New rights follow 62% subscription increase, 47% paid subscriber rise

PCCW’s OTT video service, Viu, headed into the second quarter of this year with content boxes ticked, user milestones met, and its eyes firmly on a strategically curated line-up that will successfully carry it through Asia’s fiercely – and increasingly – competitive streaming environment.

The acquisitions run alongside robust originals activity. So far in 2021, Viu has commissioned originals in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, South Africa and Middle East.

On 14 April, Viu unveiled its second Korean original, romantic drama Doom at Your Service, which premieres in May; supernatural drama "Sell Your Haunted House"; exclusive rights to the third season of hit drama "The Penthouse"; the fourth season of crime series "Voice"; and legal drama "Devil’s Judgement". 

Viu is also stepping up Japanese anime’s footprint on the platform. The April schedule carries four Japanese anime series, including the latest season of global hit franchise "My Hero Academia". 

The new anime slate also includes "The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Slime Diaries"; gag comedy isekai title, "I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years" and "Maxed Out My Level"; and "Zombie Land Saga Revenge", a  zombified take on the idol genre. All air within 24 hours of their release in Japan. 

These follow high-impact Chinese acquisitions, led by comic-based period action drama "The Long Ballad", currently streaming in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. 

The  new titles closely follow the acquisition of exclusive, simultaneous broadcast rights to series from Korea’s top broadcasters – KBS, SBS and CJ ENM – for the April schedule.  

These include KBS’ supernatural drama "Sell Your Haunted House"; SBS’ webtoon-based "Taxi Driver"; detective/monster drama "Dark Hole" (CJ ENM/OCN); and idol-studded 10-episode musical rom-com "Summer Guys".  

The latest rights, fiercely fought over by a powerful pack of rivals, come shortly after Viu was measured as number one in terms of user numbers, with 45 million monthly active users (MAUs).

The AMPD report from regional analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA) also ranked Viu second in both paid subscribers, with 5.3 million, and streaming minutes among major video streaming platforms in Southeast Asia as of December 2020. 

Paid subscribers grew 47% year-on-year in 2020. Subscription revenue increased by 62% year-on-year. Overall revenue was up 30%. 

Viu also beat the Greater Southeast Asia (GSEA) OTT video market growth rate with 63% revenue growth as compared to the overall GSEA market revenue growth of 17%, MPA found. 

“Staying attuned to our local audience needs is at the heart of what we do,” Viu chief executive and PCCW Media Group managing director, Janice Lee, says. 

“This is achieved by investing in talent and operations in every market where Viu is available and backed up by data analytics based on user engagement and their interactions with our service.  This enables us to make better decisions in our content development and more precisely acquiring and creating premium original content with our Viu-ers interests in mind,” she adds. 

Sponsored content. Published in ContentAsia eNewsletter 19 April 2021 issue