Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) has invested US$26 million in Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to tap into the talent agency business, as it seeks to expand its reach in the entertainment and digital content business.
Taiwan Mobile said it has teamed up with parent Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and China Media Capital (華人文化) to purchase a 5.2 percent stake in CAA via Grand Academy Investment LP. No further finical details were disclosed.
CAA represents a host of A-list Hollywood actors, including Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, as well as soccer superstars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo.
“We think this is a mid to long-term deployment [in the] entertainment [industry],” Taiwan Mobile president James Jeng (鄭俊卿) said on the sidelines of a press conference announcing a collaboration between the company and Kbro Co (凱擘), the nation’s biggest cable TV system operator owned by Fubon’s Tsai (蔡) family.
The CAA investment will help the company play a bigger role in digital convergence and help local artists make it to the world stage, Jeng said.
Through the investment, Taiwan Mobile and Kbro “will be able to organize concerts and fan gatherings for divas or idols, which should help boost [subscriptions to] SMOD, myVideo and myMusic,” Jeng said.
SMOD is a home video-on-demand service provided by Kbro with 1.7 million subscribers, while mVideo and myMusic are Taiwan Mobile’s digital video and music service platforms.
Taiwan Mobile also plans to step up investments in the production of TV programs and music, Jeng said.
It is collaborating with Kbro to expand their presence in the over-the-top market, allowing Kbro subscribers access to its 17,000 digital titles by downloading the myVideo app to their phones.
To increase its offering of self-produced content, Kbro last month said that it was teaming up with Netflix Inc to produce a local series called A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities.
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