Indonesia’s ministry of education and cultural affairs is teaming up with American video streaming platform Netflix to boost and advance local films through various development programs, as reported by local media outlet Detik.
Education and cultural minister Nadiem Makarim told the press that this partnership aims to drive innovations in the country’s cultural sector, especially by promoting local talents on the world stage.
According to Nakarim, Netflix is committed to investing USD 1 million for collaboration programs. The first program will take 15 selected Indonesian scriptwriters to Los Angeles to receive training about scriptwriting and film sciences. The minister and Netflix will also conduct training for 100 local scriptwriters in Jakarta.
Furthermore, they plan to launch a short film competition focusing on the theme of Pancasila (Indonesia’s state philosophy) this year.
Indonesia is currently seeing tight competition in the video streaming segment with big players like Netflix, iFlix, and Hooq dominating the market. According to AppAnnie, iFlix is ranked third in top entertainment apps in the Indonesian Play Store, while Netflix and Hooq are ranked tenth and eleventh, respectively.
Indonesia’s super-app Gojek also tapped in this segment by launching an on-demand video streaming service called GoPlay, while its archival Grab has been integrating Hooq’s content into its video feature since February 2019. Moreover, the country’s largest media conglomerate, MNC, signed an agreement to set up a joint venture with Baidu-backed Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi last year.