Hong Kong − Lagardère Active and Lightning International announced a new major carriage agreement that will see Mezzo Live HD launch on First Media and BiGTV.
The 24/7 channel will be available immediately to subscribers of the cable and satellite platforms. This marks the first agreement for Mezzo Live HD in Indonesia and a major step in the channel’s development in South-East Asia.
The deal includes offering a large selection of the channel’s best performances on First Media and BiGTV’s new OTT and SVOD services.
The agreement to launch Mezzo Live HD was brokered by Lightning International at the APOS summit in Bali in April.
Commenting on the deal Jean-René Aucouturier, SVP, Business Development, Lagardère Active TV, said, “We are thrilled to bring Mezzo Live HD to audiences across Indonesia on First Media and BiGTV. We are confident that the great value of our premium music content will contribute to drive ARPU growth and further position First Media as a market leader in Indonesia. We certainly look forward to extend our coverage to other major markets in SE Asia in the next few months.”
Iris Wee, Chief Marketing Officer, Link Net-First Media commented, “Mezzo Live HD caters to a premium audience segment that First Media serves. Customers using our X1 interactive set-top box can enjoy Mezzo not only in HD quality but video-on-demand on TV and personal devices”.
Tomokazu Hori, Head of Content, Indonesia Media Televisi (BiGTV) added, ”We are happy to add Mezzo Live to our channel line up and be able to provide Mezzo Live to the whole Indonesia at a reasonable price.”
James Ross, CEO of Lightning International, the Asia-Pacific representative for Mezzo Live HD added, “We have had fantastic response to the channel from our partners and operators, and we will shortly be announcing a raft of additional carriage agreements across the region”.
Mezzo Live HD features the best classical and jazz concerts with 100% of content in HD and over 80% self-produced from the most prestigious international venues like Paris’ Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Milan’s Scala or Moscow’s Bolshoi.
The channel will be ramping up its efforts to showcase more localised content in 2015 with new partnerships in the works in Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
