Streaming platform Viki has picked up global rights to almost 100 hours of Malaysian scripted content from Kuala Lumpur-based production house Primeworks, ramping up competition for Asian content as a slew of regional on-demand streaming platforms – including Netflix – prepare to do battle.

The Malaysia deal, announced in November, is Viki’s first in the country, and follows the platform’s focus on Korean and Taiwanese content, as well as its first original drama series set between Asia and the U.S.

The deal gives Primeworks what could be its most significant global exposure in a market dominated by Korean and Chinese drama, with rising interest in series from Japan, India and Taiwan. Viki’s most popular shows are from Korea, China, Japan and India.

Among the Malaysian titles exclusive to Viki are I Miss You 200% (Rindu Awak 200%), the biggest Malay drama of 2014, and the 28-episode, Ariana Rose. Other titles are Autumn in My Heart seasons one and two, and And the Nominees Are, along with digital sitcoms made for Malaysia broadcaster Media Prima’s online platform, tonton.com.my.

The Malaysia acquisitions are a natural extension for Viki. “Our strength on the content side has always been Asia,” says Viki chief executive Tammy Nam.

In May this year, Viki picked up exclusive U.S./Americas rights for Taiwanese political drama Youth Power from Taiwan’s TVBS, adding to the 900 hours of Taiwanese entertainment from six major broadcasters that it acquired in February.

In the 12 months to May 2015, 18% of content added to Viki.com was from Taiwan; almost 30% was from Korea.

Nam says audiences are increasingly open to international content. “Audiences are more diverse and young people who grew up on YouTube are used to being able to access content anywhere regardless of origination,” she says, adding: “We have a fairly good predictive analysis of which new genres may be popular in which regions of the world”.

In about six weeks on Viki, I Miss You 200% (2014) was subtitled in seven languages, including Swedish, Spanish and German. Nam says that is encouraging for a non-current title in a niche segment.

Crowd-sourced subtitlers usually work off the English scripts. Viki’s most popular show, Korean drama Boys Over Flowers, has been subtitled in 80 languages. Korea, Japanese, Chinese and English shows tend to get subtitled fastest. A current Korean show may be subtitled in seven languages in 24 hours.

Nam says Malaysia and other Southeast Asian markets have been in Viki’s cross hairs for a while. “There’s a lot of movement and cross-pollination of content types in Southeast Asia,” she says. “It’s a new area for us. We want to experiment and see how it goes,” she adds.

Viki’s largest viewing regions are the Americas and Europe. Nam says one of Viki’s advantages is that it buys rights outside of domestic markets.

“Our model has always been out of the home country,” she says. This allows Viki to bypass rights in markets where content partners are still trying to figure out their digital strategies. “The market that is easiest for them to focus on is domestic,” she says. While they do that, Viki is happy with the rest of the world.

This article first appeared in ContentAsia Issue 6, 2015, published in November 2015.