ABEMA Launches Online Live Platform “ABEMA Live,” to Disseminate Japanese and Other Asian Entertainment to the World

ABEMA, the new TV for the future, has launched “ABEMA Live” globally as a new online live platform to deliver entertainment from Japan and across Asia.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many performances such as concerts and plays, have been forced to be canceled or postponed, and people have become more accustomed to watching live performances online through pay-per-view services. And now, even with the resurgence of audiences, the style of enjoying various artists’ concerts, plays, and sports events from wherever you like via pay-per-view has become widely established.

ABEMA has developed a new online live platform, ABEMA Live, intending to allow users to purchase (*1) and watch (*2) various pay-per-view content from overseas, such as concerts, plays, sports events, and fashion shows, etc., featuring famous artists from Japan and Asia, in cooperation with OEN (*3), a subsidiary of CyberAgent, which specializes in supporting the digital transformation to monetize the entertainment industry.
As of Wednesday, January 24, 2024, ABEMA will start the service in three countries: Thailand, the Philippines, and South Korea, and plans to gradually expand the area it provides services to.

In addition, with ABEMA Live, ABEMA will pursue high usability, incorporate a universal design that allows users to complete the purchase of viewing tickets in three steps, support the languages of the countries where the service is deployed (*4), and build a customer support system, aiming to be a media channel that allows everyone to easily enjoy Asian entertainment.


For more details about ABEMA Live, please access https://www.abema-global.com

The first broadcast content of ABEMA Live will be ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru, organized by ONE Championship, the world's largest martial arts organization. This event will be held at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Sunday, January 28, 2024, and broadcast live in Thailand, the Philippines, and South Korea. The headline attraction of this event, which will return to Japan after four years, was supposed to be a kickboxing match between ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon and ISKA world lightweight champion and K-1 world champion across three different weight classes, Takeru Segawa that fans had long been waiting for was finally going to happen. However, on Friday, January 5 this year, ONE officially announced that Rodtang would withdraw from the headline due to injury. Instead, a three-minute, five-round same-class title match against Reigning ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion Superlek Kiatmoo9 has been scheduled.

In addition, Shinya Aoki, a former ONE lightweight MMA world champion, will also participate in the event, competing against Sage Northcutt in a lightweight MMA match. Danny Kingad vs. Yuya Wakamatsu in a flyweight MMA, Itsuki Hirata vs. Ayaka Miura in an atomweight MMA, Bokang Masunyane vs. Keito Yamakita in a strawweight MMA, Hiroba Minowa vs Gustavo Balart in a strawweight MMA, and Garry Tonon vs Martin Nguyen in a featherweight MMA are also high-profile bouts that will be held over five three-minute rounds.
The following matches, Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Nieky Holzken in catchweight special rules, Marat Grigorian vs. Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong in catchweight kickboxing, Rade Opacic vs. Iraj Azizpour in heavyweight kickboxing, which will take place over three three-minute rounds, are also newly confirmed. Stay tuned for the fierce battles that will unfold at ONE championship's long-awaited return to Tokyo. ABEMA plans to sell tickets for this event on ABEMA Live starting on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.　

The Philippines https://www.abema-global.com/en
 

South Korea https://www.abema-global.com/ko

With ABEMA Live, ABEMA aims to create a service that brings entertainment from Asia to the world by delivering diverse and attractive entertainment content from Japan and Asia using ABEMA’s strengths in high-quality and stable video delivery.


(*1) Payments by credit card, PayPal, and PromptPay (QR code payment system for Thailand) are accepted. Payment methods will gradually be added in line with the future expansion of service areas. In addition, a separate fee will be charged for purchases made through the app.
(*2) Viewing tickets cannot be purchased in other countries, including Japan.
(*3) OEN inc. is a subsidiary of CyberAgent. In addition to providing high-quality live streaming and video distribution with monthly channel billing, it promotes digital transformation in the entertainment industry, such as through online salons and e-commerce, and supports creating new profit opportunities.
(*4) At the start of the service, ABEMA Live will support English, Thai, and Korean. More languages will be added in line with the future expansion of service areas.

Our original PPV service, ABEMA PPV ONLINE, has distributed various concerts and sports events, including "THE MATCH 2022", which attracted attention from all over Japan to more than 5 million people. The ABEMA Live service has launched as a new online live platform service by making full use of the high technical capabilities developed by ABEMA. To deliver great content to everyone worldwide, we will take active steps to expand content and increase convenience by supporting an easy ticket purchase flow and local payment in the distributing country. We will continue distributing a wide range of attractive content from Japan and Asia on ABEMA Live. Stay tuned for updates.