New film specialist streaming platform launches in Malaysia
25 Jun – Southeast Asia – in particular Malaysia, at the moment – is spoilt for choice when it comes to film streaming services because another one has landed in this region.
Called Mubi, the newly introduced film specialist streaming platform is currently offering free trials for its Malaysian users.
"In Southeast Asia you cannot scale up a business that focuses on the Coen Brothers and the like," said Mubi founder Efe Cakarel to Variety. "It is a market that engages with local content and cinema from the region. One-size-fits-all does not work in Southeast Asia."
Understanding this, aside from its usual offering of art house films, Mubi is introducing two new VOD channels in Malaysia. The Mubi Dekho! Channel will offer South Asian titles that are mostly in Bengali and Hindi, while Mubi Sinema will play movies from Malaysia and Indonesia.
Two more channels are planned to be added, one focusing on Chinese and Korean movies and another on Tamil and Telugu movies.
For a monthly fee of RM15, subscribers will get to watch any of the hand-picked selection of movies that are available for the month. One new movie will be released every day and it will be retained on the streaming platform for 30 days.
Subscription is also available on a weekly basis for just RM5.
Following its launch in Malaysia, Mubi is targeting to open in another six Southeast Asian territories, starting with Indonesia in 2020. While the other possible territories haven't been revealed, they could include Singapore and Cambodia since both are homes to streaming platforms like Netflix as well at the moment.
(Photo source: Mary Gaudin | Freunde von Freunden)
