Netflix has a new regional competitor, with a new service, PCCW’s Viu, to provide Asian customers with content from Korea for free.
loysius LowHot on the heels of Netflix launching in Asia (as well as the rest of the world), Hong Kong’s largest telecommunications company, PCCW, is making a streaming service available in the region.
The new service, called Viu (pronounced “view”), will be streaming the latest Korean dramas and variety programs a mere eight hours after they air on TV. Viewers will have the option to view the shows with English or Chinese subtitles.
This makes it much faster than some of its competitors, including Dramafever, which also streams Korean content to US audiences — though it isn’t available in Asia.
Growing Internet speeds around the world give opportunity to companies like PCCW, with more and more people having Internet strong enough to stream high quality video. Unfortunately for smaller players in the streaming industry, global leader Netflix is also taking advantage — last week at CES the American giant announced that its widely used platform was expanding its reach to over 130 countries, a huge increase from the 60 it was previously available in.
Meanwhile, Korean content, though it may sound niche, actually has a large market throughout Asia. “We’ve done a survey of online users in Asia,” said Janice Lee, Viu’s managing director of PCCW Media at the local launch in Singapore. “Out of that actually, anywhere from 50 to 80 percent watch Korean dramas. In Singapore, it’s over 50 percent.”
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