Ex-AirAsia X CEO reveals how he wants to grow iFlix as Southeast Asia’s Netflix

iFlix, Catcha Group’s upcoming streaming media service is gearing up for its launch and has just received a significant boost. Azran Osman-Rani, former AirAsia X CEO and commissioner for the Indonesian telco XL Axiata, is joining as CEO of iFlix Malaysia and COO of the iFlix Group, the company announced today.

The internet TV service billed as “Netflix for Asia” is a part of and funded by Patrick Grove’s fleet of Catcha Group ventures. It wants to provide unlimited access to TV shows and movies from the US and international markets as well as regional and local Asian content to Southeast Asian countries, beginning with Malaysia and the Philippines.

“After exiting AirAsia, I met more than 100 different people,” Osman-Rani tells Tech in Asia. “I had a lot of conversations, looked at many things including starting some things of my own. But there were two things that were very important to me. First, it was to do something that was disruptive by nature, something new, that will shake things up as opposed to preserving the status quo. Second, it was finding a group of people that I would really enjoy spending time with.”

“That, for me, was a far more important factor than a particular product or company or industry or geography: finding people who are really smart and passionate, people I can learn a lot from, people I enjoy hanging out with.”

Ready for streaming?

An experienced executive and entrepreneur, Osman-Rani served as CEO at AirAsia X and grew the company into a major player among Asia’s low-cost airlines. Before that, he led the operational launch of Astro All Asia Networks’ international investments across Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China, managing the company’s broadcasting and content investment portfolio.

The involvement of Patrick Grove and the Catcha Group played a significant part in Osman-Rani’s decision. “These guys have a track record, high energy, incredibly big and bold visions, and they are assembling a very impressive investor base,” he says. “Also [very important] for me is their ability to assemble the iFlix team, which is led by [iFlix Group CEO] Mark Britt who has had a lot of experience with Mi9 in Australia. And there are some really cool, amazing people on the team, which was a huge criteria for me – this is a team that is really awesome to be a part of.”

Leading the charge with iFlix, Osman-Rani hopes to give a thorough shake-up to the online entertainment experience in Southeast Asia. iFlix’s offering will take advantage of both the improving infrastructure in the region and the increasing spread of smartphones and tablets. Like Netflix, its counterpart in the US, and services like Spotify, the aim is to counteract illegally downloaded and streaming content with a solution that is convenient, affordable, and offers a seamless experience.

Of course, the average web user in the region can tell you that connection speeds vary wildly by country. Some Southeast Asian nations might be ready for iFlix’s service, while others might not be there yet. “It’s interesting; you can either be too early or too late in the game and it’s probably impossible to get it just right. I don’t think there even is a particular time to get it just right,” Osman-Rani says.

“So it will be sort of riding the wave as infrastructure becomes more available. But one of the things the iFlix team is working on, for example, is creating technology with adaptive bitrate capability, so it can read the variable speeds that people are downloading on and optimize the content delivery accordingly.”

Learning from budget airlines

Osman-Rani plans to bring to iFlix the same consumer-centric approach he feels was key to his stint with AirAsia X.