In October 2021, Barcelona, Spain-based Rakuten announced its new CEO, Cédric Dufour, who took the reins from Jacinto Roca. Roca helmed the company for 10 years, seeing it through much of its growth.
With more than 20 years in the retail and digital sector, Dufour will steer Rakuten TV in its new chapter. He joined the company five years ago, holding various senior positions, including COO of Rakuten France and managing director of Open E-Commerce Europe.
Rakuten TV is a leader in VoD in Europe, with an extensive catalog of movies and linear channels, including new releases, library content, and themed channels for free and pay-per-view.
VideoAge spoke with Dufour and Yuko Oki, the company’s new CMO, about Rakuten TV’s current streaming offerings, its content acquisition strategy, its original programming, and what’s on the horizon.
VideoAge: Can you tell us about Rakuten TV’s overall streaming offerings?
Cédric Dufour: The streaming offering is huge and for every taste. There are premium movies, including the best new releases and blockbusters directly from Hollywood and Europe in its TVoD section. There’s also free content in its AVoD section, including movies, original content, and linear channels (owned and third-party served). In its SVoD section, Rakuten TV includes Starzplay, a premium subscription service, available in Spain, as well as Italy, France, the U.K., Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
VA: What is the company’s approach to content acquisitions?
Yuko Oki: We will continue investing in new releases as we have registered, especially in the first months of lockdown, terrific positive results on our revenues. The pandemic restrained premieres in theaters and had a direct impact on the platform’s catalog of new releases, but the last quarter of 2021 showed positive results again, so we are confident for the trend of 2022. We are optimistic about consumption on our platform and we are working to improve the quality of our catalog (both TVoD and AVoD) and the usability of our platform.
AVoD will be a major pillar for us, with the launch of more linear channels. Also, we will continue to invest in the production of original content under our brand “Rakuten Stories.”
VA: What is on the horizon for Rakuten TV’s original programming?
YO: On the business side, the original programming included in the Rakuten Stories collection is a key part of our sales and strategy. This year, Rakuten Stories will release four great productions and we will expand the offer of production themes beyond sports, continuing to reflect our company values of empowerment, optimism, and innovation. Our mission is to produce powerful and empowering stories that connect and inspire audiences by portraying our values. For the content related to sport, we strive to position Rakuten Stories as the home of world-class talent from various disciplines, such as football, golf, tennis, sumo, and surfing. We are bringing the world’s top athletes and creating amazing partnerships. Our goal is to produce the most empowering stories with a universal approach, capable of engaging with audiences anywhere in the world, regardless of discipline, territory, or gender. We seek to diversify our catalog for all tastes and interests.
VA: What territories or areas of expansion is the company looking toward?
CD: RTV has always pioneered the AVoD service in Europe and now aims to become the leading AVoD service at the European level. We launched our AVoD service in 2019, becoming the first platform in Europe to offer a hybrid consumption model where users can choose what, how, where, and when to watch, but also whether or not to subscribe or to pay for the content. We introduced our first linear channel in 2020 (Euronews). Today, we feature over 100 linear channels, including our own themed channels, as well as brands from top media groups, such as Condé Nast, Bloomberg, ¡HOLA! and LEGO.
Overall, we remain a unique Pan-European service gathering TVoD, AVoD, and SVoD, and offering a diversified universe of content and a tailored entertainment experience for each user. Users can choose not only the content or device but the pricing to pay for our content.
Talking about our inventory, it is currently managed by our sister company, Rakuten Advertising. Our inventory grew triple digits in 2021, and we aim to have 2.9 billion ad impressions available in 2022. This has been possible through an impressive growth of traffic on our platform, generated from the branded remote-control button on smart TVs from main manufacturers (such as LG, Philips, Hisense, Panasonic, and Samsung). We have been available on these TVs’ line-ups since 2019, as well as on Roku and Vestel.
VA: Does the company have plans for outside of Europe?
CD: Rakuten TV is currently only distributed in Europe and Japan. For the moment, nothing concrete is planned, but we could consider new territories depending on opportunities, especially in the U.S. and Latin America.
VA: What are your plans for TV trade show participation?
CD: We will try to secure our presence at main industry events and we are currently defining our event pipeline for 2022.
VA: What are Rakuten TV’s goals in the year ahead?
CD: RTV will focus even more on AVoD as the company aims to become the leader in Europe, while keeping on our platform all the other services that represent a winning business model on the market: TVoD and SVoD with the Starzplay premium service. RTV will also expand its ad inventory and strive to become the destination for users and advertisers. Furthermore, Rakuten TV and Rakuten Inc. will continue building synergies — both technical and commercial — to grow the company’s business and visibility. With a common and constant focus on innovation, there is a full range of solutions that Rakuten aims at offering its customers across business units, such as our payment system, Rakuten Pay, or our loyalty program, Rakuten Points, just to mention the main ones. Our mission is to empower customers to discover and watch the content they want wherever and whenever.
The entertainment industry is at a crossroads. Platforms that offer a greater variety of content, accessibility (such as having Rakuten TV’s remote-control button available on most smart TV brands), and usability will succeed. Simplification will be the key. This is why our mission is to empower customers to discover the content they want and decide what, where, when, and how to watch it. People spend more time on searching rather than watching. One of our main objectives is to empower users and facilitate customers’ experiences.
Pictured: CEO Cédric Dufour (at left) and CMO Yuko Oki.
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