 Logo since 2020 | |
| Type of business | OTT video streaming platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | Japanese |
| Headquarters | Pacific Capital Plaza, 4-8-6 Roppongi, Minato-ku, , Japan |
| Owner | |
| Key people |
|
| URL | telasa.jp |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched |
|
Telasa (テラサ, Terasa) is a Japanese subscription video on demand service owned by KDDI and TV Asahi. It was launched as Video Pass (ビデオパス, Bideopasu), also known as au Video Pass, in 2012 and was renamed to Telasa in 2020.
KDDI announced on May 15, 2012, that they would launch a subscription video-on-demand service for 590 yen per month.[1] This service, called Video Pass, was specifically designed for au smartphones.[2]
As of 2014, Video Pass had approximately 1,000 titles available for its subscription-based video-on-demand service, and around 3,000 titles available for rental, including newly released content.[3]
June 2014, KDDI started a separate subscription video-on-demand service called Anime Pass in collaboration with Kadokawa, which focused on anime content and was available for 400 yen per month.[4] This service was different from Video Pass.[5]
On August 20, 2015, KDDI and TV Asahi announced a business partnership to exclusively distribute TV Asahi content on Video Pass.[6]
On January 12, 2016, KDDI announced that it would be discontinuing Anime Pass on April 30 of the same year. Instead, Video Pass would expand its anime content, and the catch-up distribution of anime programs currently being aired on TV would be more than doubled.[7][8] Video Pass had already been providing popular anime titles such as Naruto and Gundam series, with around 40% of its members reportedly watching anime content. The genre had consistently been at the top of the list of most viewed genres on the platform.[7][8]
On August 2, 2018, KDDI made Video Pass available for use by users other than au subscribers.[9]
On December 12, 2019, KDDI and TV Asahi announced that they would establish a joint venture to handle their video streaming services. The joint venture was set to inherit Video Pass business by March 2020. The president of the joint venture was appointed as Takashi Yamamoto, the representative director of KDDI.[10]
While Nippon TV operates Hulu Japan with two million members (as of March 2019), Fuji TV operates FOD, and TBS Television and TV Tokyo operate Paravi, TV Asahi did not have a platform to distribute its own videos. With this joint operation, TV Asahi entered the fixed-rate video service business, which it had not previously pursued.[11] The reason why the two companies joined forces is because, from the perspective of TV Asahi, KDDI has a user base as a mobile carrier. Additionally, they possess 5G technology, which will be a strength for future video distribution expansion. From the perspective of KDDI, compared to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, they have a weakness in having fewer original content. The same mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, operates dTV with a membership of 4 million people (as of June 2018). On the other hand, while Video Pass exceeded one million members in 2018, it had been struggling to grow since then.[11]
On April 7, 2020, Video Pass was rebranded as Telasa and started streaming TV Asahi's content.[12]