Singapore headquartered telecom major Singtel has tied-up with Sony Pictures & Warner Brothers to launch a video streaming service called HOOQ in Asia. The platform will offer Hollywood movies, television series and regional content. This was first reported by TechCrunch. The company informed that the service will initially be rolled out in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand in the first quarter of 2015. At the time of launch HOOQ will have a catalogue of over 10,000 movies and TV series, including titles from Sony and Warner Brothers like the Harry Potter series, Spider-Man, Friends and Gossip Girl among others. The platform will also offer regional content from India, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea and Japan. Users will be able to stream content for a fee and also download content, which is important in markets like India where internet speeds can be flaky at times and 4G isn't prevalent yet. Apparently, HOOQ will also feature a content recommendation engine. Former chief operating advisor of Globe Telecom in the Philippines Peter Bithos has been appointed the CEO of HOOQ. He will be based out of Singapore and will be responsible for the day-to-day operations. It's worth noting that Netflix, which hasn't entered Asia yet, is set to launch its service in Australia and New Zealand in March this year. Interestingly, Singtel mentions that HOOQ will use Singtel Group’s carrier billing capabilities. From an Indian perspective this is quite important because credit card penetration is still quite low in the country.…
