Aussie millionaire Patrick Grove eyes ‘entertainment revolution’ with iflix

HE’S amassed a staggering fortune. And this week he launches a brave new venture that might just beat Netflix at its own game.

Catcha Group CEO & Chairman, Patrick Grove

HE’S the bright, young, Aussie entrepreneur who’s amassed a staggering fortune. And this week, he launches a brave new venture that might just beat Netflix at its own game.

Patrick Grove, 40, has created a new internet TV service with a crucial difference. It’s not designed to muscle in on the competitive streaming marketplaces of the US or Australia; it will target the 250 million people from Southeast Asia with a smartphone.

Mr Grove’s iflix — dubbed the “Asian Netflix” — launched in Malaysia and the Philippines yesterday, with plans to expand into Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

“We were looking to invest in a business that targets the huge smartphone usage levels in Southeast Asia, 250 million strong, and started to believe that entertainment on the phone would become bigger and bigger,” Mr Grove told news.com.au.

“If you sat on a plane or a bus, you would see that 50 per cent of the passengers were viewing content on their phone, so we knew that we had a potential entertainment revolution on our hands.”

And Mr Grove — who grew up splitting his time between Australia and Asia, before finishing college in Sydney — has ambitious targets for platform, hoping to reach as many as 50 million customers within a decade.

“There are 250 million smartphones (in Southeast Asia). If we can have 20 per cent of them in five to 10 years, we would be very happy and humbled,” he said.

The platform offers 10,000 hours of content with a mix of fast-tracked shows from the US, such as talk show Conan and exclusive titles, such as Black Sails. Subscribers can also binge on favourites such as seven seasons of Big Bang Theory, every episode of Friends, all the Harry Potter movies and the Matrix trilogy.

The video-on-demand service has inked deals with major Hollywood studios including Fox, BBC Worldwide and Warner Bros, which will allow it to offer top-shelf dramas such as Homeland, American Horror Story, Doctor Who and Sherlock.

iflix is pitched as the “Asian Netflix”.

Sound like something you want to sign up to? Sorry. There are no plans to introduce iflix to Australia because the business is focused on “emerging markets”.

Mr Grove said the platform was not designed to compete directly with Netflix.

“We are very local in terms of content, people, marketing and distribution. Our price point is about one third (of) what Netflix charges and we are mobile-focused; they are living room-focused,” he said.

Streaming services have made a significant play for Australian eyeballs this year, with Netflix, Stan and Presto all competing for our attention and dollars.

Mr Grove hasn’t watched the introduction of streaming services Down Under closely, but he said customers were ultimately the winners.

“It is great for the consumers: so many choices and so much great content at unbelievable prices,” he said.

“I don’t know enough of the details to know who will win, but if the US is any guide, quite a few players can survive and thrive.”

Mr Grove said the traditional broadcast television models would continue to compete with streaming in the short term, but that this may not forever.

“In the long term, say 10 to 20 years, we believe that linear TV that works off a scheduled timetable will become less and less relevant,” he said.

Patrick Grove has made a bold play into the video streaming market.

Australians have been shameless pirates of TV and movies and our neighbours are also major offenders.

Mr Grove said more than 90 per cent of households in Southeast Asia consumed pirated content, and he hoped to combat this trend by offering a high-quality — yet affordable — legal option.

Iflix’s initial offer to Malaysian and Filipino customers is 10,000 hours of content for a monthly fee of 10 Malaysian ringgit, which is about $A3.50.

With the new business adding to his impressive empire of online classified successes, Mr Grove will be named on the Business Review Weekly Rich List on Friday.

He has amassed an impressive fortune of $286 million, but he says that there is no shortcut to success.

“I’ve been doing this now for seven days a week, about 18 hours a day for 16 years,” Mr Grove said.

“There is no magic formula other than keep working non-stop with a passion to create something great.”

Mr Grove said he felt “incredibly honoured” to be named among such distinguished entrepreneurs on the rich list.

“If it helps inspire more people to take a chance to build something great, even better,” he said.