iflix and Vimond to establish joint development centre in KL

• To ‘break new ground’ in how consumers watch TV in a mobile-first world
• Looking to immediately recruit the best local and international talent

INTERNET television service iflix and digital video services provider Vimond Media Solutions have announced plans to establish a jointly operated development centre in Kuala Lumpur.
 
This Global Centre of Excellence will be staffed with technical development resources, global product management and R&D (research and development) teams tasked with breaking new ground in the way consumers watch television in a mobile-first environment, iflix said in a statement.
  
The focus will be on creating innovative TV products for iflix’s South-East Asian customer base, and further extending the capabilities and scalability of the modular and adaptive nature of Vimond’s Media Platform solution, it added.
 
The companies look to immediately recruit the best talent both locally and internationally across fields, including architecture, web and mobile development, cloud and infrastructure, automation, data science, IT operations, and R&D, iflix said.
 
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“With this initiative, we aim to provide an attractive return path for highly-skilled Malaysians who have been studying and working overseas,” said iflix group chief technology officer Ash Crick.
 
“It is our intention to increase the ‘Brain Gain’ in South-East Asia, particularly Malaysia, by creating exciting opportunities for skilful individuals from around the globe to join us in revolutionising the entertainment industry,” he declared.
 
iflix, part of Kuala Lumpur-based Internet investment firm Catcha Group, launched in Malaysia late last month with free trials, and said it is also now available in the Philippines.
 
It will roll out its service to additional key South-East Asian markets, including Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam throughout 2015, offering consumers more than 10,000 hours of US, Asian regional, and local TV shows and movies.
 
Earlier in May, iflix announced an agreement with Vimond for continued development of its Internet TV platform. Bergen, Norway-based Vimond will work with iflix to power and grow the online and mobile Internet TV service’s technology across all markets, it said.
 
“I see the Vimond and iflix visions of the future as strongly aligned. By offering a premium TV experience at an affordable price to a young and diverse population, we can make a substantial difference, for the audiences and the industry,” said Vimond chief executive officer Helge Høibraaten.
 
“For us it is important to collect, embrace and nurture ideas from different markets and mindsets across the world in an industry that has both strong globalisation and localisation trends happening in parallel.
 
“This, in addition to the iflix presence, is why it is strategic for us to open up this centre of excellence in Kuala Lumpur,” he added.
 
Vimond said it has seen great customer growth in Europe and North America, and is seeking to expand and develop South-East Asia as a new key region with this initiative.
 
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