Edutainment specialist Da Vinci Media, focused for now on growth markets in Europe, Asia and Africa, is embarking on a big push in India and Southeast Asia this year.

Eric Tan, former head of ad sales for Singtel’s media and consumer services arm, Digital Life, has been appointed Asia-Pacific GM, working in a new regional hub in Singapore to ramp up distribution and local production alongside India MD Mohit Anand, who joined Da Vinci to set up an India office in 2013.

“We have very clear priorities for what we want to achieve in Asia this year,” says founder and CEO, Ferdinand Habsburg, in an interview with Media Business Asia.

Operators such as Astro and StarHub, as well as other new entrants such as ZooMoo, have also forayed into the Asian learning space. Habsburg sees more room in the market, with demand for educational content and services outpacing supply.

Da Vinci has already assembled a modest Asian presence for its linear offering, Da Vinci Learning, but Habsburg is targeting a higher profile for the channel in some lynchpin markets, including India and Indonesia as well as entry into Malaysia and Korea.

steady progress

Da Vinci Learning has already secured reasonable distribution in Taiwan (with CNS) and in Thailand (with CTH), as well as in Indonesia among several operators, but excluding market leader MNC Sky Vision.

The channel also has a toehold in the Philippine and Vietnamese pay-TV markets, as well as a presence on VOD and free-to-air blocks in India.

A dedicated feed for India, paving the way for services in multiple languages, is high on the agenda, in anticipation of receiving a pay-TV license within the next two months.

Commercial opportunities in Indonesia and Korea could justify local language offerings in those markets this year too.

Habsburg is also stepping up local production in places such as India, Korea and Singapore to about 50 hours of original content this year, with an eye primarily on Asian distribution.

Elsewhere in the world, the company has forged local partnerships to help its development in Russia and Turkey. More might follow.

“There are various opportunities we are looking at, where we could team up,” Habsburg says, declining to go into detail. 

Da Vinci reaches 19 million households worldwide. Hapsburg is eyeing 25 million by year-end.

change ahead

Da Vinci, which landed its first carriage deal in Poland eight years ago, is well positioned to capitalize on changing dynamics in the learning sector as a whole, Habsburg contends, as digital delivery starts to open new avenues for content producers and suppliers, including potential online subscription services, worldwide.

“The digitization of education has just started,” he says. “There’s a huge opportunity, both for companies like ourselves to serve those upcoming changes, as well as for pupils to learn in a more entertaining way.”

Nearer-term, Da Vinci’s CEO is also developing more touchpoints for the company, including an interactive app, currently under wraps but scheduled for launch in the first half of the year, as well as a new learning center concept, which is being piloted around a robotics theme in Taiwan.

If successful, other labs could roll out in other markets in Europe, Africa and Asia.

“I see huge consumer expenditure in our space – be it science museums, be it tuition, be it school fees – which in my view neither the channels ecosystem we’re in nor the operator ecosystem is really monetizing in a big way, or serving that consumer demand,” Habsburg says.

“That’s why we are so interested in Asia, because if you take markets like Singapore, India, Korea, these are markets where people are adamant about the education of their children.”