home cinema experience. With the expansion of streaming services, watching movies in the comfort of the home has gained in popularity. Sony’s wide variety of products, such as digital cinema cameras, professional monitors, and professional headphones, have been widely utilized by film production professionals, allowing the company to deeply understand the cinema industry and the intentions of filmmakers and content creators. New BRAVIA further enhances the sense of reality of cinematic content and delivers outstanding picture and sound quality at home so that people can enjoy films with much of the same magic of the big screen.
• February 2024: Walmart, the US-based retail giant, announced its acquisition of smart TV manufacturer Vizio for a whopping USD 2.3 billion. Historically, Walmart has been a significant retailer of Vizio TVs. With this acquisition, Walmart aims to leverage "a profitable advertising business that is rapidly scaling via Vizio SmartCast OS," as stated by the company.

• May 2024 - FathomVerse, launched mobile game on both the App Store and Google Play, seeks to spark a passion for ocean exploration. Featuring captivating visuals, interactive gameplay, and a foundation in science, FathomVerse makes the wonders of ocean discovery accessible to anyone with a smartphone or tablet. The game's development was a collaborative endeavor, bringing together Katija and MBARI software engineers, &ranj Serious Games a Netherlands-based studio renowned for leveraging games to foster positive behavioral changes and Internet of Elephants, a Kenyan nature tech firm committed to enhancing the connection between people and wildlife.
• November 2023 - The MIT Game Lab utilized serious play to immerse students in examining and evaluating the societal implications of games. Renowned for its lively open houses, public events, and research initiatives, the lab's primary goal was to foster a discerning mindset towards game design. Students were prompted to dissect the underlying values of the games they enjoyed, equipping them for more conscientious design endeavors.
• October 2023 - TÜV AUSTRIA Group recently expanded its digital learning offerings by acquiring CCS Digital Education, based in Greece and Ireland. This led to the creation of the "Digital Learning Solutions" unit within TÜV AUSTRIA Hellas, aimed at enhancing vocational training and adopting new technologies.

• March 2024: Zee Entertainment announced the launch of 18 South Asian channels on YouTube TV and Asia TV USA, specifically catering to a diverse US audience. This partnership will cater to the South Asian population in the United States, especially to regional language speakers such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and other regional languages.
• December 2023: OSN Media and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a partnership to enhance entertainment offerings on OSNtv from January 1, 2024. This alliance added Cartoon Network, Fatafeat, and Animal Planet OSN’s lineup, which catered to diverse audiences by providing personalized content.

• September 2024: The Cvent declared its acquisition of Splash, a company specializing in event marketing technology. Splash offers a user-friendly platform that enables marketers to develop consistent, quantifiable, and repeatable event programs that enhance pipeline and sales. More than 500 prominent organizations, including over 60 Fortune 1000 companies, depend on Splash for their event marketing requirements.
• March 2024: Wharton Global Youth hosted five Virtual Events to announce the 2024 Investment Competition Finalists. During these events, hosted in the Wharton Academic Virtual Environment (WAVE) room by Wharton Global Youth senior executive director Eli Lesser, observers witnessed primary macro-competition metrics, from stories of team performance and strategic structure to deeply collaborative decision-making.

• November 2023: Musti Group, a pet store chain in the Nordics, announced the launch of 'Adoption Live.' This initiative claimed to be the globe's inaugural, fully live-streamed outdoor campaign, targeting Finland's issue of cat abandonment. Annually, Finland grapples with over 20,000 abandoned cats. The innovative campaign leveraged billboards across the nation, offering viewers a real-time glimpse into animal shelters. The aim was to connect pets with their new forever homes.

• August 2024 - Jio unveiled its indigenous operating system, Jio TvOS, for the Jio Set-top Box. This advanced system boasts Ultra HD 4K video playback, Dolby Vision HDR, and Dolby Atmos surround sound. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates the Hello Jio voice assistant, now powered by AI for improved natural language comprehension, enabling users to launch and access third-party applications, including Netflix, effortlessly.
• March 2024 - M7 Deutschland and German network operator Wilhelm. Tel renewed and expanded their long-standing partnership. The new multi-year agreement grants Wilhelm. Tel distribution rights for a comprehensive range of premium TV channels for its cable customers. This partnership now includes IPTV content rights for M7 pay-TV packages, featuring interactive capabilities such as instant restart, live pause, time-shifted viewing, and seven-day catch-up. The multiscreen option allows customers to watch channels on smartphones or tablets. In addition, the agreement includes a network PVR-based cloud solution for TV recordings.